ZEISS Industrial Metrology, South East Asia, Regional Division Manager speaks

The Carl Zeiss Group, headquartered in Oberkochen, southwestern Germany, is an international leader in the fields of optics and opto-electronics. It is today one of the world’s leading manufacturers of coordinate measuring machines and provider of services and solutions for multi-dimensional metrology. With a view to get closer to its customers in the South East Asia region, Carl Zeiss started its SEA organisation in 1990 with local Sales & Service offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

Mr Shaun Lim, Regional Division Manager, Industrial Metrology Group, Carl Zeiss South East Asia, talked about their market in Thailand, latest product, technical skills and plans for 2014 in an interview conducted by International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) during the METALEX 2013 exhibition in Bangkok.

IMNA: How long is ZEISS in Thailand, and what can you say about the market here?

Lim: We have been here for more than 20 years now. And our biggest pool of customers come from the automotive industry. I would say second place would be the electronics. These are the two main areas. Of course we also have customers coming from the aerospace, some from oil and gas and also governing institutions.

IMNA: What products are you introducing into the Thai market?

Lim: What is new in the METALEX 2013 is a measuring machine using Computer Tomography Technology, the METROTOM 800. This is our smaller version of the x-ray machine. It is tailored to the requirements of the injection molding industry, and meets all the requirements of mid-sized companies. It also features an attractive price/performance ratio. The METROTOM 800 detector delivers almost three million pixels for very high detail recognition.

We also have products that are not new in the market; however we feel that there are a lot of new technology that are still not reaching the full potential in the market. So there’s a need for us to come back at the exhibition and show it to the customer.

IMNA: Is this METROTOM designed for the Asian market or particularly in Thailand only?

Lim: Not only for Thailand. I guess it is used globally. For customers that are interested to do for example non-destructive testing, for customers that want to do very quick and simple inspection, customers that want to look at functional defects in products internally which they cannot see from outside. So using the x-ray process, we’re able to look inside the product. So it is very much popular now for plastic parts. This is mainly viewed through the x-ray power source. In order for us to look at a product that has got very high density means that we need a very high x-ray source. So very often, companies with products like this are limited with the amount of x-ray power, therefore right now it is very popular with plastic products and also aluminum. When you go onto a bigger part like engine block made of maybe a denser metal then it’s getting more challenging.

IMNA: With regards to the actual manufacturing of this machine, is this predominantly manufactured outside Asia?

Lim: We have a range of different products and most of them are produced now in Germany. Besides, Germany we also have factories in the U.S., China and India. The factory in U.S. are supplying mainly to the American continent. Some productsAir Jordan IV 4 Running Shoes