Polymer producer opens GBP 1.5 million centre

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 18, 2007

The Victrex Applied Technology Centre (VATC) at its primary production facility in Thornton Cleveleys in the UK provides customers with expertise and support in product development.

Victrex has opened a Victrex Applied Technology Centre (VATC) at its primary production facility in Thornton Cleveleys in the UK.

The new GBP 1.5 million, 900 m2 centre is an expansion of the company's product development facilities that will provide customers with 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 extensive 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 co-located at the Thornton Cleveleys site.

The GBP 5.3 million 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, state of the art injection moulding machines, with the capability to support customer trials on-site, as well as a suite of existing tooling for moulding experimental samples and test pieces.

Twenty dedicated product and application development experts work at the VATC producing new compounds of Victrex Peek to meet specific customer requirements.

The VATC also houses proprietary processing and testing equipment developed by Victrex to support customers with the development and commercialisation 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", said 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 commercialise new technologies for Victrex Peek polymer more rapidly than ever before".

The VATC is complementary to the Asia Innovation and Technology centre that the company opened in Shanghai last summer.

Both locations offer technical service and application support concentrating on the dominant market sectors.

The VATC has a focus on product development and most recently was responsible for the development and commercialisation of the ESD grades of Victrex Peek.

"At Victrex we relish the opportunity to work closely with our customers to help them create innovative and differentiated end-products".

"We are proud of our track record in this area, which saw us commercialise more than 500 new applications in the last year".

"In real terms, this means that our customers have been able to successfully introduce high-performance, high-quality products into their chosen markets, enhancing their competitive edge".

"The new VATC will provide unrivalled levels of support for our customers in the competitive automotive, electronics and semiconductor, industrial and oil and gas sectors".