Digimass

Upper Austrian craft enterprise developed a digital tape measure

Transferring hand-drawn sketches to planning software is a major source of errors. However, help is now at hand thanks to a new development created by the businessmen Christian Mayr and Walter Schweiger from Wartberg an der Krems: a digital tape measure with which measurements can be fed into the CAD planning program and any subsequent programs at the touch of a button.

It all began about three years ago when Christian Mayr took over his parents’ tile laying business in Wartberg. He systematically examined every step in all the processes the business involves. He noticed that transferring hand-drawn sketches to the planning software was fraught with errors. He mentioned this to Walter Schweiger, a friend and carpenter, and discovered that Schweiger was experiencing similar difficulties too.

It started with an innovative measuring system

Quickly, the pair developed a vision: a digital tape measure that should enable the measurements to be fed into the CAD planning program and any subsequent programs at the touch of a button. As soon as they had had the idea they set about putting it into practice: They first developed a patented measuring system, entering it in the regional ideas competition “business pro austria” run by the Technologiezentrum Kirchdorf which they promptly won.

From a funded project to the finished product

With the support of the Technologiezentrum Kirchdorf and the IT Cluster of the Upper Austrian business agency Business Upper Austria the idea became first a funded project and then a complex hardware and software solution which is now no longer limited to merely transferring measurements by Bluetooth, but encompasses the entire quoting and ordering procedure as well as manufacture. Tasks specific to the two branches (such as joint divisions, edge design, site measuring etc.) are performed automatically.

The next step in the process, namely full automation of cutting and warehousing, is also imminent.