As the 3D scanning market is set to expand over the next few years, the Swedish-based company Hexagon AB is preparing for the expected market boom with a new acquisition. Acting as one of the leading global providers of information technologies, Hexagon has just announced that they’ve acquired AICON 3D System, the Braunschweig, Germany-based optical and portable non-contact 3D measuring systems provider.
Founded in 1990, AICON has been assisting various industrial manufacturers in the automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, renewable energy, and mechanical engineering sectors with their 3D scanning and optical measurement systems. Aside from the AICON 3D scanning system, the company also offers TubeInspect, which allows for tube and wire measurement with optical gauge, and also their MoveInspect Technology, which provides modular portable Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM). Together, these services make AICON one of the top providers of optical 3D metrology technology.
“AICON is a recognised brand with strong core technical competence across its development teams and its scanner portfolio is a strategic fit,” said Ola Rollén, Hexagon’s President and CEO . “We also see opportunities for international expansion of AICON’s wider portfolio throughout Hexagon’s global footprint.”
AICON currently has 140 employees stretched out across Germany, as well as in their subsidiaries located in China, Korea, Japan, and the United States. With the new acquisiton by Hexagon, AICON hopes to provide their 3D scanning products to an even wider audience. “Joining Hexagon is a great opportunity to bring our first-class AICON scanner products to a wide range of customers worldwide,” commented Carl-Thomas Schneider and Werner Bösemann, the CEOs of AICON 3D Systems.
The German company will be fully consolidated by the end of April, and will join the ranks of the 16,000 employees in 46 countries that work for Hexagon. With the capital and wide-reaching recognition that Hexagon AB has, I expect AICON’s 3D scanning and optical 3D metrology technology systems to become even more powerful, affordable, and efficient in the near future.
