Advanced Chemical Etching makes an impression on 2...

Shropshire firm, Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) has made a strong start to the year by securing new business worth almost £2m.

Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) has seen a host of new customers tap in to the firm’s expertise in precision engineering and prototyping. Demand for the services of the Shropshire-based firm has grown by 20% over the past four months, with significant growth coming from organisations looking for busbars and components for battery management systems.

The company believes that in these two sectors alone there is enough potential to generate £1.8m in sales between now and 2019 as more manufacturers begin to see the benefits of the process. ACE has already boosted its technical team by 30%, alongside increasing capacity through new capital equipment.

Managing director of Advanced Chemical Etching, Ian Whateley explained:“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 in Telford. ‘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 ten they choose this method of manufacture.”

He continued: “It’s not difficult to see why either. We can produce fast, accurate prototypes that are far more cost effective than traditional production and we also have the capacity to manufacture these in low to medium volumes.

“We even have some examples where new customers have changed to etching because the current production method is not working for them. Some are standard type materials; others are more exotic, such as using Titanium.”

Advanced Chemical Etching develops and manufactures all components at its 25,000 sq ft facility in Telford and at its sister business ACE Forming in Kingswinford. Thanks to the investments the firm has made in machinery, along with cutting-edge measuring equipment and a dedicated laboratory, the firm can produce parts in stainless steel; nickel alloys; copper; beryllium copper; phosphor bronze; brass and, thanks to groundbreaking new processes, aluminium, molybdenum, nitinol and elgiloy.

The company produces parts ranging from critical component for aircrafts and high performance F1 parts to frames for designer glasses and everything in between.