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Published on October 9, 2007

Managing director Taveesak Srisuntisuk yesterday said Hexagon, the world's largest manufacturer of dimensional metrology products, eventually set up the subsidiary, its sixth in Asia, after selling its products in Thailand for 13 years through his Thaimach Sales and Service company, which acted as distributor.

Hexagon Metrology (Thailand) is responsible for marketing and sales of Hexagon brands DEA, Brown and Sharpe, Leitz, Leica, Romer and Tesa Technology.

The subsidiary has so far been selling CMM three-dimensional measurement machines for checking the quality of industrial products at plants, mainly to the automotive industry.

Taveesak said the product has received a good response because the auto industry required more checking machines for their quality-control processes. Today, Hexagon has a 30-per-cent share of Thailand's Bt1-billion CMM market, he said.

He said the company would soon add another product: portable coordinate measuring machines (PCMMs). This machine can be taken around production plants to check final products and fitted with mechanical arms for checking large products.

Hexagon also plans to introduce CogniTens non-contact coordinate measuring machines next June. CogniTens, which is made in Israel, uses both cameras and lasers as tools for checking products. The product is categorised as a PCMM.

The company expects PCMM sales to contribute 30 per cent of total revenue next year, with the rest from CMM.

The average price per PCMM unit is Bt5 million, while prices of CMMs range from Bt1 million to Bt18 million.

Taveesak said quality control was a must in each plant and that there was still a lot of room for quality-checking machines in Thailand.

Hexagon Metrology (Thailand) has set aside 10 per cent of its earnings for building up awareness of the company, since the subsidiary is still very new to the Thai market, even though its products have been available here for 13 years already. It promotes itself through machinery trade magazines as well as by attending industrial trade exhibitions, including Metalex and the Automotive Manufacturing Exhibition.

Taveesak said it had only three competitors in the CMM segment but was seeing more competitors for PCMMs.

He said Hexagon headquarters had raised the Thai unit's projected sales growth for this year from 15 per cent to 30 per cent after seeing that the market showed good potential in its first year.

Taveesak said Thaimach Sales and Service still existed but now acted as a sales representative for Mori Seiki machinery products.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation