AEi AND 3-EDGE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP FOR EUROPEAN SALES AND SERVICE SUPPORT
3-EDGE TO SELL AND SUPPORT AEi's OPTOELECTRONIC AUTOMATION SYSTEMS IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE
Wilmington, MA / Munich, Germany - August 11, 2008 -- Automation Engineering Incorporated (AEi), a global supplier of high-precision flexible automation systems, will be partnering with 3-EDGE of Munich, Germany for European sales and service support of AEi?s automation systems for precision optoelectronics manufacturing. 3-EDGE will represent AEi?s CMAT stations for the alignment, assembly and test of camera modules as well as AEi?s PMAT stations for photonics device manufacturing across Europe with the exception of the United Kingdom.
According to AEi Chief Operating Officer, Justin Roe, "We selected 3-EDGE to provide local European sales and service support for CMAT and PMAT due to their extensive background in the automotive, telecommunications and medical device markets for these products. Not only will this allow us to provide our customers with an increased level of local technical support staff for worldwide service, it also provides our European customers with an experienced sales and service team that is capable of providing solutions to their manufacturing challenges," concluded Roe.
Formed through a management buy out from Macrotron Systems in 2002, 3-EDGE has established itself as a reliable partner for the telecom, datacom, photonic and micro optic industry. Headquartered in Aschheim near Munich 3-EDGE provides sales and service for their customers through additional branches in Berlin and South-West Germany. Prior to partnering with AEi, 3-EDGE sold earlier-generation competitive platforms for more than 5 years to the optoelectronics industry.
According to Bernd Neusigl, 3-EDGE Sales Manager, "We are very excited to be a part of AEi's growing business. AEi's philosophy of supporting R&D as well as production manufacturing operations on the same platform meets our customers? demands for high-precision, flexible automation systems that easily adapt to meet their manufacturing needs and translate into long-term cost savings," concluded Neusigl.
AEi's flexible automation systems use modular, interchangeable tooling and subsystems to support multiple manufacturing operations on the same platform. AEi's systems are powered by its highly capable automation control software that can be reconfigured without requiring traditional programming, and make extensive use of machine vision, active alignment and other flexible active sensing and instrumentation technologies. The flexibility of AEi's platforms to use the same or similar equipment for both R&D or product development ad well as for production operations greatly simplifies and streamlines the migration of new high technology products from initial development to full production ramp. Many of AEi's customers use one or more machines for R&D and product development in one facility and additional machines deployed across the plant or across the world. This approach gets new products to market much faster and more cost effectively compared to traditional approaches of using manual stations for R&D and product development and then taking many months to migrate the associated manufacturing processes to different production equipment.
About Automation Engineering Incorporated
Automation Engineering Incorporation (AEi) is a leading supplier of high-precision flexible automation systems across the optoelectronics, medical devices, consumer products, aerospace/defense, automotive, and other world-wide markets. AEi provides comprehensive design for manufacturing process development, and pre-production build services in addition to complete turn-key automated manufacturing stations and lines. For more information, visit AEi's website, www.aeiboston.com.
About 3-EDGE
3-EDGE GmbH is one of the leading distributors for fiberoptic test and photonic production equipment in central Europe. Relying on a long term experience in the industry 3-EDGE offers among its solutions for test- and measurement systems for optical transport and access networks a wide range of automated production and test systems for the micro optics and photonics industry. 3-EDGE is situated in Aschheim near Munich and has branch offices in Berlin and South-West Germany. For more information, visit 3-EDGE website, www.3-edge.de.