Part of a $2 million investment, Precision Micro believes it is now uniquely placed to meet the increasing global demand for next-generation energy technologies such as hydrogen production and storage, carbon capture, green energy buffering, electric and hydrogen electric vehicles.
“With carbon neutrality and net zero a crucial agenda item for many countries and businesses around the world, there is an ever-growing appetite for complex etched components used in the production, storage, recovery and transfer of green energy,” said Karl Hollis, Precision Micro’s director of engineering. “This includes components such as printed circuit heat exchangers, busbar battery interconnects, bipolar plates for fuel cells and electrolyzers used for hydrogen production. The increased volumes needed to meet this demand, however, often require much larger and thicker sheets of metal to be used; and, after many conversations with customers in the green energy sector, it became clear there was a gap in the market for a supplier that had the capacity and equipment to manufacture these components.”
The new etch room facility is home to six new etching and stripping machines, as well as an automatic exposure unit, which enables larger sheet metals up to 1500 mm x 600 mm x 2.5 mm in size to be etched in production volumes. In addition to increasing throughput and delivering cost savings to customers, the new equipment is also designed to minimize human interaction and manual handling, explained Hollis.
To support this investment, Precision Micro has also made further improvements to its chemical regeneration processes by introducing automated systems that will increase the overall effectiveness of the new machines.
“Larger sheets of metal require more chemistry and subsequently more waste management,” continued Hollis. “ESG is at the forefront of this investment with Precision Micro already regenerating or recycling 98% of its waste sitewide. We are hugely excited about this unique offering and looking forward to helping emerging sectors create the technologies required to make net zero a reality.”
