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Dr. Jan Stefan Roell explains his vision for the Zwick Roell Group |
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Ever since I formed the Zwick Roell Group in 1992, I have been privileged to lead and be part of this wonderfully dynamic team which constantly strives to improve the superb products and services our customers expect from us.
As a globally successful organisation, the Zwick Roell Group is at the forefront in developing testing solutions which, in turn, help our own customers to be market leaders. We have pioneered and patented many unique solutions using our combined strengths of; precision German Engineering, a totally integrated software platform, and many years of in-depth application knowledge of the industries we have successfully served for the last 80 years.
We are constantly acquiring and adapting new intelligence from our activities in the 55 countries we serve with our products and support services. We have used this knowledge to create what is probably the world’s most advanced portfolio of materials testing solutions available today.
Our core vision is to maintain this position as we go forward into the future. Rather than looking at the materials testing system as a commodity product on the one hand, or a specialised and totally customized engineering project on the other, we realise that many customers’ needs and expectations are often unique but, by using our well developed and flexible technology, we are easily able to satisfy these contrasting needs. The benefits are clear: commodity products often have limited flexibility and customised projects need a sophisticated support system, which can be difficult to provide on a global basis.
Zwick pioneered the use of automatic digital extensometry in the late 1970’s, and the introduction of digital technology in our machine controllers in the early 1990’s allowed us to gain knowledge and experience on which we build still further today. This has culminated in MultiXtens; the worlds most advanced digital extensometer, with a resolution of less than 0.1µm over a maximum travel of 700mm, and OptiXtens a truly unique and ground breaking extensometer. This device needs no contact with the test specimen and does not require the manual attachment of marks in order to measure extension. It is capable of measuring extension with a resolution of 0.1µm over a range of 600mm. It is these developments and innovations which allow us to work much closer in partnership with our customers, and find solutions to testing problems which were never before possible. We are constantly working on new developments in extensometry and will continue to do so.
Substantial growth in our business over the last ten years has allowed us to diversify our business. In 2000 we began a strategic goal to grow our dynamic testing division and are now becoming a major competing force in this sector. We shall continue to invest in this as a growth factor for our future business. As a by-product of the new developments we are able to provide sophisticated digital modernisation packages for existing servo-hydraulic systems in the market - even for Non-Zwick products. This is particularly relevant for those customers who have invested in “add-on” controllers and underdeveloped or customised software, and then experienced poor support, lack of application knowledge, or even obsolescence when the suppliers go out of business.
As the cost of materials testing becomes a higher factor within production companies there is a clear benefit in automating the testing process. Zwick produced the first fully automatic robotic testing machine in the early 1980’s. Since then we have delivered hundreds of these systems around the world. These sophisticated systems bring major benefits to customers in terms of increased throughput of tests, improved quality and repeatability of test results, and faster feedback to production control systems through integrated IT communications. As the global leader in this technology Zwick is able to gain invaluable knowledge of new testing techniques which is then fed back into our own product development process.
In order to develop an integrated testing portfolio of products, all of the individual components of a testing system have to be connected to data processing equipment. We at Zwick decided many years ago to develop a single software platform, testXpert®, as a common user interface for our customers. Since then this product has undergone continuous development by our own team of programmers, and especially our application engineers who have an in-depth understanding of materials testing terminology and technology. With more than 10,000 installations worldwide, our customers can be sure that they are using a highly developed, intelligent and reliable software system backed up by 80 years of materials testing knowledge.
I am pleased to launch this first English on-line News Letter and hope you will find that your relationship with the Zwick Roell Group will be as productive and exciting for you as it is for me, and that our efforts and investments made in the materials testing industry will meet with your approval. We welcome your feedback and the opportunity to influence and share your future success.
With my best regards
Dr. Jan Stefan Roell
CEO
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| Release Date: 2006-05-03 |
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