Member Article

TiME is right for ACE at Medtec Europe

An innovative new process for etching titanium is set to make its first appearance at Medtec Europe next week (April 12th-14th).

Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE), which offers precision metal components, prototyping and low volume products, is expecting huge interest in its advanced technology that allows manufacturers to safely produce medical components in Titanium and Nitinol.

Titanium Molecular Etching (TiME) offers unrivalled precision along with repeatable quality and a number of products manufactured this way – including stent technology and bionic parts – will be showcased on Stand 3G28.

The Shropshire-based company has just completed a substantial expansion programme that has seen the factory footprint more than double and the installation of new etching lines to cater for new TiME related work.

“I believe we offer some something different at ACE and something that the medical sector wants to buy,” explained Chris Ball, Engineering Director.

He continued: “After a successful exhibition at Medtec Ireland last year, we decided to attend the Stuttgart event for the first time. It’s a big investment, but one we anticipate will pay dividends, with £300,000 of new business due to be signed off as well as the opportunity to make new contacts aware of our titanium etching technology.”

On hand at the exhibition will be Hans Maier (local technical representative) plus Alan Rollason (Chairman) and Gary Marriott (Technical Sales Manager).

Between them they have over 75 years’ experience in the chemical etching industry and will be available to discuss complex manufacturing issues around new product development.

Ian Whateley, Managing Director, went on to add: “2015 was a great year for the company, with sales up over 20% and the creation of 12 new jobs.

“We intend to build still further in 2016 and the medical technology sector will be a key area for us achieving our objective of hitting £5m turnover.”

Parts are developed and manufactured at ACE’s site in Telford or at the company’s dedicated sister business ACE Forming Limited in Kingswinford.

The firm’s scope of activities is far and wide and includes everything from safety critical components for aircraft and high performance parts for F1, to lead frames for the semiconductor industry and spectacle frames for designer glasses.

Ian concluded: “With the latest production machines, a dedicated research laboratory and the very best state-of-the-art measuring capability, we can ensure high quality components in most metals including stainless steel, nickel alloys, copper, beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, brass and, thanks to ground breaking new processes, aluminium, nitinol and elgiloy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .