R&D

For KME, a commitment to innovation means offering products and services which meet the customer’s requirements, support their need to create profitable products and also respond to the need for advanced technology on the part of the end user.

These objectives are reached via constant improvement of the surface and body of the product, its form and even its packaging as specified by the customer, by improvement in quality and reduced production costs.

Thanks to a better understanding of the behaviour of the product during and even at the end of its life cycle, KME is able to offer its customers ever better targeted service in the search for copper based solutions.

This also means the possibility of introducing new products and services, often developed in close collaboration with our principal customers and with the support of academic researchers.
In order to support the innovation programmes of our various business units with their great variety of projects, KME’s R&D is based on competency centres which cover every aspect of the product, from design to use.

The principal competency centres are concerned with alloys and microstructure, surface treatment, heat exchange, health and the environment, melting and casting, metal forming and material testing.

Every competency centre is supported by highly motivated international experts, who have access to the latest equipment and installations in their work. The instrumentation runs from pilot production lines to sophisticated test and control equipment.

The human and technological resources, while managed at the Group level, are located in KME’s two research centres: one in Germany (Osnabruck) and one in Italy (Fornaci di Barga).

Each research centre has its own specific mission, but the ongoing synergy between researchers from various backgrounds and their contacts with customers, Group plants and universities ensures the optimal development of common projects divided between our transnational R&D locations.