Group3 - leading the field

Group3 GM Doug Sturgin assembles one
of Group3's highly accurate magnetic probes.

After three decades in operation, Group3 Technology commands a leading position in a highly specialised global niche – one that’s worth around a quarter of a billion US dollars and growing. This is the magnetic field strength measurement sector, where its probes and control systems are renowned for their reliability and accuracy in a host of applications – medical, scientific and commercial.

Despite the global economic pressures of recent years, Group3, with just six staff at its West Auckland premises, has continued to trade profitably, thanks to a continued R&D focus.

As the market’s requirements have evolved, however, Group3 recently identified the need to bring on board specific resources in order to maintain and grow their position.

“Group3 has led the way in providing very accurate measurement systems but in the last five years market requirements have begun to change,” says Group3 General Manager Doug Sturgin. “Back then the market wanted our probes to be able to operate in the 3-5 Tesla range, today they want 10-12T.”

In 2009, Group3 was a finalist in IRL’s What’s Your Problem New Zealand? competition, out of which a relationship with the Crown Research Institute has grown. “To be one of the final ten was a significant achievement, given the calibre of entrants,” Sturgin says.

Then in April 2010, a majority shareholding in Group3 was acquired by the Gallagher Group, a high-profile, successful New Zealand firm that recognised the high-growth potential in Group3 and that has also worked closely with IRL over the years.

Group3’s R&D focus is very much driven by customer demand, Sturgin says. “We need to be able to measure high field strength at cryogenic temperatures.”

Group3’s flagship products are the Digital Teslameter, used during the manufacture of particle accelerator magnet systems, and the Hall probe – a partner product of the Digital Teslameter. Hall probes vary from high sensitivity to fixed range and super miniature specifications, depending on user requirements.

New developments in magnet technologies and applications demand higher performance and a wider range of measurement capabilities from Group3’s instrumentation. With the commercialisation of low temperature superconducting magnet systems comes higher field intensities from 5T upwards. As these systems become more commonplace, Group3 needs to meet and exceed these growing requirements.

“Our focus is to develop a new range of probes that can be used at higher field strengths and under very adverse conditions,” Sturgin says. “Trying to find a material that can be used at low temperature and high field strength is new territory for us and IRL.”

Much of Group3’s R&D goes into the materials analysis stage, as well as redeveloping their products’ electronics, Sturgin says.

Group3’s other main focus is control systems that can operate in high-voltage environments, such as research accelerators, where its products are crucial for the alignment of high-energy beams. Customers include such prestigious high-end international scientific and academic institutions as CERN (where the Large Hadron Collider is located), and Fermilab in the US.

Other areas where Group3 is leading the way include medicine, where their control systems are used in a cancer treatment called proton therapy, as well as in apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI^[?]).

Closer to home, its commercial work includes the testing of brushless motors in F&P’s washing machines, as well as magnetic mapping for IRL spin-off company HTS-110^[?].

Sturgin expects that by collaborating with IRL, Group3’s earnings will grow tenfold over the next five years.

Sturgin describes Group3 as a “very heavily high-value-added, export-oriented” business, with 99.6 per cent of its products exported.

According to IRL Industry Engagement account manager Jonathan Miller, “Group3 is a great example of a small high-tech manufacturing company successfully using R&D to underpin their export strategy. Their strong international brand is built on reliability and accuracy and IRL is delighted to be building a partnership with them.”