ArjoWiggins’ research and development is a major asset in its strategy, through high-performance innovation and increasingly efficient processes.

Aiming to keep ahead of market demands, it focuses on manufacturing products whose exclusive texture and quality strengthen ArjoWiggins’ position as a benchmark of excellence and creativity.

An organisation dedicated to continuous innovation

With a team of 150 researchers in three centres of excellence – two in France and one in the UK – ArjoWiggins has set up a network of R&D facilities working to catalyse and optimise efficiency, creativity and synergies between sites and specialities.

Teams are dedicated to each of the Group’s activities and manage all the research work carried out in line with their specific needs. Each of the mills is under the responsibility of a researcher who is the contact point for the Group’s three centres of excellence.

This organisation, combining centralisation and decentralisation, provides a permanent exchange between R&D, production sites and marketing teams. It also encourages the development of cross-functional projects using the varied techniques employed in the Group. In 2003, this organisation was enriched with the creation of a permanent breakthrough innovation unit, bringing together researchers and marketing teams.

Exchanges developed at the European level

The Butler’s Court Research and Development Centre is involved with various European Universities , UMIST in Manchester, Design Brunel University, King’s College London, the Zurich Technical University, Nörkopping University and the CNAM in Paris – in several research projects applied to the paper industry.

Innovation and creativity at the heart of our mission

ArjoWiggins’ mission is to provide its customers with media which allow them to stand out and fully express their know-how. In the papermaking process, as in the manufacture of non-paper products –e.g. synthetic sheets, glass microfibres, or secure solutions – this particularity requires constant research to develop new creative and technological products.

The creativity of the Research and Development department enabled us to file 12 new patent requests in 2003, confirming the continuing increase in the number of patents over the past four years.

New products launched over the past two years are responsible for 17% of the Group’s turnover, and those launched within the past five years represent almost 50%. This is further proof of the strategic importance of this sustained innovation policy. In 2004, creative products developed for the new coating unit at the Wizernes mill will broaden the coated paper range of products.

The mission of R&D

R&D is involved in three key areas for the Group: breakthrough innovation and new product development, technology and process control, and technical assistance to the mills.

The innovation team leads creativity groups bringing together technical experts and marketing managers to conceive and design tomorrow’s products. R&D is a sponsor for the projects chosen, in close collaboration with the Central Marketing department, which identifies their strategic importance within ArjoWiggins’ global offering.

In its teams, R&D has experts from each key technology: pulp processing, paper chemistry, colour, coating techniques, etc. Serving the other departments, they carry out process auditing and optimisation in partnership with teams in the mills.

Finally, technical assistance includes a diagnostics team, pilot machines and a printing technology centre for testing products and processes under real-life conditions.