Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry), Mr S. Iswaran’s visit to Admaterials Technologies on 19 Apr 2018
As part of the pre-event publicity for SME Technology and Innovation Day- Minister Iswaran- Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry)- visited advanced materials testing laboratory Admaterials Technologies- a three-time beneficiary of A*STAR’s Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) scheme.
Admaterials Technologies is an SME that specialises in the testing of construction materials. Under the T-Up Initiative- three researchers were seconded from A*STAR’s Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) and Data Storage Institute (DSI) since 2013 to help the company build new technological capabilities to seize new business opportunities and capture new revenue streams.
Over the past decade- Admaterials has invested around S$300-000 annually in R&D. This commitment to R&D- coupled with the expertise of the researchers under the T-Up scheme- has led to Admaterials seeing its revenue quadrupling over the past five years from approximately S$ 3 million to S$ 12 million.
During his tour of Admaterial’s facilities- Minister Iswaran saw how the SME leveraged on the expertise of A*STAR researchers to set up two new laboratories for environmental and microbiological testing. These new laboratories allow Admaterials to meet the increasing demand from its customers for such services. The SME has hired 20 chemists for both laboratories- contributing to a 20 per cent increase in staff strength.
Minister Iswaran also viewed the Automated Cube Testing System that was developed by an A*STAR research engineer- who overhauled the labour-intensive concrete-cube testing process that was used by Admaterials and replaced it with a new system to integrate- automate and digitalise the process. The new system allows for four workers to handle 2-000 cubes daily; as compared to 10 workers handling just 200 cubes per day previously.
Beyond its push to widen technological capabilities- Admaterials also partnered a UK MNC- Exova Group in 2016 as part of a strategy to internationalise its business.
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