Obducat launches a 1 MUS$ investment program
Several of the industrial customers we have been working with during the past years are progressing into final evaluation phases. This also means that test batches of imprinted substrates are getting larger and evaluation criteria’s are also getting tighter.
In order to meet this growing demand an investment program in excess of 1 MUS$ has been launched during the fourth quarter. The investment program aims at expanding our in-house process capabilities for upstream- as well as downstream processing. This will enable us to increase overall efficiency in our stamp manufacturing and thereby shorten lead-time as this will become a critical key success factor once the existing customers will evolve into HVM (High Volume Manufacturing) mode.
The new state-of-the-art capabilities will also allow us to produce even more advanced stampers at the same time, as we will improve quality of the end product. Since confidentiality is a key parameter for many of our customers, the possibility to perform the entire processing chain for stamper manufacturing as well as imprint tests in-house, will also increase the actual security level for our customers.
As a result of the investment program new personnel has been and will be recruited aiming at increasing our capacity to support additional customer projects.
The Sales side of the organisation has been strengthening through actions such as signing MOU with Canon MJ for the Japanese market.
The first prototype of the HVM (High Volume Manufacturing) machine is also part of the investment program. The machine is being manufactured together with an OEM supplier and will be delivered just before the end of the year. Customer demos are expected to start during Q1/07.
The HVM machine will give us the possibility to demonstrate to the customers a fully automised and functional NIL solution which is well suited for industrial manufacturing. The throughput in the HVM machine will be the highest available on the market which means that Obducat once again confirms, both from a commercial as well as technical perspective, the market leading position in the NIL industry.
We are determined to strengthen our market leading position further and we are confident that the actions that we are taking now through the execution of the investment program will support this goal.
Patrik Lundström, CEO
