Mori Seiki set to acquire part of Sony measurement technology business

Businesswire reports that Mori Seiki has now signed a definitive agreement with Sony Corporation to acquire the measuring systems business of SMS (Magnescale, Laserscale and digital gauge). SMS is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Sony Corporation and, after the transaction, a new entity engaged in the measuring systems business divested from SMS is expected to become a wholly owned and consolidated subsidiary of Mori Seiki at the end of March 2010, subject to receipt of any necessary government approvals. As reported earlier by Machinery, Mori Seiki has reportedly been purchasing measuring equipment that uses magnetic technology ('Magnescale'), but following acquisition of Sony's measurement systems business will produce the technology in-house, aiming to improve the accuracy of its machine tools and reduce production costs. In addition, Mori Seiki is said to be planning to drive development of laser measuring technology (Laserscale), with a view to using it to establish a lead in ultra- precision machine tools. Laserscale enables pico-level measuring and has been adopted for position control in state-of-the-art ultra-precision processing equipment. Mori Seiki will also sell measurement technology to others.