Midlands manufacturer targets £2m revenue boost as orders grow 20%

Advanced Chemical Etchings

INCREASING demand for electrical switchboard and battery management components could provide a Midlands manufacturer with a near £2m revenue boost.

Shropshire-based Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) is already picking up orders from new customers looking to tap into its expertise in precision engineering and prototyping.

Demand for the firm’s ‘etching’ service has grown by 20% during the last four months, with strong interest from companies looking for busbars and components for battery management systems.

Bosses at the firm believe the two sectors alone have the potential to generate up to £1.8m of sales between now and 2019 as more and more manufacturers begin to understand the benefits of a process that is fast, accurate and cost effective.

It has already funded new capital equipment to increase capacity and has also boosted its technical team by 30%.

Ian Whateley, ACE managing director, said: “Thermal management is one of industry’s most popular topics as we look to extend battery life and get more performance out of smaller components.

“This lends itself perfectly to what we do. ‘Etching’ is often a new process for these customers, but once we have sat down with them, given them a glimpse of what it can do, nine times out of 10 they choose this method of manufacture.”

He said the firm had the ability to produce fast, accurate prototypes that were far more cost effective than traditional production. The firm also has the capacity to manufacture these in low to medium volumes.

ACE develops and manufactures all components at its 25,000 sq ft facility in Telford and at its sister business ACE Forming in Kingswinford.

Using latest production machinery, a dedicated laboratory and state-of-the-art measuring capability ensures it can produce parts in materials, including stainless steel, nickel alloys, copper, beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, brass and, thanks to groundbreaking new processes, aluminium, molybdenum, nitinol and elgiloy.

The breadth of the company’s work extends to 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.  

“2016 was been a good year for us, with sales up 25% despite the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit vote,” added director Chris Ball.

“We are just shy of £5m turnover now, but feel it is just a matter of time before we reach that in 2017, with the pipeline for orders growing and renewed interest in next generation products for automotive and aerospace.”

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