Telford firm Advanced Chemical Etching completes £350,000 investment drive in capacity boost

Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE), which is approaching its 25th anniversary in business later this year, has installed two additional single chamber Chemcut etching machines and a state-of-the-art UCE developer for creating quicker and cleaner imaging.

It means 325,000 sheets can be produced every year at its Hortonwood, Telford facility, a 30% boost in throughput and, importantly, gives it greater flexibility over product lines and increased accuracy.

Bosses at the company are already looking to boost its market share in electrification, aerospace, medical and filters, targeting expansion opportunities both at home and across the 30 countries it currently serves.

Chris Ball, Executive Director at Advanced Chemical Etching, commented: “There’s been so much global uncertainty outside of manufacturing’s control, but we’ve decided to press on with investment in new technology that makes us quicker and gives us scope to take on additional work.

“The two single chamber Chemcut etching machines mean we now have eight on our shopfloor and the developer is a massive upgrade on our previous equipment. These additions will be used on existing orders and new contracts we have in the pipeline, ranging from busbars for electrification to critical components for airplanes and titanium parts that are used to save lives.”

He continued: “At our peak last year we could probably process 1000 sheets every day. Now that figure is comfortably 1300, which gives us plenty of space to grow and increase revenues.”

Advanced Chemical Engineering, which holds ISO:9001, AS:9000 (aerospace) and ISO:14001 (environmental) quality accreditations, currently employs 70 people in Telford.

The scope of its activities is far and wide, seeing it produce anything from simple washers to highly complex precision components for a wide variety of applications, including battery interconnects, fuel cell bi-polar plates, battery grids, cooling plates and heating components.

All parts are developed and manufactured at its main site in Hortonwood and at the company’s dedicated sister business, ACE Forming Limited, in Kingswinford.

Ian Whateley, Managing Director, went on to add: “We are definitely seeing a lot more sectors looking to employ just-in-time supply, which means that we have to make sure the products we supply are right first time. In fact, we’re currently recording 99.97% RFT – way above the industry average.

“This is even more impressive when you consider we send parts to customers in 30 countries across the world, including Denmark, Luxembourg, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and the US.

“Etching is still not understood by a lot of manufacturing and a big drive for us is educating clients on how they can embrace this engineering discipline. In a lot of applications, we can deliver the same level of performance at a fraction of the cost.”