The manufacturing plant at SMC Engineering’s head office in Auckland BEST OF THE BEST www.engineeringnews.co.nz 41 SHOTOVER CAMERA SYSTEMS Shotover Camera Systems designs and manufactures high-performance camera systems and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the broadcast, motion picture, surveillance and industrial survey markets. The company’s systems offer users an unprecedented level of stability, control and versatility in a compact package. Based in Queenstown, Shotover’s systems are relied upon by production companies and cinematographers globally. The systems can be mounted on helicopters, ground vehicles, watercraft and just about anything that moves. The Shotover product line includes the flagship Shotover K1, the lighter and more compact Shotover F1, and the world’s first professional and fully integrated unmanned aerial vehicle for cinema, the Shotover U1. The K1 and F1’s six-axis gyro stabilisation provides steadiness as well as direct look-down capability. The U1 sets a new standard for drone cinematography and imaging as the first solution to accommodate cinema quality cameras and lenses. The company gained rapid adoption in the filmmaking and broadcast production communities as a result of pioneering industry firsts. They include a fully modular system design SMC PNEUMATICS The story of SMC Pneumatics is one of two friends in Japan who started a business doing what they loved – engineering products. This business has grown to be a successful company, with close to 18,000 people in 81 countries. The company is driven by customer need. This value is espoused throughout the company and even today SMC president Yoshiki Takada - aged 87 - remains involved in the research and development of new products. This has resulted in renown for the company’s customer centric design and Japanese quality through local manufacturing, enabling SMC to provide customers with unmatched commercial support. These values have made SMC a world leader in pneumatics, with a market share of 36 percent. Subscribing to the Japanese philosophy known as ‘Kaizen’, the company goes beyond a standard offering to bring customers customised solutions. Today, 12,000 products in over 700,000 product variations exist as a result of three tailored solutions. First comes ‘standard products’ which have been designed and manufactured based on tried and tested solutions, then ‘simple specials’ which assist customers to meet their requirements without the exorbitant research and development costs that come with customisation, and finally the ‘X-factor’. The X-factor refers to special made-to- SUTTON TOOLS Sutton tools, renowned to date as the only manufacturer of precision cutting tools in New Zealand, has recently introduced CNC grinding machinery to its list of products in partnership with Australian machinery manufacturer ANCA. Its current project is an eight-axis CNC grinding machine for the manufacture of small drills up to four millimetres in diameter. The machine is capable of grinding a fluted, relieved and pointed drill roughly every 18 seconds, depending on size. At the other end of the scale, the largest machine in the range can flute and relief grind a two millimetre drill in 17 minutes from a solid morse taper shank blank. Examples of Sutton machines can be found in Australia, the US and China. With an eye on the environment, the company has built an oil recovery press for the recovery of cutting oil from grinding swarf. This enables the swarf to be recycled instead of dumped while at the same time dramatically reducing oil losses. Born of the need to update its own machinery base, the Kaiapoi-based company, previously known as Patience & Nicholson, began designing and manufacturing machine tools for its own use in 2005. in an ultra-light carbon fibre package that allows operators to easily utilise multiple camera and lens combinations in the course of a shoot. Additionally, Shotover systems are the first and only motion-picture grade aerial option with no International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions, enabling shipment around the world. order items. “If SMC can’t manufacture a product locally it puts a request through to its global manufacturing facilities,” says a company spokesperson. “A product is then designed and developed specifically for the customer at comparable and affordable prices.” SMC won Forbes Magazine’s ‘Most Innovative Company’ award for three years in a row.
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