This year marks the 30th anniversary of Haas Automation’s very first vertical machining center – the industry-leading VF-1. The “V” in the model name stands for vertical – an industry-standard designation for a vertical mill – and company founder Gene Haas added “F1” to the name to unofficially designate it as the company’s “Very First One.”

Developed in 1987 and introduced at IMTS 88 in Chicago, the Haas VF-1 established an industry milestone by being the very first American-built vertical machining center to sell for less than $50,000 – an unheard of price at that time. With a published price of $49,900 – published pricing was another Haas very first – the Haas VF-1 quickly became the industry benchmark for affordable CNC technology.

Factoring for inflation, that $49,900 starting price would be nearly $104,000 today. But 30 years later, the 2018 Haas VF-1 still sells for less than $50,000 – in fact, it’s just $46,995 – and Haas Automation is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of CNC machine tools, with an extensive lineup of more than 100 high-performance products. Prices for all Haas machines and options are published online for all to see – something no other machine tool builder can claim – and customers can even build and price their new machine at HaasCNC.com.

To commemorate 30 years of the VF-1 – and other Haas very firsts – Haas Automation has launched a year-long Very First campaign that will include worldwide demo day events, a video series documenting both Haas and customer very firsts, and much more. The campaign will culminate with the return of machine No. 1 – the Very First Haas VF-1 – to IMTS 2018 in Chicago, where the story began.

All Haas products are manufactured in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot facility in Southern California, and distributed through a worldwide network of more than 170 Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs). Each HFO has complete showroom facilities, factory-trained service personnel, extensive spare-parts inventories, and fully stocked service vehicles to provide the industry’s best service and support.

At present, there are roughly 200,000 Haas CNC machines and 100,000 Haas rotary products in use around the world. In 2018, Haas Automation will build more than 15,000 machines, with around 60 percent of them going to international markets.

For more information about Haas Automation and Haas products – or to configure and price your next Haas machine tool – visit www.HaasCNC.com/VeryFirst.