Atotech Canada’s new TechCenter has expanded, state of the art testing and lab facilities that provi

Construction is nearing completion at Atotech Canada Ltd. on their new Technical Center for Corrosion Resistant Coatings (CRC). The Canadian “TechCenter” is one of 11 worldwide and the first to open in North America. It will be followed by a sister facility in the U.S. that will open at a later date. The new installation is aimed primarily at serving the automotive industry, but will also be useful to the electronics industry and other sectors. The TechCenter has been added to the Canadian Head Offices location at 1180 Corporate Drive in Burlington, Ontario and will have its “Grand Opening” on September 3rd of 2008. 

The TechCenter is a 2 storey structure occupying 7500 square feet (697 square meters) and includes a “state of the art” plating line for testing different zincs, zinc alloys, passivates, sealers and other CRC applications in a real world scenario. Both rack and barrel plating application methods can be replicated. “The new plating line will let us provide custom plating samples, simulate production runs and evaluate new processes and chemistries while also allowing us to study plating capabilities, process optimization and troubleshoot problems in an in-house, controlled environment. 

The TechCentre will also serve as a training facility for our own employees, our tier 1,2 & 3 customers and our potential customers”, said Atotech Canada Managing Director, Mr. Gene Torcoletti. The new building houses the latest testing equipment and control chambers for neutral salt spray testing, cyclic testing, torque, tension and thickness testing (both XRF and eddy current methods) and a host of other analytical procedures. The new, integral Material Science Laboratory has advanced microscopy and SEM/EDX equipment to study metallography and plating properties such as elongation, ductility and thickness, along with Hull Cell test facilities for the evaluation of bath & chemistry properties. “We’ll now be able to provide customers with unparalleled quality control and analytical services and do it all right here. We’re very proud to be able to make this major, multi-million dollar investment in the North American manufacturing sector”, added Mr. Torcoletti