Arabian Metering Company (AMC) projects a near doubling of revenues this year on top of good performances in the previous two years with demand for KWH meters increasing almost 15 per cent annually.

Revenues of $5.5 million are expected by the end of this year compared with $2.8 million in 2000 and $600,000 in the previous year, said AMC area manager Aref Al Faraj.

The company, owned 49 per cent by BVI, a holding company of British Virgin Islands-registered Schlumberger industries, and 51 per cent by Saudi-registered Al Markaz for Trade and Industry, was established with a maximum capital of SR10,000 to manufacture single-phase and polyphase electricity meters.

The product range comprises three-phase four-wire KWH meters including directly connected C114 ones with capacities 15/60A, 20/100A and 40/160A, transformer-connected C116 meters with 1A, 5A and 10A capacities and special meters (three-phase three-wire) that can be manufactured on request.

AMC, based in Al Khobar, also provides meter-testing services for private contractors. Maximum annual capacity is 110,000 meters with two shifts. The production area, covering 450 sq m, houses the assembly and packaging lines and the testing facility.

The assembly line has equipment for pre-assembly, the driving system, the final assembly, rotor moulding and nameplate printing. The testing facility is composed mainly of a fully automatic computer-controlled test bench of capacity 20 meters, a fully automatic hardware-controlled test bench of capacity 54 meters and a pre-calibration test bench for one meter.

Other facilities include a 500sq m storage area, which is used to receive and store raw materials with part of it used to store finished goods awaiting shipment to customers. Meters are manufactured to orders and not stocked in large quantities.

"Production, storage and quality control are applied as per Schlumberger manufacturing guidelines and procedures, these applying to the assembly line as well as to the testing and calibration part of the manufacturing process," said Al Faraj.

The raw material involved in production is basically copper, iron casting metals, bakelite and packaging materials. Except for the packaging, which is procured locally, all the raw material is imported from Germany.

The copper is used in the formation of current coils and iron in the formation of voltage coil. Casting is used on the rotor and main frame of the meter while bakelite is used as the base and cover of the meter.