Aluinvent, a Hungarian company that develops and manufactures a special new kind of aluminium foam, is looking to increase its production capacity with a view toward becoming a regional leader in this segment, one of the firm's co-owners has told EMIS.
“We have developed a new type of aluminium foam, called Aluhab, which is ultralight but extra strong and shows outstanding mechanical properties. We have already received an investment but are looking for new partners and investors in order to boost our production capacity,” Norbert Babcsan said.
The company was established in 2012 and received an investment of some HUF 700mn (EUR 2.3mn) last year from Hungarian private investor Tamas Leisztinger, one of the country's richest people.
“We believe that with an investment of around the same size and with increased interest from buyers, we could at least double our capacity, or even increase it tenfold, making us one of the region's biggest players and a significant global player as well,” Babcsan said.
The company has already held talks with various interested partners looking for cooperation, including investors from China and local venture capital funds.
The special aluminium foam developed by Aluinvent is a lightened variant of aluminium, which preserves the metal's easy workability and recyclability, also opening up new areas for use in several industrial fields, offering an alternative solution for substituting various plastics and wood.
Babcsan said the product could be used in fields ranging from machine engineering, space technology, the automotive, aviation and defence industries, to building and construction, information technology, interior design and applied arts.
He noted that the product has virtually all the traits of plastic but is cheaper to produce and also more environmentally friendly. Thus, it could replace plastic in many industries as well as compete with traditional aluminium or magnesium products.
The company currently has a production line at its base in Felsozsolca, northern Hungary, with capacity to produce 100 tonnes a year, but Babcsan believes demand will increase fast and thus capacity could be increased manifold.
Aluinvent's long-term objective is also to help revive the aluminium industry of Hungary, doubling the economic performance of the sector from producing 1% of the world's aluminium output at present to 2%.
“Our goal is to become one of the world's top companies in aluminium foam production within a few years as well as one of the CEE region's biggest employers. In a couple of years, we could become a multinational firm, with the production base remaining in Hungary and our overseas presence supported potentially by a global partner,” Babcsan concluded.