Industry Watch 19865

SAS opens European branch 
End-of-arm tooling manufacturer SAS Automation Ltd. has extended its reach to the European market with the opening of a sales and distribution center in Karlsruhe, Germany. SAS has sales representation throughout the United States as well as offices in Puerto Rico and Portugal, but this new German facility is the first SAS-dedicated operation in Europe. The office opened on Oct. 23 and will provide sales and distribution of the more than 1000 components in SAS's EOAT line to the European market.

New service center established with focus on assisted-molding processes 
Cinpres Gas Injection Ltd. (CGI), the new company formed from the merger of Cinpres and Gas Injection, has established a design and technical service center in Middlewich, Cheshire England. The center will be wholly devoted to assisted-molding processes, including gas assist, external gas molding, plastic expulsion, Scorim, gas cooling, and water injection molding. 

The gas cooling program represents a joint effort between CGI and Warwick University (Coventry, England) to cool gas in the hopes of reducing cycle times. CGI will also perform marketing and consulting at the new facility for its latest advance, a plastic expulsion process, for which it is seeking a patent. This technology represents an alternative to other overflow or spillover methods. 

The new location will manufacture gas-assist molding equipment and offer sales and service for the technology. A team of technicians and engineers will remain at CGI's Tamworth, England facility to continue to provide technical services. 

The Cheshire plant's technical service center also offers two molding machines to apply all the process-assist technologies. CGI's newest United Kingdom operation joins existing sites in Michigan (U.S.) and Singapore.

Software developer tries to gain a foothold in Europe 
IQMS used the K Show as a springboard to launch sales of its ERP II software in Europe and facilitate the company's future expansion to the continent. IQMS developed the EnterpriseIQ ERP II program for the North American market and hopes the success it's seen in that region will carry over to Europe. The Paso Robles, CA management software developer had channeled European sales through its U.S. offices, but the company conducted partner interviews during the K Show as part of a plan to shift those responsibilities to the European mainland. IQMS hopes to consolidate all European support, sales, and consulting services into regional centers throughout Europe. The California software developer cited the sale of its ERP II software package to the Dutch molder Mikron BV Vianen as one European success story. Mikron's operations manager, Erwin Veldhuizen, said in a statement that the software, "not only met our demands, it helped speed up Mikron's QS9000 and ISO9002 certification." 

IQMS said it is hoping that glowing testimonials like that will spark greater European interest in the latest evolution of its enterprise resource planning software.