Corporate Name of Metris NV to Be Changed to "Nikon Metrology NV"

Posted October 31st, 2009 by Nikon in Technology,Japan

Nikon Corporation (Michio Kariya, President, Tokyo) announces that the general meeting of shareholders of Metris NV (located in Leuven, the Kingdom of Belgium), a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, approved a proposal to change the corporate name of Metris to "Nikon Metrology NV" at its meeting held on October 29, 2009. This change will become effective on November 10, 2009.

Metris was established in 1998. Thus far, it has offered original and advanced technology and products in the market for non-contact, three-dimensional measurement systems. Following a tender offer that began in June 2009, Metris became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nikon in October. To clarify the positioning of Metris within the Nikon Group, and, to establish substantially closer teamwork between Metris and the other companies of the Nikon Group, Nikon has decided to change the corporate name of Metris to Nikon Metrology NV.

Under the Nikon brand, Metris and Nikon will work to draw on their respective strengths in technology and marketing, and, thereby, offer products featuring innovative technology and a broad range of functions to customers throughout the world.

Outline of Nikon Metrology NV

Corporate name (Beginning on November 10, 2009) Nikon Metrology NV

Location Leuven, the Kingdom of Belgium

Representative Kenji Yoshikawa (Director and Chairman of the Board)

Primary activities Development, manufacturing, marketing and service related to measuring and inspection products

Paid-in capital €64.1 million (As of June 30, 2009)

Number of employees 478 (As of June 30, 2009)

New Feature

CMM Quarterly has added a new blog and is announcing the creating of CMM Jobs. The job listings are listing sent to CMM Quarterly throughout the year. The jobs opportunities will now be posted on CMM Jobs. The link is located in the upper right panel on this blog.


CMM Jobs link

METRIS BECOMES WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF NIKON AND IS DELISTED FROM EURONEXT BRUSSELS

Leuven, October 21st, 2009 – Metris has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of NIKON CORPORATION (through NIMD SPRL) as a result of the squeeze-out public bid whereby all shares and warrants that were not tendered, were transferred to NIMD SPRL by operation of law on October 16, 2009. In addition, Metris’ shares were delisted from NYSE Euronext Brussels as from October 19, 2009.

Bart Van Coppenolle, the CEO and founder of Metris, comments: “Now part of the NIKON group, we look forward to further strengthening our investment in future product development and customer support, leveraging the strength of a strong international technology group with an excellent brand and a strong balance sheet. I would like to express our gratitude to Metris’ shareholders who have supported us over the years, allowing Metris to become the leading technology company in the micro metrology segment. We also look forward to working closely with our new colleagues, customers and suppliers within this enlarged group. We will continue to deliver the most innovative and reliable products and services to our global customers and business partners."

About METRIS N.V.

Metris designs, develops and markets a unique range of 3D hardware and software inspection systems servicing design and manufacturing industries. The company’s reliable and innovative metrology solutions cover the full range of measurement volumes required by automotive and aerospace customers, in both fixed and portable configurations and with optical and touch sensors. Further details are available at www.metris.com .

For further information please contact:

Renaat Van Cauter

Director Marketing Communications

Tel: +32 16 74 01 00 – Mobile: +32 486 64 24 33

E-mail: renaat.vancauter@metris.com

About NIKON CORPORATION

NIKON CORPORATION was established in Japan in 1917 and is a pioneer of optical technology. Nikon commands a high global standing in the manufacture and sale of camera-related products, such as digital cameras, as well as binoculars and other optical products for consumers, such as ophthalmic lenses. These items complement Nikon’s diverse array of industrial precision equipment that includes semiconductor-related equipment, IC and LCD steppers and scanners, microscopes and measuring instruments.

Additional information about NIKON CORPORATION is available at http://nikon.com/ .

Metris Laser Radar maximizes power generation productivity of parabolic solar panels

By Metrology Solutions Provider

Solar Cell Inspection

The geometric integrity of parabolic solar mirrors is a critical factor in reaching maximum productivity for industrial power generation. Deployed to inspect parabolic solar mirrors, Metris Laser Radar has proven its capability to trace incorrect bending and alignment of individual mirror panels. Metris Laser Radar is fit for the large-scale inspection job because it is portable, fast and accurate and offers automatic single-user operation. By using inspection results to tune the geometry of parabolic mirrors, solar thermal power plants increase power generation output and profit.

