Compass Precision Shop Acquires Additional Capacity
DENVER, NC – August 26, 2025 – On the heels of an historic 2024, Gray Manufacturing Technologies has made more history this summer.
Gray, a leading supplier in 5-axis machined high-quality products for the aerospace and space industries, officially announced Tuesday it has purchased a new Mikron Mill E 700U machine.
The machine is an exact complement to all of the company’s automation machinery and third Mikron Mill E 700U on the Gray shop floor. The third Mikron 700 is also the first new machine Gray has purchased since joining the Compass Precision umbrella in 2020.
The last time Gray added a brand new machine was 2018.
”Gray Manufacturing has been a terrific acquisition for Compass,” stated Bill Canning, Compass’s President & COO. “They had plenty of available capacity back then, but their growth had used it up. This new machine allows Gray to continue on its growth path.”
All three Mikron 700U’s at Gray have similar footprints and envelope size. But the original two 700 units Gray possessed are part of a robotic system.
The new 700U is able to standalone because it came with its own pallet changer. The addition will help Gray achieve two goals – continue fulfilling customer demands and meet new company objectives.
“The goal is always to maintain the customer’s expectations and try to grow with the customer’s demand and needs,” Gray Vice President & General Manager Evan Grose. “But we certainly also have eyes on that next level. We’re always trying to better ourselves.”
“And we were at the point with the work mix that we had, there just wasn’t much more we could squeeze out of the shop floor because practically every spindle was cutting around the clock.”
The new machine arrived at the end of May. After overcoming initial setup challenges, the latest Mikron 700U at Gray became fully operational (with the exception of one final software update) during the last week of June.
Because the machine is an exact complement to what Gray already had, the employees needed zero training to get the machine fully operational.
“The idea was to have something that we could put on the floor and pretty much hit the ground running without a whole lot of headaches in terms of learning a new process or a new way of doing something. We were already extremely familiar with it,” said Evan, who is on the right in the picture above.
Gray’s vice president added that the employees like the new machinery addition. Evan said the Gray employees see the purchase as a message of recognition from Compass.
Evan called the new machine a “gift” for the “fruits of our labor” from the highly successful 2024.
During the first four and a half years Gray was under the Compass umbrella, the only “new” machines Gray added were two used units from Advanced Machining & Tooling, which is Gray’s sister company in Salisbury, NC.
With its first new machining addition in seven years, Gray now has nine 5-axis machines – five Mikron and four Mazak.
After a record-setting 2024 in terms of profits and production, Gray has received more last-minute, low-volume orders during 2025. The extra spindle has already made a difference for the operating company fulfilling those orders in July and August.
“That’s what we’re hoping to get out of this machine – the ability to have some bandwidth to absorb this last minute stuff and get more product out the door,” Evan said. “Obviously, primarily to serve our customers, but it’s also to improve our own performance.”
The newest Gray spindle is working around the clock as the company’s other machines do. Gray produces one-off, low-quantity type work during the day and then long-run parts that can run for several hours unattended at night.
Whatever the job may be, the extra 5-axis unit is helping the Compass operating company further meet its customer’s growing demands.
“Any time you can add another tool to your tool kit, the better you are to respond to whatever demand there may be,” said Evan.
Gray Manufacturing specializes in producing high-quality machined products for aerospace & defense, space and medical markets with 5-axis machining. The firm operates from its facility in Denver, NC, which is a community on the west side of Lake Norman in Lincoln County about 30 minutes from Charlotte.
Gray was Compass’ first add-on acquisition in August 2020. Gray possesses more simultaneous 5-axis machines than any other Compass operating company.