AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS—February 21, 2012—ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, a leader in material characterization studies for the Automotive and Transportation industries, announces a capital investment program to expand capacity and add capabilities in High Cycle Fatigue Testing and Low Cycle Fatigue Testing at its Wixom, Michigan facility. This latest investment will more than triple capacity and adds High Temperature Low Cycle Fatigue capabilities (up to 2,200º F) to the facility.
“ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Wixom has been a premier fatigue testing facility for the ground transportation industry for the past 18 years,” said Charles Noall, President and CEO of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½.
During the last 25 years, the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ facility in Wixom has served suppliers to the transportation industry around the world with Research, Materials Testing, Engineering Support, Failure Analysis and Corrosion Consulting. Accredited to ISO 17025 and Nadcap, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Wixom maintains a quality assurance program essential to the ever increasing demands of a global customer base.
“The capacity increase resulting from the Wixom investment is important to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s automotive customers because it increases ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s throughput in fatigue quality assessments of our customers’ power train materials,” said Arnout Lijesen, EVP Corporate Development of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. “And our new ability to perform state-of-the-art stress-life and strain-life fatigue testing at elevated temperatures on multiple machines will foster new material development by our customers.”
The Wixom investment and the recent acquisitions of Detroit Testing Laboratories and Mar-Test reinforce ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s commitment to serving the transportation industry, as well as its ability to provide quality fatigue services across many sectors. The 2011 acquisition of Detroit Testing Laboratories significantly bolstered ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s automotive services with amongst others fuel systems testing and hybrid and electrical vehicle battery testing. The acquisition of Mar-Test significantly increased ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s fatigue service offering.
About ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½
ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ is a company with a global presence; its laboratories are staffed by experts specializing in materials testing, product qualification testing and failure analysis for the Aerospace, Oil & Gas and Transportation and Industrials sectors. ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s team of 1,800 scientists, engineers and technicians work in 51 facilities located throughout the U.S. and Europe. For a complete list of Accreditations & Approvals and more information, please visit www.element.com.
Media Contact
Alison Dwyer or Matthew Judge, Smith & Smith PR Ltd., tel: +44 161 927 9487, e-mail: element@smithandsmithpr.co.uk.“Our new ability to perform state-of-the-art stress-life and strain-life fatigue testing at elevated temperatures on multiple machines will foster new material development by our customers.”
Arnout Lijesen
EVP Corporate Development