Taking centre stage at WorldSkills 2017: Mitutoyo as a leading sponsor

Four days of competing, many hours of hard work and a good measure of hoping and excitement lay behind the participants of the WorldSkills 2017 in Abu Dhabi – the largest and most prestigious competition of its kind in the world. Talented young competitors from all around the world have made vast efforts in the running for a medal. The winners were unveiled at the Closing Ceremony at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on Thursday, October 19.

Over four days, around 1,300 competitors from 60 WorldSkills member countries and regions have showcased their abilities in 51 categories under six overarching skills sectors, in the 44th WorldSkills Competition, simultaneously the first one held in the Middle East.

As a leading sponsor, Mitutoyo provided premium measuring instruments for no less than 15 competitions – almost a third of all. Approximately 1,800 items – amongst them calipers, micrometres, indicators and magnetic stands, depth measuring devices, height gages, granite plates and stands, angle plates and many more. "For me, the Mitutoyo instruments are among the best devices I have ever worked with", says Jacob Parker from England who competed in the Manufacturing Team Challenge. The 21-year-old uses Mitutoyo measuring instruments in his job on a daily basis.

However, Mitutoyo played another vital role for seven of the competitions: The experts measured the workpieces manufactured by the young talents with highly precise Crysta-Apex S coordinate measuring machines, SJ-410 surface roughness testers, an ultra-modern QuickImage vision measuring instrument as well as the latest LH-600 height gauge. This measuring task was essential for the judging experts in order to assess the competitors' work.

All those who were interested in Mitutoyo's technology had the chance to check out some of the finest measuring equipment throughout the world – at the stand right in the center of the Manufacturing and Engineering Technology sector. Especially the Augmented Reality application that the Mitutoyo staff showed turned out to be a great crowd puller. On an iPad display the visitor could look at an airplane, a car or a park scene and – upon a simple click – find out which components are measured with Mitutoyo instruments.