Motion control supplier Heidenhain Corp. announced Mar. 6 that it’s acquired a new, Silicon Valley headquarters in Fremont, Calif. The 12,000-square-foot Manufacturing Innovation Hub will house a 6,000-square-foot demonstration lab and office space for the company’s regional sales and support staff. The facility will also be used by OEI/OEM partners seeking demonstration space in the Bay Area, and will encourage collaborative projects in machine tools, semiconductors and automation equipment.
“As a foundation company, we promote development of innovative applications in our core markets, and we apply our motion control technologies to emerging, high-growth application segments,” says David Doyle, president and CEO at Heidenhain. “We represent 10 brands in our corporate group, each with unique strengths. Our broad technology and product portfolio enables us to provide best-fit solutions to our customers for their application-specific needs.”
Doyle reports that Heidenhain has been restructuring its North American operations to redistribute its sales and support staff to improve proximity to its client base. This is the third expansion step in Silicon Valley over five years, and the new facility will enable hands-on demonstration and training capabilities, similar to those at its Heidenhain Technical Academies (HTA) in Traunreut, Germany and Schaumburg, Ill.
“We work closely with industry associations like SEMI, AMT and A3, and welcome their participation in this initiative, including invitations to their member companies,” explains Doyle. “Ultimately, in collaboration with industry partners, we seek an opportunity to expand our involvement in workforce development across the various industries we serve.”
Heidenhain was expected to open the new Fremont facility in March, and begin installation of equipment with its OEI/OEM partners. A ribbon cutting event will be held this spring, with a grand opening celebration to follow later in 2024.
“Expanding involvement with technical schools, development centers and universities is central to that objective,” adds Doyle. “We hope to educate and train the future industry workforce in the use of linear, rotary and angle encoder technology, control electronics technology and related system integration. Our CNC programming software and integrated digital manufacturing technology, sold in conjunction with our OEM partner systems to the machine tool industry, is critical for expanding five-axis machining applications and supporting a growing user-base at Silicon Valley companies, where precision and accuracy are in high demand.”
