This expansion will continue in 2018, with more staff members joining the 1st and 2nd line support team, to provide customer care, either by desktop support or at the customer facilities.

GapGun – its best-selling handheld laser measurement system – is now sold in 25 countries worldwide. This is thanks in no small part to the company’s global distributor network. Last year Third appointed new distributors in the UK, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea. It is seeking to expand this network in Northern Europe and other key international markets.

Third Dimension has strategically chosen to focus on key vertical markets, such as aerospace, automotive, energy and general manufacturing. It is supporting a buoyant metrology market with opportunity for growth in 2018 as manufacturers are continuously seeking to improve production and quality control processes. Third Dimension is perfectly aligned to support improved quality control through reduced inspection time, providing great accuracy and repeatability.

Last year the company won its second Queen’s Award for Enterprise - this time for Innovation. This follows its first Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category in 2015.

The company credits the record turnover to its business strategy, which, alongside its hard working staff and loyal customers, has helped turn the ISO 9001 certified company into a multi-million pound business.

Tim Monks, chief executive of Third Dimension, said: “It’s been a fantastic year. We are becoming more integrated into our customers’ manufacturing processes, and more companies are seeing the benefits for their quality control systems of reduced inspection times, perfect repeatability and accurate recording.

“This is driving the growth in the business, which itself enables us to improve our products and services through a substantial and robust R&D programme. So come along to stand 5130, hall 5 at Control and see for yourself the precision and ease of use of GapGun and its ancillary services.”

Built on the principle of laser triangulation, GapGun – the company’s non-contact precision measurement tool – is being used to control production quality in automotive, aerospace, turbine and energy industries worldwide by OEMs such as Airbus, Volkswagen, Lockheed, Mitsubishi and Bombardier.

Third Dimension will be demonstrating some cutting-edge applications of two products at this year’s Control, the International trade fair for quality assurance in Stuttgart, Germany.

The first, Vectro is specifically designed for automated use and replicates the advanced capabilities of GapGun enabling integration for use either robotically or as a fixtured installation for ultra-fast, high accuracy quality control systems.

Inspect, Third Dimension’s second new product, is a software tool that has been designed to flexibly analyse a component’s profile when used alongside the GapGun or Vectro. It’s quick and easy to use, with multi-section drag and drop tools to provide accurate and traceable digital inspection results, which shadowgraphs and contracer systems just can’t match.

Third Dimension will be exhibiting at Stand 5130, Hall 5 at Control.

www.third.com