Click here to read this full article.

OnTheFly – Measurement in Flight

Werth, a manfacturer of optical and multi-sensor coordinate measuring machines, presents the patented “OnTheFly” method for rapid measurement with image processing. Werth ScopeCheck^® and VideoCheck^® coordinate measuring machines can now take measurements while in constant motion.  By flashing the light sources, blurriness due to the motion is eliminated. Start-Stop operation is no longer needed. Measurement time is drastically reduced (up to a factor of 10) and the efficiency of the measuring machine is increased.  This technology is ideal for printed circuit boards or other workpieces with numerous features and the need for short inspection cycles.

GRANITE…IT’S USED ON THE BEST CMMS BUT HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET?

Impala black granite is one of the key components for the world’s most accurate Coordinate Measuring Machines. The best granite is to be found in mines in South Africa.

The are only a couple of Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) manufacturers that still use black granite for their machine bases, X rails, Y beams and Z rams. One of those manufacturers is Wenzel GmbH in Wiestal, Germany.

Impala black granite has proven to be the most structurally and thermally stable material that will insure the high accuracies required by a coordinate measuring machine. Combine those properties with low porosity, low moisture absorption, superior strength, lower coefficient of thermal expansion, uniformity of texture and a non-glaring surface, and you truly have the ideal material for a CMM.

Heike Wenzel-Dafler, joint managing director of Wenzel emphasizes, “We believe the key to Wenzel’s continued success has been our commitment to building the highest quality and most structurally stable and accurate CMMs in the world. And to do that, it’s a necessity that black granite be used for the bases, rails, beams and rams. For those reasons, as well as the need to become more vertically integrated to better control our manufacturing and production processes and costs, Wenzel purchased a granite processing business in Germany in 2006. We made a strategic decision to not follow the direction of the majority of our competitors who continue to outsource not only granite plates, but also high value parts, sub assemblies and even complete machines to manufacturers in China. Wenzel will not compromise its level of quality and the granite, which is the single largest cost in our CMM products, provides Wenzel CMMs with the precision, dynamics and stiffness that most industries want and require,”

To read the entire article click here

Complete and Accurate Measuring Provided by Werth's CT Machine

The Tomoscope from Werth Messtechnik is reportedly the world’s first integration of Computer Tomography (CT) with a multisensor coordinate measuring machine. This technology opens up completely new measurement possibilities by allowing quick, complete and nondestructive measurement of many features with CT, combined with the highly exact measurements of functional dimensions with tactile or optical sensors.

Industrial CT involves the capture, processing and reconstruction of a 3D workpiece from multiple views to quickly create an image of internal and external geometry.

CMMs with multisensor systems allow the operator to choose the sensor best suited to a given measuring task. This guarantees economic advantages, flexibility and higher reliability, but requires experience, is time-consuming and can require that the component to be pretreated.

The Tomoscope is unique in that tomography technology is brought together with the accuracy of a CMM. Rather than measure the size of parts, it measures the sizes, angles and diameters of the structures inside of a part — and calibration points are measured with accurate CMM sensors in the same measurement run, ensuring precision and traceability of the results.

http://www.werthinc.com/

CogniTens Introduces Multilingual Software Version for its White Light 3D Measurement and Digitizing Systems

Supporting global implementations at leading OEMs and Suppliers facilities

London, United Kingdom – October 7, 2009 – CogniTens, part of Hexagon Metrology and a leading provider of 3D measurement systems, announced today the launch of its latest software suite. This latest release titled Version 4.1 will be available in several languages. It offers localized language along with other improvements for CogniTens Optigo™ and OptiCell™ systems.

In this first multilingual release, five languages will be made available including Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese and English. The version features a multilingual user interface for operating the devices, on screen results and annotation, messages, editable objects, reports, etc - all in the selected language. This software release includes multilingualism for the following products:

Optigo Measurement – software used to control the Optigo operation, carry out dimensional measurements, produce inspection reports and generate high quality 3D outputs for reverse engineering or advanced studies.

