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discovered_01_2013

FOCUS// The HZDR Research Magazine WWW.Hzdr.DE 22 23 These days, manufacturers of automotive engineering turbo charger rotors are constantly knocking on the door. The reason behind it? "I predict that turbo charger rotors will soon be made out of ultralight titanium aluminides instead of heavy nickel alloys, which means greater power and fuel-saving. But this only works if you increase the high-temperature resistance. A highly promising solution based on ion implantation that was developed right here in Rossendorf." The global players are coming to Rossendorf Today, some 15 percent of the Ion Beam Center’s total beam time is used to fulfill orders placed by regional, national, and international industry partners – a development which first began some 20 years ago and which is quickly gathering momentum. External users are bringing reputation, high capacity utilization, new projects, and third-party funding for reinvestments. In order to maximize these achievements, Kolitsch and a few of his colleagues decided, together with the HZDR Board of Directors and the second shareholder, GWT-TUD GmbH, to start HZDR Innovation GmbH. This was back in October 2011. Today, one and a half years later, the spin-off has already paid off: "We haven’t burnt through any of the money - quite the opposite, we’ve made a nice profit and have set our focus on a large circle of customers, we have plenty of new inquiries and so much potential," says the CEO. And not from just anyone, either, but from the really big guys. "Currently, we are talking to five global players, some of them in the US, for whom we could become important partners in the long run," says Kolitsch. Alas, given the strict confidentiality agreements, he’s not allowed to name any names. How is it possible that such a relatively young company, with its staff of 25, most of them part-time, has been able to score such a major success? According to Kolitsch, it’s because "here in Rossendorf, we have over forty years’ ion implantation experience. Add to that our solid and long-standing partnerships, really good marketing, and technologies that - at least to some extent - are unparalleled and in high demand. Moreover, in GWT, our second shareholder, we landed a valuable partner to help us with business related issues." Top-notch security standards, clean room quality, the whole entire scope of radiation protection authorizations, two state- of-the-art accelerators - the Ion Beam Center seems destined to get slammed with orders. So where’s the catch? "There is in fact one catch, or rather there will be one once we get to the point where our machines are all working at maximum capacity," says Andreas Kolitsch. "Because: research always gets top priority, no questions asked!" An emergency beam time commission has already been set up although, luckily, they have not had to intervene yet. Industry gets one fourth of the total beam time Kolitsch is certain that over the next few years industrial orders will constitute twenty-five or thirty percent of the Ion Beam Center – a number that helps define the Center as an international user facility. "There are no comparable facilities, not even in the US, so that clients from overseas came knocking on our door right from the start." SUCCESS STORY: Since 2011, Andreas Kolitsch is CEO of HZDR Innovation GmbH. The chemist has more than 30 years' experience with ion implants.

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