ÂÌñÏ×ÆÞ

AOC (Schaffhausen, Switzerland) has announced the opening of a new pilot plant in Filago, Italy, to enable faster scale-up and the introduction of new product developments. This investment will reduce time-to-market for novel composite resin innovations and provides AOC and its customers with additional opportunities to build a sustainable business using composite materials. The pilot plant was formally opened on Feb. 6, 2025, with a grand ceremony by Stefan Osterwind, managing director of AOC EMEA.

“We can produce many different product chemistries, and the advanced controls and versatile equipment allow us to operate under real-life production conditions,” explains Julia van Harten, Filago pilot plant manager. “This helps to bring products to market fast, and significantly cut down the time required for commercialization together with our customers.”

AOC delivers quality products with high batch-to-batch consistency and performance predictability, and the pilot plant will further support this by setting optimal process conditions to generate robust product formulations. According to the company, it also ensures that AOC customers can scale up faster to create new value-added composites products and applications.

“AOC closely collaborates with customers to create products that combine performance and a reliability in processing,” says Umberto Colpani, plant manager of AOC’s Filago operations.

Osterwind contends that, in the midst of uncertain economic times, there are very few companies in Europe that make such a major investment. In this way, the Filago plant represents AOC’s commitment to supporting its customers and any challenges ahead.