presses) and, for an associated technology, Ebner (which
supplies furnaces lines). ITL is in dialogue with other
press manufacturers, too, but is forming a limited
number of close partnerships in its early years and may
expand these as the accessible markets develop.
But partnerships wider than just equipment provision
are being pursued and these are all being developed via
a legally separate company, the HFQ Partner Network.
Partnerships within this take in leading aluminium
producers, engineering companies and equipment
manufacturers, all of whom have established links with
the target market and an interest in driving growth.
These include aluminium product producer/recycler
Novelis, aluminium producer Fischer (which also has its
own press integration partners), virtual prototype ESI and
other leading companies, details of which will be made
public during this year. The HFQ Partner Network has its
own board and committees, and it likely to reach 20
members during 2020. It will grow in a managed way
thereafter, ITL says.
AIMING FOR A GLOBAL STANDARD
Fundamentally, ITL says it wants HFQ to become a global
standard for all, to help aluminium become the high
strength lightweighting material of choice, and to offer
OEMs the ability to source HFQ parts from anywhere in
the world to a common standard. “Our work on the low
carbon aspects of aluminium shows there is also an
exciting future for recycled and repurposed aluminium,
far beyond that for steel and other high-strength
materials in use today,” says Watkins. “Companies are
nding out that repeatedly hot forming aluminium is
signi cantly different from and more challenging than
steel, and stepping up to volume production needs a
unique set of skills, IP and capability, such as that found
in ITL’s patented HFQ Technology.”
So ITL is working directly with OEMs to demonstrate
the opportunities for HFQ Technology, then linking the
OEMs with tier partners for volume supply. ITL has
applications and sales representatives covering Spain,
Germany, USA and China – as well as the proxy
LEAD FEATURE THE MAKING OF A UK SUCCESS STORY
representation via strategic partners. In the future, most
of the commercial and technical support will come from
trained HFQ-accredited partners.
Of the immediate local opportunity, the CEO says:
“There are design authorities in the UK covering some
manufacturers, the largest being JLR, but otherwise it is
mostly lower volume premium vehicles, which do serve
as very useful application case studies for the high
volume OEMs in Germany, USA and China. But some
large global OEMs use engineering companies within the
UK to carry out engineering of new body structures, so
the local reach extends further than one might think.”
But the ambition is global, as already stated, and that
is where the HFQ Partner Network comes in. “The largest
opportunity by far is outside the UK. That, coupled with
the capital constraints for manufacturing ventures in the
UK, means ITL has adopted a globally scalable business
model of licensing to a common standard – a form of
Left: A ‘D’ pillar,
front vertical
upper
Below: Another
example of a
pressing having
multiple
demanding
features
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