Surfscan Technologies Has U.S. in its Sights
CARDIFF, Wales—Vision inspection equipment manufacturer Surfscan Technologies, Cardiff, Wales, has taken its first step into the export market by appointing Mainplate Controls as its US and Canada sales and support agent. Surfscan has designed a range of surface and web inspection systems under the CHECK brand and has developed what it regards as highly efficient algorithms to ‘guarantee’ 100 percent inspection on converting equipment, such as slitter rewinders with its CHECKwinder system. Mainplate Controls is a slitter rewinder specialist and situated in the heart of the US ‘slitter rewinder belt,’ according to CEO Karm Sohi.
“We are frequently asked about inspection and vision systems,” he said, “so we will be introducing the complete Surfscan range to our customer base and we have the technical resources to act, not just as a sales force, but as a fully fledged technical support service. In the past five years we have built systems and solutions for label, pharmaceutical, RFID and visual inspection applications.” Surfscan Technologies general manager Damian Harvey can see the time approaching when the company will open a manufacturing operation in the U.S.
“When sales volumes rise, we can envisage providing technical and programming support from the UK and manufacturing our systems in the US. Not every converting or web-based application requires 100 percent inspection so we have designed a range of CHECK system to cover most requirements and, in my opinion, we are one of the only companies that can deliver genuine and accurate 100 percent inspection even up to extremely wide web widths.” Surfscan Technologies is also winning considerable levels of business in the UK, frequently as a result of comparison tests, and has built an efficient back-up support engineering operation. “Customers today see back-up technical support as a major factor in their buying decision,” said Damian Harvey. “The comfort factor is almost as important as the technology.”