Uk plastics innovation supported

Faraday Plastics reports recent strong successes in getting plastics and rubber product innovation off the ground in the West Midlands area of the UK.

Faraday Plastics, the UK's leading resource and coordinator for polymer-based research, reports recent strong successes in getting plastics and rubber product innovation off the ground in the West Midlands area of the UK.

Vale Brothers, based in Walsall, are a Small to Medium sized Enterprise, producing a range of equestrian products, mainly brushes and grooming products, whips and reins.

The company recently saw a need to use plastics to refresh and drive its product range forward - in the use of texture and colour.

Plastics West Midlands first assisted with the original concept of introducing soft grip areas to a new Vale Brothers brush range and potential manufacturing routes.

And when the question of plastics expertise arose Faraday Plastics got involved.

The initial tasks involved design assistance and rapid prototyping of specific items within the Vale Brothers range.

These prototypes were then used at exhibitions and other forums to gain feedback and levels of market interest.

As a result of the development work, Vale Brothers decided that they needed major expansion of their production capability.

With further direct input from Faraday Plastics, Vale Brothers was then able to take this research and feasibility work into full scale production.

In particular, Faraday Plastics was able to raise further funds for the company by providing expert proposal writing assistance and guidance.

As a result Vale Brothers is now receiving financial support from Advantage West Midlands under the Selective Finance or Investment (SFI) fund.

This injection of investment will now enable Vale Brother to increase its regular production output by 300%.

The company now produces up to 3,000 brushes a day.

And thanks to the innovations provided in the polymer and polymer colouring field the company's product range will also increase and be more comprehensive - with a greater range of brush colours and bristle designs.

Dr Umar Daraz, technology translator with Faraday Plastics, dedicates much of his time to providing a link with SMEs who have benefited from initial Plastics West Midlands (PWM) project support and who are keen to take their development further in a much more substantial way.

"We can actually help in a number of ways," says Dr Daraz.

"In addition to providing direct expert support, through techniques such as Technology Road Mapping, we have also developed skills in helping companies to construct proposals which can generate additional sources of funding for them.

Vale Brothers is a good example of this and we have now helped around 10 companies in the region in this way, accessing a number of different support funding schemes.

We are also working now with companies to help them develop Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) proposals, which would provide them with a qualified post-graduate working in their business on a specific project or product development." Faraday Plastics was recently moved into a DTI Knowledge Transfer Network for Materials.

The new Knowledge Transfer Networks will build on the successful Faraday model, which has been key in encouraging industry and academia to work together to bring new products and processes to the market.

Faraday Plastics director Richard Simpson says: "This renewal of our remit within the new KTN structure is very exciting news for UK plastics.

It will be particularly useful to those companies who realise that research and development is the key to the future of their manufacturing.

The Faraday Plastics pledge of support - technical, facilitating and financial - for innovators in the industry remains the same and we shall now use our new funding and new networks to push further forward into the plastics manufacturing community, creating more commercial opportunities for new plastics-based ideas and products.".

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