Surveying’s future is three-dimensional

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Philippe Akl, GM of equipment maker Topcon speaks about his firm's role in the region.

Can you tell us about your company?

Topcon Corporation is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of positioning equipment, eye care equipment and ‘Finetech' (which refers to components made for the IT industry).

Topcon owns and operates five R&D centers, seven manufacturing facilities in five countries, and 46 Sales & Marketing offices in 17 countries including Dubai. Topcon Dubai is a sales and marketing office in charge of the Middle East and African markets.

The Positioning unit offers global positioning systems (GPS), machine automation systems, survey instruments and lasers for construction, engineering, and surveying applications.

During the last decades, Topcon has brought many innovative solutions to the industry that offers the contractor significant productivity increase and greater ease of use. That's the key to leadership, and the reason Topcon is a world leading supplier of positioning instruments.

Go anywhere in the world and you'll find surveyors, engineers, contractors, geodesists, governments relying on Topcon instruments and systems to make sure the work they do is precise and under their control.

What is the importance of surveying equipment on a construction site?

Surveying continues to play an extremely important role in construction. It is required to plan, construct, and maintain almost any construction project whether it is a highway, railroad, building, bridge, tunnel, canal, sewerage system, pipeline, oil platform or others. The positioning equipments are the first to arrive to a construction site and the last to leave. The engineering surveying can affect seriously the overall project workflow, speed, efficiency and profitability.

I am happy to see that local construction companies, in particular in the GCC, started to recognize this reality. As a result, they are ready to pay a premium for seamless solutions that guarantee a genuine productivity boost. This market maturity encouraged us to extend our activities and offer, for the first time in the Middle East, advanced solutions like Machine Automation and 3D imaging and scanning systems.

What sets your surveying equipment apart from the rest?

What sets Topcon equipment apart from the rest will always be Topcon TM-1 policy. TM-1 means ‘Time to Market Number One' which drives the company to continually bring needed, world-leading products to market first.

Topcon is different because of its high focus on technology and true innovations. As mentioned earlier, during the few past years Topcon introduced "World's first" to the market more than anyone else. We saw recently GPT-7000i, mmGPS, and GR-3 as good examples of Topcon unique solutions.

What are the advances in technology in terms of surveying equipment can we look forward to in the future?

Mixing and matching different kinds of technologies to create new solutions will be the main criterion that will drive the future advances of our industry. Good examples on this blending of technologies that we saw recently from Topcon are GPT-7000i, Imaging Station IS and mmGPS.

Topcon Imaging Station is a robotic total station that offers the added productivity and versatility of integrated digital imaging, a world's first technology Topcon introduced in 2005 with its GPT-7000i total station.

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