The Coating Service Center set up by Impact Coatings in Shanghai has entered into operation, now supplying fuel cell customers in China with bipolar plate coatings produced in the country. The facility has an initial capacity to produce 1 million fuel cell plates annually, with the facility prepared to scale up volumes. The formal inauguration of the site will take place after the summer.
With a local coating partner specializing in hydrogen applications, Chinese fuel cell customers speed up coating qualification and production scaling. Domestic production also reduces costs, administration, and environmental impact related to international transportation of the fuel cell plates.
In April, Impact Coatings’ site in Shanghai saw arrival of its first INLINECOATER™ machine, optimized for fuel cell bipolar plate coatings. In addition to the coating line, the Coating Service Center includes a high-capacity cleaning line, quality control lab, logistics areas and office spaces – forming a complete production facility to serve customers in the region. After a run-in period of the production line and customer qualification procedures, the facility has now entered into operation.
The local organization, including a team of eleven led by Regional President Yaowen Wang, can now directly address customers’ demands in China. At the beginning of this year, several team members participated in education and training at the headquarters in Sweden. Knowledge exchange and training are key activities to eventually ramp up production, from 1-shift to multiple-shift operations. In addition, the facility offers the possibility of expanding coating machine capacity in the future.
The formal inauguration of the new Coating Service Center will take place after the summer, planned to bring customers, local officials, representatives from Swedish Consulate in Shanghai, and visitors from the Swedish headquarters together. Information of the exact date will be announced later on.
“After dedicated and intensive work, we have now started local production in China. With the facility in place and up and running we can help customers reduce risks, speed up the knowledge exchange, and respond faster to changing demands. Our presence and production capacity will be critical to meet the demands of the accelerating hydrogen market in China,” said Yaowen Wang, Regional President, China at Impact Coatings.
About Impact Coatings
Impact Coatings offers customer-focused coating services, clean coating technologies, and flexible coating systems with focus on hydrogen solutions, autonomous safety functions, and tailored coating solutions for high-end applications.
The company utilizes vacuum deposition methods – sustainable processes to apply thin layers of metal or ceramic coatings that improve performance and durability. Impact Coatings markets coating equipment under the trademark INLINECOATER™ and coating materials under the trademark MAXPHASE™. The company’s service models and systems are flexible and scalable to fit the fast-paced markets the company operates within.
The Impact Coatings share is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market (Nasdaq Nordic). The company’s Certified Adviser is Redeye AB.
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