Hot products at METALTECH 2014

International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) interviewed companies exhibiting their latest machines at METALTECH Malaysia 2014.

Hurco presents smallest 5-axis machining center
At the show, Hurco presented its VM10U, smallest 5-axis machining center. It is based on the popular selling, VM10 general machining center. It is suitable for medical and aerospace industries that requires serious machining. It can also be used in normal mould & die multiple sided machining tasks, or medical implants that involves more complex geometry requirements. Lee Wai Yip, General Manager sees South East Asian will continue to grow. Manufacturing base will become very strong. European, American and Chinese companies will likely to expand their bases in SEA countries like Thailand, where the Japanese are very strong, or even in new places like Vietnam and Indonesia. Domestic consumption will also increase as middle class people start buying cars and the automotive industry will be very lucrative in the SEA market. Other sectors such as oil & gas and aerospace will see increase demands as well. Hurco’s strategy is to continue focusing on the SEA market.

Lee Wai Yip, General Manager, Hurco

Carl Zeiss exhibits latest multisensor machine
Carl Zeiss has featured one of its latest and best machines, the O-Inspect 322. Sales Manager Michael Fock said the O-Inspect 322 is a multisensor measuring machine, which features a tactile scanning probe and a camera equipped with Carl Zeiss premium microscope Discovery V12 lense allowing measurements to be in the best image quality. Applications of the O-inspect includes from measuring phone parts i.e (iphones) to measuring fine parts of watches/time pieces. Carl Zeiss has been getting very good demand response even during the early stages launching the O-Inspect. Feedback from customers using the machine has been great as well due to the ability of the O-Inspect to provide accurate measurements to maintain product quality and consistency; hence reducing the rejection rates as well as costs savings.

Michael Fock, Sales Manager, Carl Zeiss Sdn. Bhd

Hexagon highlights unique measuring machines
Hexagon presented some unique measuring machineries which includes portable measuring arms for huge parts in a production line as well as portable laser trackers which is capable of measuring with extreme precisions over large distances such as cars, ships and aeroplane chassis. Hexagon’s highlight of the show was its Global CMMs (Coordinated Measuring Machines), the B&S Global Silver Classic SR. Equipped with a laser scanner manufactured in Japan capable of moving at 3d speed of 550 mm/second, this CMM offers accurate and fast scanning via rapid point-cloud capture system. During scanning, data is captured into the CAD/CAM system to enable reverse engineering. Hexagon’s current target market includes automotive, oil and gas, as well as aerospace industries. According to General Manager Leong Kim Hua, existing markets for Hexagon would be Malaysia, Singapore as well as Indonesia which a business presence was recently set up with a team of qualif ed staff working on its expansion.

Michael Fock, Sales Manager, Carl Zeiss Sdn. Bhd

HAAS offers vertical and turning centers
Frank Ramirez, Business Manager-International of HAAS Automation Inc. said that the company is exhibiting 3 vertical centers and 3 turning centers. The turning centers are produced in U.S. with high quality parts by HAAS Automation U.S. and brought to Malaysia at a very affordable price. For the turning centers, it is semi-auto/manual and if a company used to a manual turning center or lathes, the company could do the same with HAAS turning center.

Frank Ramirez, Business Manager-International, HAAS Automation Inc.