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R&D PATENTS
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Industry R&D ... and patents This feature presents thoughts from six manufacturers about their R&D, a piece on another company that is the clear leader in terms of volume of patents, two sidebars on R&D, and elsewhere, an “Industry Insight” presentation that focuses on R&D, an abbreviated technical report and advice from WJI’s patent columnist.
R&D: a commitment for companies that want to be leaders WJI: Technology has advanced greatly, but has the nature and role of R&D changed? The essence of R&D has not changed. It is always in pursuit of new materials and production methods. If either is lacking, it cannot be called R&D in the manufacturing industry. Essex Furukawa is always looking for change, and it is not isolated to production. Our staff and engineers work with customers to Mesaki develop the best solutions and to get closer to the goal. This means that we need to change ourselves as well. We do that by taking actions to quickly grasp what the market is demanding and materialize it. Masakazu (Mike) Mesaki, senior vice president, global R&D, Essex Furukawa Magnet Wire.. The fundamental principles of R&D are still the same: to gain a competitive advantage through a new product, service or efficiency. How you implement R&D is where it has possibly changed the most. There does seem more of an appetite from modern manufacturers to invest in this area, and this will only increase as markets and competition become more stringent and difficult to compete in. It has been part of the Alloy Wire International’s DNA for 77 years and will continue to form the bedrock of what
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we do, as it separates us from other wire providers across the globe. Angus Hogarth, R&D director, Alloy Wire International. It is my opinion that the expected speed of R&D is what has changed. With technology advances, materials R&D is also expected to iterate more quickly. For us, this means investing in integration of R&D from metals modeling to formulation, casting, wire processing and testing to shorten iterative customer adoption cycles. Jeremy Schaffer, director of R&D, Fort Wayne Metals. R&D’s role is driven by customer centricity and always focused on innovation: providing efficient solutions and technologies to create new products and services while considering costs, environmental impact, and value add. As we refine our R&D processes, we’re innovating to develop new cables and materials, and innovating the factors that technology has advanced over the years, such as intelligent products, sustainability, carbon footprint reduction, and circularity. Valeria Garcia, R&D vice president, Prysmian Group North America. We have seen important changes. Many years ago, large corporations would have R&D facilities doing pure research or product research and then seeing how the new inventions could be used. This has evolved to companies finding a problem a customer or potential customer has, and then finding a solution for it. The former process
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caused commercialization to take a long time since you had to find a fit for the invention and even convince the market of its efficacy. The newer approach can mean more rapid adoption. Edward P. Goettl, chief revenue officer, Optimus Steel, LLC. The essence of R&D has remained the same, but what has changed are the tools we can use in order to develop new products (e.g., prototype modeling) as well as the greatly increased amount of information available at our fingertips to make better decisions. Hitachi North America.
WJI: How does your company approach R&D? How does it choose which projects to pursue? Our mission is to better understand the materials we work with and recommend, to make a bigger impact, in close partnership with our customers in the business of saving lives. We don’t make medical devices, rather, we give them tools by producing the backbone metallic structures
See related editorial items • p. 21 - Patents: Atty. Bill Honaker Column • p. 48 - Industry Insights: AAAS R&D Report • p. 56 - Technical Report: Fort Wayne Metals (think titanium, CoNiCr superalloys, shape memory alloys like nitinol, and even new “vitamin metals” composed of elements already in your body like magnesium, zinc, and calcium). First, we strive to listen well to our customers’ application needs, and then we produce wire subcomponents to meet those needs. This R&D typically leads to incremental evolution to a next best material (and device). Second, we do our homework, researching clinical device performance gaps, and conducting fundamental research that leads to new alloys, composites, processes, and forms that may disrupt the current generation, meeting next longer-term needs. This disruptive R&D is often published, either in journals and/or patented, as part of the push
Company creates R&D ‘think tank’ to focus on future success Asked to take part in the feature, Germany’s Leoni AG chose to showcase the company’s recently opened Innovation Industrialization Center (IIC) at its Wiring Systems Division’s headquarters, where it has created a focused center for R&D efforts for automotive wiring. the advances made there In terms of technical by the zonal architecture advances for Leoni AG, should help Leoni not only a key focus now is on a continue to connect the “think tank” initiative in the growing number of sensors German town of Kitzingen and applications in the car that will have a special in a fail-safe manner, but to role going forward for the set up standardized and thus company’s R&D. Some more productive and stable 15 employees (researchproduction processes. ers, engineers and producThe IIC will help Leoni’s tion specialists) will form capabilities as it continthe permanent core team ues to transform towards An interior view of Leoni AG’s new IIC in Kitzingen, Germany. of the new Innovation alternative drive systems Industrialization Center and autonomous driving (IIC), which is located at the every day. If he or she is one of our that raise the demands on the wiring Wiring Systems Division’s headquarexperts for a particular project, he or system as the car’s nervous system. ters. They will be supplemented by she sits down here in the IIC with his “It is a matter of controlling ever cross-site and cross-functional projor her colleagues from other countries more functions and data – in ever less ect teams of various sizes as well as to define the new standard as a team, space and with ever less weight. A external collaborations with customfor example.” key response of Leoni’s developers is ers, suppliers and universities. Leoni will continue R&D work to have smaller-scale but intelligently “The IIC works with all sites in the at other locations—including at connected wiring systems in the vehiLeoni world,” said Leoni COO Ingo its second major R&D Center, in cle instead of the usual one central Spengler. “The know-how is in the Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France— cable harness.” plants. For example, the technician in but the IIC has a special design The IIC will further this work. Egypt who works on the store floor and function. Spengler said that W W W. W I R E N E T. O R G
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