What's new
What's new

Smart Machine Tool Brand?

red beard

Cast Iron
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Grand Rapids, MI USA
I was doing some machine tool browsing online today and I came across this brand that I had never heard of. Their website looked really familiar, then I realized that it looked almost exactly like the Samsung Machine tool website.

I checked for local dealers and it listed TMS, which, if I recall correctly, was the Samsung Distributor for Michigan.

I checked the dealer locator on the Samsung site and it returns an error message, then shows me the SMT headquarters on the map.

Does anyone here know anything about this brand or what's going on with Samsung's dealer network?
 
I believe the Samsung dealer in Michigan that we used was Dynamic.
Samsung makes a good cnc lathe (old school mori clone),but man.... Dynamic.... talk about a bunch of incompetent idiots.
Those guys are morons! I wouldn't send my worst enemy to that dealership for a machine.
 
I believe the Samsung dealer in Michigan that we used was Dynamic.
Samsung makes a good cnc lathe (old school mori clone),but man.... Dynamic.... talk about a bunch of incompetent idiots.
Those guys are morons! I wouldn't send my worst enemy to that dealership for a machine.

Dynamic's website lists Smart Machine Tools, but not Samsung either. It appears that Dynamic was the importer for Samsung, but isn't any longer. I wonder what happened?
 
Last edited:
Dynamic's website lists Smart Machine Tools, but not Samsung either. It appears that Dynamic was the importer for Samsung, but isn't any longer. I wonder what happened?

I don't know. We bought an Samsung lathe from them a couple of years ago, they installed it.
And anyone who's ever ran a cnc lathe and used a 2-1/2" indexable drill knows that there is a slug that flies out the end of the part when the drill breaks thru.
Well that slug shattered the window in the door. (the window position is stupid on this machine)
Dynamic came out to replace it and refused to believe that a drill slug could shatter that window and proceeded to tell us that the part (13" dia x 7" long) came out of the chuck, defied the laws of physics,reversed direction and went backwards to shatter the glass.
After installing the window, the glass shattered 2 days later.
I firmly believe every person there is completely incompetent.
They couldn't even come out to hook up the ethernet to the Fanuc control,they didn't know how and also said that's not their job, they don't do that.
Their customer support is absolutely terrible.
 
SMEC built the "Samsung" machine that Dynamic imported. SMEC decided to build their own distribution system here in the US and drop the "Samsung" moniker as they are not part of Samsung electronics but were an offshoot of Samsung Heavy Industries. Rumor is everyone is still suing each other.

To fill the void, the Dynamic folks have rebooted their Samsung company as Smart Machine Tools and had a whole booth of these machines at IMTS. The old Samsung dealers (who were mostly old Doosan dealers) are now representing one or the other of these groups.
 
SMEC built the "Samsung" machine that Dynamic imported. SMEC decided to build their own distribution system here in the US and drop the "Samsung" moniker as they are not part of Samsung electronics but were an offshoot of Samsung Heavy Industries. Rumor is everyone is still suing each other.

To fill the void, the Dynamic folks have rebooted their Samsung company as Smart Machine Tools and had a whole booth of these machines at IMTS. The old Samsung dealers (who were mostly old Doosan dealers) are now representing one or the other of these groups.

Thanks for the info. I suspected something like that was going on.

Any idea who makes these Smart brand machines or where they are made?
 
Thanks for the info. I suspected something like that was going on.

Any idea who makes these Smart brand machines or where they are made?

In Taiwan and Korea, there are all sorts of builders who are building machines for different brands, including some of the biggest brands. I think the Samsung story is that owning the brand name is something that can be adapted and adding models built from different factories that maybe are lathe or Drill Tap specialists and incorporating into the "brand". I think the Smart machines are all products of Korea but I do not know that for sure.
 
I don't know. We bought an Samsung lathe from them a couple of years ago, they installed it.
And anyone who's ever ran a cnc lathe and used a 2-1/2" indexable drill knows that there is a slug that flies out the end of the part when the drill breaks thru.
Well that slug shattered the window in the door. (the window position is stupid on this machine)
Dynamic came out to replace it and refused to believe that a drill slug could shatter that window and proceeded to tell us that the part (13" dia x 7" long) came out of the chuck, defied the laws of physics,reversed direction and went backwards to shatter the glass.
After installing the window, the glass shattered 2 days later.
I firmly believe every person there is completely incompetent.
They couldn't even come out to hook up the ethernet to the Fanuc control,they didn't know how and also said that's not their job, they don't do that.
Their customer support is absolutely terrible.


