Nifco
The Research & Development team at Nifco UK is celebrating five full years in operation, since the department opened in 2014 with just two employees.
The Eaglescliffe-based business, which manufactures plastic parts used in the engines, interiors and exteriors of cars produced by Ford, General Motors, Honda , Jaguar Landrover, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall Opel, has now built its team of R&D Engineers to nine.
“When I started with the business almost five years ago, there was just two of us in the R&D team with very little by the way of a brief, today I lead a team of nine passionate individuals who essentially get to experiment with and test new ideas for a living, which culminates in massive improvements to the automotive industry, all from Teesside,” said Steve Garrett, R&D Manager.
Nifco UK, part of worldwide plastics manufacturer Nifco Inc, which is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, boasts the group’s only R&D facility outside of the Asia Pacific region.
The facility was part of a £14million investment in 2014, which saw the business almost double its manufacturing space with a second factory on the Durham Lane site.
“The team and I have worked on some major projects for over the last five years, including the design and development of the business’s most complex assembly to date. Another milestone assignment for us was the composite oil pan we developed for Jaguar Landrover as part of the ALIVE6 project, which led to an overall weight reduction of more than 1kg, when compared with its steel counterparts,” Garrett added.
Safety is high on the agenda at Nifco too, with the design and development of parts which needed to break in a specific way should the vehicle be involved in a collision, this was fundamental in the customer securing required safety certifications.
Almost all of Nifco’s earliest R&D projects have now commenced production, with further parts planned for full roll-out by the end of 2018. The company says there is “great scope” for future projects, owing to the onset of EVs and stringent fuel emissions targets.