Manufacturer of Machine Tools to Add 30 New Jobs

U.S. Amada Ltd., a Japanese-owned manufacturer of machine tools, said Thursday that it will hire 30 new employees in an expansion of its La Mirada manufacturing plant and will begin exporting products to Europe this month.

The Buena Park subsidiary of Japan’s Amada Co. Ltd., which employs 580 people in Orange County, plans to expand the La Mirada plant in order to launch an aggressive export program. The plant makes turret machines that are used to punch holes in metal sheets used by the aerospace, electronics and other industries.

The shipments to Europe will mark the first time the company has exported its U.S.-made machines. The company hopes that exports will generate between $3 million to $6 million in sales by year-end, said Bill Guthner, U.S. Amada’s marketing manager.

The firm’s first shipment will be a $280,000 order scheduled to be sent to a French machine tool company this month, he said.

Mitsuaki Amada, president of Amada Co. Ltd., said his company recently entered into a joint research venture with the engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in which the company will provide laser machines to the university’s research laboratories.

U.S. Amada’s clients in Orange County include Stoll Manufacturing in Orange and some of the Orange County divisions of Rockwell International Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp.