NEWS
MOVINGON
Relocations and expansions across Europe
Element Six opens world’s most advanced Parvalux completes £1million factory investment synthetic diamond Innovation Centre
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lement Six, the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials, has opened the world’s largest and most sophisticated synthetic diamond research and development facility. The £20m Global Innovation Centre (GIC) at Harwell, near Oxford, employs over 100 scientists and technologists; the 5000m2 facility consolidates Element Six’s global innovation teams into one integrated centre. The centre will develop a pipeline of innovative synthetic diamond and related supermaterial products for customers, in industries from oil and gas drilling to precision machining and electronics. Across these markets and more, the new GIC will allow for the rapid development of customised material within abrasive and technology applications, which will enable extreme leaps in end-application performance and productivity. Visit: www.e6.com
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arvalux, the UK’s number one manufacturer of small geared motors, has recently invested £1M into a new production facility. In addition to its current 45,000 sq. ft. manufacturing capability, Parvalux has now expanded with a further 20,000 sq. ft. A new factory houses a state-of-the-art CNC capability that is complemented by new ultra-high precision CNC gear-cutting machines. With a flexible workforce of up to 240 skilled individuals, Parvalux is capable of producing 500,000 units annually. Visit: www.parvalux.com
MTU Aero Engines expands its facility in Poland
M Tratos builds new state-of-the-art testing facility
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pecialist cable manufacturer Tratos Cavi SpA has recently completed the construction of a Faraday Cage test site at the company’s headquarters in Pieve Santo Stefano, Italy. Measuring 24m x 16m and standing at 14m high, the new Faraday Cage enables Tratos to effectively administer AC Resonant Tests on site, allowing testing of up to 220kV of nominal voltage cables and up to 20km of medium voltage cable. The facility incorporates a new innovative locking system to ensure perfect shielding from any sort of external interference. Inside are sophisticated tools for testing and an adjustable high voltage reactor which, together with the exciter and the regulator, comprise the heart of the system. Visit: www.tratos.eu
KOCH H&K Industrieanlagen continues to expand
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OCH H&K Industrieanlagen, the rolling mill technology expert, has completed its move into a new building in Dillingen/ Saar. The reason for constructing the new building was the substantial growth of the company and the resulting increase in workforce.
20 Industry Europe
TU Aero Engines Polska, located in the Polish Aviation Valley, will add a new, 9200 square metre building, which will increase the area occupied by buildings by 50%. The total investment that will go into the project amounts to some €40 million. “The expansion of our Polish affiliate is part of MTU’s investment and growth strategy, very much in the same way as the new blisk production shop we built in Munich and the logistics center we set up in Hannover. With this move, we lay the foundation for the growing production and volume ramp-up for the geared turbofan programs,” explains Egon Behle, MTU Aero Engines AG’s CEO. At its plant in Poland, which boasts highly advanced production facilities, MTU manufactures engine components, such as turbine airfoils, for the PW1000G family of geared turbofan engines. It is also concentrating its module assembly activities for a variety of its commercial programs in Rzeszów. Visit: www.mtu.de
After two years in the previous building in Rehlingen – which KOCH H&K had moved into in 2011 – space became tight. Due to the very good order intake and the great number of projects around the world, the staff – which in the meantime has increased to 80 members ñ urgently needed more space. Next to the office building with a floor space of 3000m2, KOCH H&K now has an adjacent storage and
assembly area in which the plant components can be pre-assembled and tested. KOCH H&K is currently working on several large-scale projects. One of these which is nearing completion, is a finishing line for rails of more than 100m in length for the metallurgical combine EVRAZ ZSMK in Novokuznetsk/West Siberia. Visit: www.koch-hk.com
