35th Control on Pace for May

Preparations for the 35th Control international trade fair for quality assurance are now approaching the homestretch. Attention will be focused across all industries on the issues of vision technology, image processing and sensor technology, as well as measuring and test technology, in Stuttgart, Germany, from May 9-12, 2023.

For more information, visit www.control-messe.com.

Digital 3D Touch Sensor Wins Hexagon’s Support to Scale, Solve Industry Challenges

Hexagon has announced the winner of the second cohort of its Sixth Sense open innovation platform, which nurtures start-ups creating solutions to pressing manufacturing challenges.

Hexagon launched the Sixth Sense open innovation platform in 2022 to support the growing demand for disruptive innovation in manufacturing. The platform offers business insight, access to experts and mentorship, as well as exposing them to Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division’s global customer and partner base, which includes the likes of Audi, Airbus, Meta and Zimmer Biomet.

GelSight won the competition, following an intense 10-week program of product refinement and business development, which culminated in a pitching competition at the Hague, the Netherlands, where they presented their company and progress to a panel of judges representing experts in technology, investment and Hexagon leadership.

As part of their winning package, they will receive access to Hexagon’s extensive customer base to expand their business, integrate with Hexagon products, and further resources to globalize.

Youssef Benmokhtar, CEO of GelSight, said, “Many inspections in the industry today are still performed by an inspector simply looking at or touching a part to identify, and sometimes measure, a defect. This is a subjective, non-repeatable, non-traceable process. Our gel material acts as artificial skin, providing extremely detailed and rapid surface characterization. We have digitized the entire workflow – our technology analyzes the readings to give users detailed 3D visualization with up to 5 million data points that can help automate processes, cutting costs and time.

“Working with Sixth Sense has been such a memorable experience – we are proud and humbled to have been chosen and are looking forward to the future with Hexagon. The real work starts now.”

Runner-up CASTOR’s Angeliki Malizou, director of business development, said, “Participating in the Sixth Sense cohort has provided us with an exceptional opportunity to take our business to new heights. Our intelligent software analyzes thousands of parts at once and identifies opportunities where additive manufacturing makes sense, from a technical, economical, and sustainable point of view. Whether a company's initiatives are cost reduction, sustainability, supply chain resilience, or others, we can help engineers to scale up their additive manufacturing journey, and we look forward to furthering that journey with Hexagon.”

Parth Joshi, chief product and technology officer for Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, said, “The market is in a state of flux. The industry is trying to contend with a shrinking global economy, sustainability requirements and increasingly complex customer demands, which are all piling on the pressure. To us, however, this presents an opportunity. Constraints provide fertile ground for innovation, and start-ups know that better than anyone. In fact, the industry as a whole can benefit from the creativity and agility they bring to the innovation process, as demonstrated by the success of our cohorts. We are excited to continue working together with budding companies and will be recruiting for the next cohort soon.”

Hexagon would also like to congratulate the rest of the cohort for their impressive pitches and dedication to growth during the program. These innovative start-ups are: 3YOURMIND, Augmentir, JITbase, oculavis, Threedy, and Teratonics.

For more information, visit sixthsense.hexagon.com.

Creaform Joins C-TPAT Program

Creaform announced that it joins more than 11,400 partners of the trading community as a fully accredited member of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, an endeavor to strengthen the security of its supply chains.

The C-TPAT program acts as a safety measure that the trade industry takes against terrorism. With the primary aim of safeguarding cross-border supply chains and the U. S. border, it extends the United States’ secure trade zone to the initial point of origin—in the present case, to Creaform locations. By joining C-TPAT, Creaform agrees to work with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to protect the supply chain, identify security vulnerabilities, and implement specific security measures and best practices.

Since partnering companies must provide CBP with a security profile detailing their approach to trade security measures in several aspects of their business, this accreditation goes to show that Creaform has put everything in place to foster safe and strong trade behaviors, and to act as a reliable partner in the protection of the trade industry against terrorism.

As a C-TPAT member, Creaform will now be considered low risk and therefore less likely to be screened at U.S. ports of entry, thus saving time at the border. The partnership program provides several other advantages such as a reduction in border checks, access to the directory of member companies, the establishment of a single point of contact, and the opportunity to use fast lanes to cross the border. What’s more, the actual process of entering the partnership program increased Creaform’s very own security, and by doing so, they make a positive impression on their business partners.

For more information, visit www.creaform3d.com.

Wenzel America, Able Machine Tool Sales Launch Partnership

Wenzel America and Able Machine Tool Sales are combining strengths to ensure accuracy and speed and, above all, top-quality precision across Northeast America.

A strongly aligned culture of tailoring solutions to customers’ needs guarantees incredible value for the region’s manufacturing industry.

Able Machine Tool Sales has been serving the New England region since 1987. Their variety of elite machine tools helps customers integrate the right tools into their shops to meet the growing demand for precise, cost-effective parts. Expanding their metrology offerings with Wenzel was a natural step in developing a complete line of high-accuracy, production-ready solutions. Since 1968 Wenzel has delivered tailored high-accuracy solutions to companies in aerospace, defense, and contract manufacturing that help enable efficient, and effective manufacturing.

Drew Shemenski, president of Wenzel America, is excited about the prospects, “We are extremely excited to partner with Able, a company who has a rich history of serving their customers with brands that enable productivity.

We feel the Wenzel portfolio fits well with Able’s. Our partnership is focused on providing accuracy, throughput, and value-added solutions.

Most importantly though, I think we share a common vision of enabling customer success through technology, collaboration, and energetic support, whether on the shop floor, in the metrology lab, or anywhere in between,” Drew Shemenski said.

“These days, whether the customer is doing short or long production runs, or making small or large parts, precision and speed are essential,” said Able Machine Tool Sales CEO Alan Lockery. “The Wenzel line, with its array of high-quality CMMs, allows us to offer our customers a choice of metrology tools at reasonable costs for ensuring the exact quality standards they require.”

Able will hold their biannual Open House on May 16-18, at their showroom in Agawam, MA, just two miles from where EASTEC will take place that same week.

“Anyone interested should drop by and see the variety of machine tools under power, including Wenzel CMMs. Wenzel and Able’s engineers will be on hand to answer questions,” said Lockery.

For more information, visit http://ablemts.com/.

Mitutoyo America Celebrates 60th Anniversary

Mitutoyo America Corp. announced its 60th anniversary.

Since its establishment in 1963, Mitutoyo America Corporation has been committed to providing the highest quality products and services to its customers. With a wide range of precision measuring instruments, including micrometers, calipers, height gages, and more, Mitutoyo America has become a trusted name in industries such as manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and medical devices.

"We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone anniversary and reflect on our history of providing precision metrology solutions to customers throughout the United States," said Matt Dye, president of Mitutoyo America Corp. "We have always been dedicated to producing high-quality, accurate, and reliable products, and we will continue to do so for many more years to come."

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Mitutoyo America will be hosting a series of events and promotions throughout the year, including customer appreciation events, special promotional discounts, and product demonstrations. The company also plans to launch new products and services to further expand its offerings to customers.

"We want to take this opportunity to thank our customers, employees, and partners for their continued support and loyalty over the past 60 years," said Dye. "We look forward to continuing to work together to drive innovation and improve precision metrology for the benefit of all."

For more information, visit www.mitutoyo.com.

ETQ Names Vaishnavi CEO

ETQ, part of Hexagon, announced the appointment of Vick Vaishnavi as CEO. He succeeds former CEO Rob Gremley who led the company through an era of private-equity backed growth and SaaS-driven modernization, ultimately leading to ETQ’s acquisition by Hexagon AB in April 2022.

Vaishnavi is responsible for leading ETQ’s strategic planning and execution at a time of rapid global expansion and product innovation. At the same time, Vaishnavi will serve as a critical executive liaison with Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, of which ETQ is now a part. Vick has over three decades of deep experience in building high-growth SaaS companies and leading global expansion organically, through partnerships and via M&A activity.

“I am very impressed with the work that the ETQ team has done thus far to build a leading SaaS company in the quality management and health and safety software markets,” said Vaishnavi. “I am eager to dig into the rich work of getting to know ETQ’s people, products and customers and I am confident that my background and approach will not only blend well with the team but provide a solid platform for the next step in ETQ’s evolution.”  

Before his appointment at ETQ, Vaishnavi was senior vice president and general manager of the Global CEM Business at Everbridge, a global enterprise SaaS company.  At Everbridge he led and grew the company’s Critical Event Management (CEM) Business that included Enterprise Risk, Smart Security and Digital Operations lines, which he grew from incubation stages to $100M+ in recurring revenue, with contributions from North America and global international markets. During his tenure as head of the CEM Business, he led and integrated multiple acquisitions in the enterprise risk, smart security, digital operations, risk intelligence and crisis management markets as part of the company’s platform strategy.

Prior to Everbridge, Vaishnavi served as the CEO of Yottaa Inc., a SaaS software company that helps customers accelerate, optimize and secure eCommerce sites.  There he drove a critical corporate turnaround, completely repositioned Yottaa in new enterprise markets and built the company into a vertical growth player in the market.

Previously, Vaishnavi was CEO of Aveksa Inc., a leader in IAM (Identity and Access Management) software and solutions that helped organizations improve their information security, access governance and compliance postures by automating user access lifecycle. Under his leadership, Aveksa grew more than 50% year-over-year, earned a leadership spot in analyst ratings, established a global customer base, ultimately being acquired by EMC Corporation.

Vaishnavi also served as CMO at BladeLogic, a global leader in data center automation. At BladeLogic he repositioned the company and secured multiple consecutive years as the undisputed leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave benchmarks.  As the marketing leader, he revamped sales processes and go-to-market strategies resulting in an 80% increase in close rates and a 50% increase in average deal size. He was a member of the executive team that prepared the company for one of the most successful technology IPOs of 2007 and resulted in the acquisition by BMC Software for $900 million in 2008.  After the acquisition, he assumed the role of CMO of BMC’s Enterprise Systems Management Business.  

Vaishnavi holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, a master's degree in computer engineering from University of Massachusetts, and an MBA from Boston University Questrom School of Business. He has also participated in authoring eight software patents and has written articles on management, sales and growth strategies in enterprise software.

“We are very excited to welcome Vick onboard and equally as excited to be part of this next stage in the ETQ journey,” said Josh Weiss, president, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence division. “With ETQ we have a solid anchor and a flagship team to continue our efforts in connecting quality through the value chain of our customers and through our portfolio of quality data capture devices. Finally, we’d like to thank Rob for all his efforts in taking ETQ to such levels and building a team around him who shares the same passion for customers and quality as we do.“

Rob Gremley officially handed the baton of ETQ leadership to Vick on January 17 and had this to say at an all-company Town Hall meeting just prior to the transition:

“I’ve had the great opportunity to serve as CEO of ETQ since 2018 and it has been a privilege and joy for me to lead this company. I couldn’t be happier with Vick as the right customer-focused leader for this next phase of ETQ’s growth. He embodies the ideal mix of passion, intelligence, experience and empathy to lead ETQ to success in its next chapter.”

For more information, visit www.etq.com.