Beckett MIM receives award at Medilink for best start-up company
Beckett MIM, based in Sheffield, UK, has been awarded the prestigious Nabarro start-up award for a newly established company that shows a promising future. The start-up award was presented at the recent Medilink Awards, held in partnership with the UK’s Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), to celebrate the achievements of Healthcare Technology and related Life Sciences companies from across Yorkshire and Humber.
Beckett MIM was established in January 2013 by Beckett Plastics Ltd to complement its Sheffield-based plastics moulding business, with the new Metal Injection Moulding operation using knowledge and expertise developed at the University of Sheffield’s Mercury Centre. This allowed the new company to embark on the development of MIM parts in a wide range of metals and alloys including ferrous and titanium alloys, nickel-base alloys, tungsten and copper.
Lukas Jiranek, Beckett MIM’s Technical Manager who came to work for William Beckett Plastics from the University of Sheffield as a Knowledge Transfer Associate, sees a bright future for MIM, commenting, “The market has grown almost 10-15% each year since the 1980s, and there has been lots of progress recently using lightweight materials. Aerospace companies want to reduce the weight of their components, but increasingly automotive companies want to take advantage of these benefits too. Reducing the weight of components and unit cost of parts are the main drivers of these industrial sectors. Because of the increase in use of Powder Metallurgy technologies, including Additive Manufacturing, the cost of metal powder feedstocks are coming down, so prices are getting better and better for us. Looking to the future we are investigating MetalInjection Moulding of tungsten carbide and moulding of other special alloys.”
Professor Iain Todd, Centre Director at the Mercury Centre, stated, “Beckett MIM is a really successful example of how we are transferring our advanced manufacturing expertise to local industry and having a real economic impact. Our Knowledge Transfer Partnerships have been a very rewarding experience and Beckett MIM’s start up award is well deserved. I’m pleased to say our relationship with them is ongoing as we continue to build on and extend our knowledge of the metal injection moulding process and materials, whilst applying it to a commercial context.”
