Offshore staff
THORNTON CLEVELEYS, UK -- Victrex has opened a new applied technology center (VATC) at its primary production facility in Thornton Cleveleys, UK.
The new £1.5 million ($3 million), 900-sq m (9,687-sq ft) center is an expansion of the company's product development facilities. It will provide expertise and support in product development for key targeted industry sectors, such as automotive, electronics and semiconductor, industrial, and oil and gas. The facility will also provide material specification and testing services.
The VATC is the second major UK investment for Victrex this year. In May, the company opened a new film extrusion plant also located at the Thornton Cleveleys site. The £5.3 million ($10.7 million) film facility is the world's first high-volume film production facility dedicated to producing Victrex Peek film.
The new VATC houses extrusion and compounding equipment for new product development and injection molding machines, with the capability to support customer trials on-site, as well as a suite of existing tooling for molding experimental samples and test pieces. The VATC also houses proprietary processing and testing equipment developed by Victrex to support customers with the development and commercialization of the next generation of Victrex Peek applications.
"We are accelerating the expansion of markets for Victrex Peek polymer through new product and application development, customer technical service, and our commitment to product quality," says Dr. John Grasmeder, global technology manager of Victrex. "The VATC will enable us to work more closely with our customers and end users, to better understand their needs and commercialize new technologies for Victrex Peek polymer more rapidly than ever before."
The VATC is complementary to the Asia innovation and technology center that the company opened in Shanghai last summer.
7/8/2007
