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10 PROFILE<br />
Eastern investment<br />
With an absolute commitment to its<br />
customers in China and Asia, Victrex<br />
is determined to extend the<br />
impressive record of collaborative innovation<br />
achieved at its AITC (Asia Innovation &<br />
Technology Centre) in Shanghai, and the<br />
company is now investing US$1 million in a<br />
significant expansion of the Centre. This<br />
important financial injection will help<br />
accelerate innovation and enhance customers’<br />
ability to turn ideas into prototype parts for<br />
testing and evaluation, speeding time to<br />
market and vitally enhancing the design-tomass<br />
production workflow for advanced<br />
engineering design in China and Asia<br />
generally.<br />
Andrew Storm, general manager China,<br />
commented, “Investment to support our<br />
customers with PEEK expertise to accelerate<br />
their speed to market has always been key.<br />
Since the AITC opened in Shanghai in 2006,<br />
as a 2000-square-metre technical centre of<br />
excellence, the facility has undergone dynamic<br />
growth and development offering injection<br />
and compression moulding, thermoforming<br />
and analytical capabilities. With this current<br />
upgrade, we can now offer a 4-axis CNC<br />
machine for part prototyping, part and tool<br />
design advice and process validation, as well<br />
as supporting Additive Manufacturing<br />
capabilities, supporting innovation for process<br />
and material development for 3D printing.”<br />
This further commitment to the AITC will<br />
provide customers with facility for total<br />
solutions, from Material Selection to Part<br />
Prototyping, and beyond, with the capability<br />
for advice on part design and injection<br />
moulding tool design, as well as the capability<br />
for part FEA (finite element analysis) and<br />
additive manufacturing equipment. This will<br />
significantly reduce the lead time for<br />
prototype sampling while providing databased<br />
quality inspection before sampling and<br />
concept-proof decision-making prior to<br />
committing to large investments for the<br />
customers.<br />
The AITC has assisted in the development<br />
of solutions for the Automotive and Aerospace<br />
sectors - where the goal is to reduce<br />
emissions and weight while maintaining the<br />
equivalent strength of metals and offer<br />
enhanced performance. These benefits can<br />
lead to improved fuel efficiency and total<br />
system cost reduction for the end-user and is<br />
vital in a situation where China is driving the<br />
production of electric vehicles (EVs) and New-<br />
Energy Vehicles (NEVs), for which powertrain<br />
architecture and energy-efficiency is a crucial<br />
design factor.<br />
With a global shortage of silicon chips, then<br />
the hugely important field of semiconductor<br />
chip fabrication is also a key focus of the<br />
AITC, to offer solutions to help enable faster<br />
silicon chip manufacturer, more uptime of<br />
semi-con fabs, and enhance yield as the node<br />
size on chips reduces.<br />
Technology and capacity<br />
enhancement<br />
Absolutely central to the implementation of<br />
this latest operational upgrade is the addition<br />
of a 4-axis CNC machine, and part design<br />
and tool design capability, and Additive<br />
Manufacturing (AM) capabilities, with these<br />
hardware and software upgrades significantly<br />
enhancing the capabilities of the lab,<br />
particularly in terms of enabling component<br />
design freedom, prototyping, and CAD<br />
(computer aided design and engineering).<br />
AM is increasing in China, as both a means<br />
of efficient prototyping and as a new<br />
manufacturing technique. Xinhua recently<br />
reported that the country’s “major additive<br />
manufacturers reported a total operating<br />
revenue of 7.5 billion yuan (about 1.14 billion<br />
US dollars) in the first nine months of the<br />
year”. This figure was up 10.3% year-on-year,<br />
according to the Ministry of Industry and<br />
Information Technology.<br />
Added Storm, “Adding this impressive array<br />
of new hardware and software will drive a<br />
major capability expansion of the AITC<br />
Application Lab, allowing it to provide<br />
technical support for customers at a very early<br />
stage in the integrated processes that take<br />
innovative product concepts and move them<br />
into mass production. In this way,<br />
opportunities will be recognised and defined<br />
and then applied in a time-efficient and costeffective<br />
way, helping to accelerate time to<br />
market, which can be a significant advantage<br />
for customers.”<br />
<strong>Finishing</strong> - <strong>May</strong>/<strong>June</strong> <strong>2021</strong>
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