Advanced Chemical Etching (A.C.E), which is located on Hortonwood in Telford, has seen sales soar by 20% over the last 12 months, with new contracts secured across the aerospace, F1 and automotive sectors.
The firm’s ACmE and TiME processes have generated significant demand from a global customer base that is committed to sourcing lightweight components. The growth has necessitated the need for 15 new jobs and there could be more recruitment plans on the horizon if plans to hit £8 million by 2020 are realised.
Explains MD Ian Whateley: “When etching aluminium it generates its own heat, causing the standard etching solution to go out of control, our ACmE process negates this by allowing more machine etching time instead of waiting for the solution to cool down back into controllable limits.
“TiME is similar and much safer than the conventional HF/Nitric mix and results in very clean etched profiles. The ability to develop these new technologies has seen us add hundreds of new clients to our books and we are looking to capitalise on this by continued investment in new machinery and capacity.”
He continues: “Our expertise is going all over the world too. Current export levels are at 30%, but with the increase in demand for titanium medical parts supplied into Europe and USA, we are expecting this to be closer to 50% by 2020.”