Damn....
A slug most definitely can and will break a window in a machine.
The lamest window breakage I ever witnessed was in a Mori Seiki 50 taper horizontal mill. The operator had his 3rd or 4th part running after I had done a minor edit or 2. I was standing right there when a 1/4-20 tap broke and the window shattered.....i nearly shit myself...lol
 
I spoke to a salesman at Dynamic yesterday and got a little more information on the Smart brand. The machines they are currently selling are rebadged Yama Seikis, so the Mills are made by Awea and the lathes by Goodway in Taiwan.

He said that they have now set up their own production facility in Korea with former SMEC employees. It sounds like they will be switching over to these Korean made machines in the near future.
 
I looked into goodway, samsungs/smec, dmc, hyundai, hwacheon and all that, Doosan was the best optioned/most current/modern, best service, most likely to still be around in a few years unlike some rebadged brands and the ones that change dealer every few months... and Doosan was less $.
Not sure why anyone really bothers with the others unless there's really nothing else available in stock when they're in a pinch. Some of them only offer a lesser machine/old plain design, but aren't any less $, maybe some give super extra deals in the US, but I didn't see it here, a couple seemed to think they were competing with the top 3 Jap brands with the $$ they wanted...
 
SND
I "HAD" a dnm5700 and a 220LSYC and I am happy I no longer have them , The support from Doosan and there dealer was not good at all … Doosan claims to have 40M in parts in the USA but I had a TSC that quit working and 7 months later it was still not fixed when they removed the machine ..

The dealer Support was a Bad and even calling Doosan USA did not fix the machines … I read a LOT about Doosan before buying them and most guys seemed to be happy with them but I well never buy any more tell they change dealers.
 
I looked into goodway, samsungs/smec, dmc, hyundai, hwacheon and all that, Doosan was the best optioned/most current/modern, best service, most likely to still be around in a few years unlike some rebadged brands and the ones that change dealer every few months... and Doosan was less $.
Not sure why anyone really bothers with the others unless there's really nothing else available in stock when they're in a pinch. Some of them only offer a lesser machine/old plain design, but aren't any less $, maybe some give super extra deals in the US, but I didn't see it here, a couple seemed to think they were competing with the top 3 Jap brands with the $$ they wanted...

When I was looking at VMCs in 2017 Doosan was actually one of the most expensive brands that I looked at. Samsung, DMC, Hardinge/Bridgeport, Kitamura, Milltronics, Takumi, and YCM were all less money. Heck, for a couple of thousand more than what they were asking for the Doosan, I could have gotten an Okuma Genos. (I ended up getting a Kitamura by the way and have been very happy with it.)

Doosans appear to be solid machines, but I haven't seen a huge difference in quality between the various brands of Taiwaneese and Korean machines. There are some small differences, you can compare the size of the ways and whether they are ball or roller type and the spindle HP, but most of the other stuff is the same. Our local dealer was asking a premium for the Doosan machines for some reason. Pricing can vary a lot depending on how motivated the particular dealer is.
 
Probably varies a lot with the area/dealer. I've gotten phone support here at 5pm on a sunday and sorted out right away. Up here some of these smaller brands have changed dealer 5-6 times the last few years, some twice in the same year so try to get support out of that... so out of them doosan here was the best choice, or double the $ for the top names, and some of them aren't known for the best service either...
One of my big concerns was parts availability 10+yrs from now. With some of these obscure brands/unknown manufacturer/rebadged things that only sell a few machines vs the other big names, good luck.

I would have thought/hoped they'd all be pretty competitive on price in the US and dealers wouldn't try to pull things like that. Here a few tend to pad on an extra 30-40k but that's common of the Canadian market for everything, some just don't seem to care to sell anything, always gotta shop no matter where you are I guess.
 
