Investment in new technology company

14 February 2013

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations invests £0.5m in new company, Impression Technologies

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), a leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has invested £0.5m in Impression Technologies, an aluminium forming technology business based on intellectual property developed at Imperial College London. The new funds will be used to support the development of its aluminium forming process, manufacture demonstration parts and develop a technical and commercial team.

The world's automotive and transport industries will have to make a step change in their use of aluminium if they are to meet the environmental challenges of reducing energy consumption and carbon emission targets. Aluminium is difficult to form into complex shapes due to its limited ductility. Current technologies cannot meet the challenges faced in producing sophisticated shapes and structures for high volume applications cost effectively.

Professor Lin of Imperial College London and Professor Dean of the University of Birmingham, have developed the Hot Form Quench (HFQ) technology, which provides a cost-competitive means of producing lightweight, complex and structured aluminium components, and opens the door to a new generation of solutions for the automotive, aerospace and rail industries. Impression Technologies has been created to commercialise this technology and its associated know-how.

In the patented HFQ process, an aluminium sheet is heated above its Solution Heat Treatment temperature, formed while hot, and quenched in the press. This process allows pressings to be formed which are lighter, deeper and with tighter radii than has been possible to date. The process is quicker and more cost-effective than current methods, results in superior metallurgical properties, and allows stronger and lighter structures to be formed.

The market for passenger car vehicles alone is some 60 million vehicles a year, and the opportunity for components which might be formed using this technology is of the order of €10 billion per annum globally in passenger cars alone. Impression Technologies is in talks with a range of potential partners with which it expects to enter into trading, licensing and partnering arrangements.

Impression Technologies is headed by CEO George Adam, an experienced automotive manager with over 30 years' experience at GKN plc and ESAB China, and Chairman Mike Foster, formerly CEO of Charter International plc, which he headed for 5 years following a career at GKN plc and Kvaener.

Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer, Imperial Innovations, said:

"Impression Technologies is an example of the support Innovations offers in the commercialisation of new technologies developed at Imperial College London, which have the ability to transform the way industries operate. The deployment of HFQ technology has great commercial and environmental potential."

George Adam, Chief Executive Officer of Impression Technologies, said:

"HFQ enables the production of lighter, stronger and more sophisticated structures in Aluminium than has been possible to date cost-effectively. It creates new opportunities for car manufacturers and others to improve the performance of their vehicles while reducing their carbon footprint."

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Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering university technologies addressing global problems in healthcare, energy, engineering and the environment. It combines deep understanding of science and technology with commercial acumen and strong investment expertise.

Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas by:

·; leading the formation of new companies and providing facilities in the early stages

·; providing significant investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate the transition from R&D to products

·; providing operational expertise

·; helping to recruit high-calibre industry figures and experienced entrepreneurs as executive management and Board members

Innovations invests in companies based on technologies from or associated with four universities: Imperial College London; and Cambridge University, Oxford University, and UCL supported by its collaborations with Cambridge Enterprise, OSEM and UCL Business. These are the UK's leading research intensive universities, measured by research income.

By raising £140 million in January 2011, Innovations has been able to accelerate the making of, and increase the size of its investments. In the year to 31 July 2012, Innovations invested £37.9 million (2011: £35.1 million) in 29 ventures, and made 11 investments in new companies.

In its current portfolio of 78 companies, Innovations' most advanced assets include Circassia, which develops innovative vaccines for the treatment of a wide range of allergies; and Nexeon, a battery materials and licensing company which develops silicon anodes which extend the life and increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries.