Local design leads the way

By ELLEN READ

An electronic monitor developed by Auckland company Accurate Measurement could result in cleaner water from treatment plants here and abroad.

Owned by Brett Hellier and Tim Edney, the company was established in 1994 in response to the 1992 Resource Management Act, which created a need for water and wastewater treatment services.

The company started importing streaming current monitors - equipment for detecting particles in water before treatment - but was not happy with the products so decided to develop its own equipment.

Several years later and with help from Technology New Zealand and the Foundation of Research, Science and Technology, the water-monitor unit was launched.

"The monitor automatically senses the amount of dirt in water by the positive or negative charges of the particles. It alters the [chemical] dosage accordingly and the chemicals cling to the dirt and carry them away," said Hellier, also a director.

"The idea is to get no dirt."

The sensor is part of a stainless steel box that includes electronics and a computer. It is fitted to a water treatment plant's pipe to monitor the water passing through.

"We're unique because we specialise in this area," Hellier said.

All the research and development is done in-house, as are the electronics for the water testers. The casting of the units is outsourced to another Auckland company.

The unit is the fifth version and Hellier said the company updated equipment for customers who had the early versions.

With growth funded entirely from cash flow, the company is in the enviable position of having no debt - something Hellier said was a conscious decision.

"We've managed and restricted growth so we have no external debt. That's a good position to be in."

Private investment capital has been lined up for when the company needs to expand further.

"Banks can be aggressive and try to control you so we have avoided that," Hellier said.

An early frustration was not being accepted by the local market, which thought the technology could not be developed and produced in New Zealand. "People thought they needed to go offshore so we had to explain to them that we could do it just as well, if not better, from here," he said.

Accurate Measurement's competitors are larger, overseas companies which also make other products.

Hellier said New Zealand was a leader in the area of food technology - another application for Accurate Measurement's products - driven by the dairy industry.

The company had not patented its technology because the chances of anyone being able to copy it were slim. The mechanics could be copied but the electronics technology - which has 14,000 lines of programming - is designed to wipe itself if someone tries to copy it.

The company is selling one or two units a week but hopes to increase this to 10 a week within a year.

While Hellier and Edney are expecting to expand their site and increase staff numbers, Hellier said they were committed to staying based in Penrose.

For the past 18 months the company has been exporting to Australia (where it has five staff), Asia and South America.

Exports now make up 15 per cent of business but Hellier said that would overtake domestic sales in coming years.

They decided they needed a partnership model for Europe and the US so have just dispatched a unit to the world's largest instrument supplier, Hach, based in the US.

Hach asked Accurate Measurement to send the unit for evaluation late last year, but Hellier said it had taken until now to get the technology right.