OptiCell Teach & Automatic Measurement – software used to program new automated routines, execute approved robotic inspection programs, and analyze 3D measurement results on-line.

CoreView Plan – software used for accelerating tasks of planning, defining and preparing comprehensive dimensional measurement programs for OptiCell and Optigo systems.

CoreView Pro - software offering easy-to-use tools for dimensional measurement analysis, visual SPC, quality inspection reporting and collaboration based on OptiCell and Optigo white light measurement results.

CoreView Lite – 3D metrology results viewer for cross company collaboration and quality improvements based on CogniTens CoreView format for full surface, feature and edge measurements.

The need for greater operational flexibility has increased for global manufacturers making daily use of CogniTens systems in their facilities around the world. This latest enhancement allows customers to operate the Optigo and OptiCell systems, train new users, and exchange 3D metrology data between different facilities with greater ease.

The CoreView Lite results viewer is available for free download from the CogniTens website at: http://www.cognitens.com/59-en/Downloads.aspx

About CogniTens

CogniTens is a leading provider of comprehensive dimensional measurement solutions, focused on improving engineering and manufacturing processes in the automotive and other manufacturing industries. Through its Optigo and OptiCell product lines based on innovations in 3-D non-contact measurement technology, especially designed for manufacturing environments, CogniTens allows its customers to significantly improve product quality, shorten development cycles, and cut manufacturing costs. CogniTens’ solutions enable its customers to run efficient product development processes and production launches.

www.cognitens.com

About Hexagon Metrology

Hexagon Metrology is part of the Hexagon AB Group and includes leading metrology brands such as Brown & Sharpe, CE Johansson, CimCore, CogniTens, DEA, Leica Geosystems (Metrology Division), Leitz, m&h Inprocess Messtechnik, PC-DMIS, QUINDOS, ROMER, Sheffield, Standard Gage and TESA. Hexagon Metrology brands represent an unrivaled global installed base of millions of Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs), portable measuring systems and handheld instruments, and tens of thousands of metrology software licenses. Hexagon Metrology empowers its customers to fully control manufacturing processes that rely on dimensional precision, ensuring that products manufactured precisely conform to the original product design. The company offering of machines, systems and software is complemented by a wide range of product support, aftermarket and value-added services.

www.hexagonmetrology.com

Hexagon Acquires Germany's Mahr Multisensor

LONDON, UK, Oct 5, 2009 - Hexagon Metrology has announced today it has acquired all the outstanding assets and technical intellectual property of Mahr Multisensor GmbH. Hexagon Metrology will reorganize the business, and has agreed to employ certain technical service, development and application engineering staff from Mahr Multisensor GmbH.

The vision business unit and products will be integrated into Hexagon Metrology, the world’s largest industrial measurement group, incorporating the leading industry brands Brown & Sharpe, CE Johansson, CimCore, CogniTens, DEA, Leica Geosystems (Metrology Division), Leitz, m&h Inprocess Messtechnik, PC-DMIS, ROMER, Sheffield and TESA.

“This acquisition will further enhance our worldwide product offering in multisensor vision technology and confirms Hexagon Metrology’s commitment to offer the widest range of measuring systems for all industrial applications,” said William Gruber, CEO and President of Hexagon Metrology.

About Hexagon Metrology

Hexagon Metrology is part of the Hexagon AB Group and includes leading metrology brands such as Brown & Sharpe, CE Johansson, CimCore, CogniTens, DEA, Leica Geosystems (Metrology Division), Leitz, m&h Inprocess Messtechnik, PC-DMIS, QUINDOS, ROMER, Sheffield, Standard Gage and TESA. Hexagon Metrology brands represent an unrivaled global installed base of millions of Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs), portable measuring systems and handheld instruments, and tens of thousands of metrology software licenses.

Hexagon Metrology empowers its customers to fully control manufacturing processes that rely on dimensional precision, ensuring that products manufactured precisely conform to the original product design. The company offering of machines, systems and software is complemented by a wide range of product support, aftermarket and value-added services.

For more information, visit http://www.hexagonmetrology.com/.