Motion Control Manufacturer Expands

Oct. 10, 2007
Animatics Corporation (www.animatics.com), a manufacturer of small computer numeric controlled and general automation machines, is expanding and moving its headquarters and U.S. manufacturing operations to a new 104,000 sq. ft. ...

Animatics Corporation (www.animatics.com), a manufacturer of small computer numeric controlled and general automation machines, is expanding and moving its headquarters and U.S. manufacturing operations to a new 104,000 sq. ft. facility in Santa Clara, Calif.

This is the fifth major expansion for the company in the last two years, which opened a new office in Rochester, N.Y., acquired two companies, opened a subsidiary in England, two subsidiaries in Germany and an office in Tokyo, Japan.

Animatics says the expansion is a direct result of record sales and growth. The 20- year old company, which reinvests most of its profits in research and development, is expanding to keep pace with the growing California integrated motor and linear systems markets. Animatics says a growing number of engineering and machine building companies are making the switch to single-component motion control systems called integrated motors. Animatics provides patented servo versions of these devices.

Medical market keeps European machine tool market healthy

IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com) forecasts that European sales of machine tool equipment will increase to more than $26.65 billion (18.9 billion euros) by 2011, growing approximately 4.5 percent per year.

However, the market research company said the medical sector is expected to register the strongest growth, some 7.6 percent per year.

The report said the medical equipment sector is expected to continue to experience growth rates between 7 percent and 10 percent per year. This strong growth is projected to continue over the next five years, and reflects the increasing demand for high-precision, machined medical products.

The market for medical equipment will drive growth in the demand for electrical discharge machine tools. Such machine tools are increasingly being used in the production of prosthetics such as hip replacements and artificial human parts.”

IMS Research provides market research and consulting services from its headquarters in Wellingborough, UK.