Plastics producer Luxus, has invested £600,000 in a new laboratory expected to be completed by December 2012.
The new laboratory will equip Luxus with the facilities it needs to develop of high performance thermoplastic polymers with a high recycled content, primarily for global automotive industry needs. Three R&D jobs will be created as a result.
Luxus, which supplies Nissan, Ford, Jaguar, BMW and Renault, managed to arrange £6m in lending as a regional winner of the HSBC ‘Business Thinking’ award in 2011.
Sales currently stand at £21m but the company hopes that this will increase by extending its reach into Asia and Europe.
Luxus’ managing director, Peter Atterby, explained that the lab will make a significant contribution to its growth in the coming years. “Our team will be housed in a new facility that will enable them to continue to undertake thermoplastic polymer testing, development and analysis research.”
He added: “Our manufacturing processes will also improve as it will no longer be necessary to take out a production machine to run our on-going development work, such making polymer alloys compatible and creating of recycled polymers with a high scratch resistance also demanded by auto manufacturers.”
The company are making improvements in compound design through a new European collaboration project that focuses on the technical aspects of recycled polymers in car interiors. This has recently led to the development of a new lightweight polymer called Hycolene that reduces interior component weight to enable manufacturers meet tough CO2 targets.
The polymer producer will use the laboratory to continue its research into sustainable materials that are able to withstand extremes in temperature and UV exposure with The Green Tile Company, a manufacturer of the Envirotile, which is made from recycled polymers for the construction industry.
