Accrington, UK – Vita Group has opened a 400m2 technical centre featuring a bespoke Cannon Viking pilot plant for block production at its Vita Technical facility.
Vita opens new technical centre
The new centre makes use of extended and refurbished facilities at the site. Accrington was chosen for the centre because of its history of polyurethane development. Group CEO Ian Robb said: 'We are very proud of what our team has already achieved, and are excited to see the new ground-breaking innovations to come out of Accrington.'
Technical innovation manager Rowland Murphy will head the Innovation Centre. There are 11 full time staff within the centre and these facilities are accessible to an additional 14 employees across the division.
The site was designed to help support Vita's technical division in Europe. Customers and suppliers will be invited to use the site and to share development ideas. The Cannon Viking pilot plant allows the technical centre to mirror real Vita production, and will make small-scale blocks for testing.
Murray: heads the centre
'The pilot plant is an asset that is going to be utilised for the whole of Vita,' said CTO Mike Murray. 'It also contains all the features that will allow us to mimic the foam processes that exist around the group in order to move our chemistry and process technology forward.'
It is part of a £1.3m ($1.8m) investment in technical support by the group, which includes facilities in nearby Middleton and Corby in the UK, as well as a site in Lithuania. About 80% of the investment has been spent in Middleton and Accrington.
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