Giving precision its name

DEEP inside an industrial building in Kaki Bukit is a S$500,000 machine that is used just to drill microscopic holes in metal pieces - holes that even strands of hair are too large to go through.

"This is our second machine bought to drill a hole into a tool so the tool can suck up a chip," said Low Ming Wah, the energetic president and chief operating officer of precision engineering firm Micro-Mechanics.

The machine, he said, is proof that the company is willing to invest in capabilities that even the company's customers might not know about.

"We provide solutions and tools for them . . . it could just happen that a tool needs a smaller hole," he said.

The metal part, with holes this "superdrill" machine will make, is one of the mainboard-listed firm's many produ…