When I was looking at VMCs in 2017 Doosan was actually one of the most expensive brands that I looked at. Samsung, DMC, Hardinge/Bridgeport, Kitamura, Milltronics, Takumi, and YCM were all less money. Heck, for a couple of thousand more than what they were asking for the Doosan, I could have gotten an Okuma Genos. (I ended up getting a Kitamura by the way and have been very happy with it.)

Doosans appear to be solid machines, but I haven't seen a huge difference in quality between the various brands of Taiwaneese and Korean machines. There are some small differences, you can compare the size of the ways and whether they are ball or roller type and the spindle HP, but most of the other stuff is the same. Our local dealer was asking a premium for the Doosan machines for some reason. Pricing can vary a lot depending on how motivated the particular dealer is.

I picked up a Doosan lathe last year, $35k less than a lesser equipped haas and $20k less than a Samsung. I'm glad I went with the Doosan because it's been an amazing machine.
 
brand new (less than a year old) private label cnc machine tool line. most if not all these machines are built in Taiwan. Imported by same company that imported SMEC/SAMSUNG. Smart Machine Tool does not build the machines; it's only a clever trade name. they are not likely to have much of a support infrastructure to speak of yet, ie., parts, trained service, etc., and you never know if they could be here today and gone tomorrow like Samsung. BTW, Samsung was never a builder of machine tools. It was SMEC out of Korea. SMEC fired the importer and started bringing in the SMEC brand. Samsung Machine Tools is over with
 
brand new (less than a year old) private label cnc machine tool line. most if not all these machines are built in Taiwan. Imported by same company that imported SMEC/SAMSUNG. Smart Machine Tool does not build the machines; it's only a clever trade name. they are not likely to have much of a support infrastructure to speak of yet, ie., parts, trained service, etc., and you never know if they could be here today and gone tomorrow like Samsung. BTW, Samsung was never a builder of machine tools. It was SMEC out of Korea. SMEC fired the importer and started bringing in the SMEC brand. Samsung Machine Tools is over with

Dynamic Intl. use to be the SMEC (then known as Samsung Machine Tools) importer, in 2018 SMEC parted ways with Dynamic and set up shop in the US. Many of Dynamic ex-dealers have followed and joined SMEC as dealers. Before, the name SMEC stood for (Samsung Machine tools Engineering Company), now is just SMEC. You can visit CNC Machines | Automation Solution | SMEC AMERICA for a brief history of where SMEC came from and what is offered in the US or see a full history in maine korean website: SMEC CO.,LTD | About SMEC | History / SMEC in Korea is a publicly traded company with no plans to go away, especially in the US. SMEC machine tools are the same as they were and are not private labeled taiwanese machines, all machines are manufactured in Korea.
 
Is SMEC going to keep offering support/parts for all the machines previously sold as Samsung by Dynamic?
 
Is SMEC going to keep offering support/parts for all the machines previously sold as Samsung by Dynamic?

Machines previously sold by Dynamic are going to be supported by SMEC. In case it is a warranty claim, SMEC will provide support in case by case basis according to previous documents signed with Dynamic. Currently Dynamic is selling old SMEC inventory which they had before the separation, but they are being sold "AS-IS" with no warranty. SMEC is positioned to provide all parts/service support to customers, in locations where SMEC has distributors, the distributors are first in-line to provide support to customers both existing and future. If there are no distributors in certain locations, SMEC will do whatever it takes to help the customer. Currently SMEC has no distributors in FL but when a customer reached out for parts, SMEC gladly helped the customer.
 
SND
I "HAD" a dnm5700 and a 220LSYC and I am happy I no longer have them , The support from Doosan and there dealer was not good at all … Doosan claims to have 40M in parts in the USA but I had a TSC that quit working and 7 months later it was still not fixed when they removed the machine ..

The dealer Support was a Bad and even calling Doosan USA did not fix the machines … I read a LOT about Doosan before buying them and most guys seemed to be happy with them but I well never buy any more tell they change dealers.

Hello D.D. Machine
I am a strong believer in the dealer network, as a builder our customers are our dealers who are in the front lines servicing the end customers, they are the ones that provide builders information and feedback that customers have and builders work together with the dealers to keep providing better services. Not to sound like I am trying to promote SMEC, most of the dealers that helped Doosan back in the days are now SMEC dealers who have left Dynamic and joined SMEC America.
 








 
Back
Top