Commitment to innovation, quality design and environmentally sound practices are longstanding traditions at Seidel GmbH + Co who, in late October last year, opened their much-anticipated Research and Development centre. The Research facility is the latest addition to Seidel’s third and newest factory. Located minutes from the company’s head offices in Marburg, the Research Centre will focus on breaking unprecedented ground in the arenas of material surface finishes, as well as investigating new ways of maximizing natural resources during the production and fabrication processes.

Drawing on its rich heritage and decades of experience, Seidel pioneers new frontiers in aluminium processing and plans to redefine, molecularly, what kind of surface finishes aluminium can offer consumers. Even minute changes on a molecular level can create new functional, optical and haptic characteristics in aluminium and it’s these resultant possibilities that will drive Seidel’s exploration to create the most innovative surface treatments available today.

At the Centre, specialists from the Seidel staff will be working side-by-side with renowned scientists from nearby universities. Conceived not just as a centre for commercial development but also a place of learning and exchange, the R&D Centre will be a practical, academic crossroads for scientists to carry on research initiatives. Working at discovering new functions and previously unknown surface finishes on treated aluminium provides scientists with the rare opportunity to put the results of their research into practice, on real products, almost immediately.

Seidel’s longstanding tradition of protecting the environment by maximizing manufacturing processes continues at the Research and Development Centre. The investigation of new surface treatments and procedures continually leads those involved towards the better management of resources. As such, the centre is dedicated to redefining the currently accepted limits of surface treatments to aluminium on an industrial scale. The limited use of micro-particles on the surface of aluminium can create an array of interesting functional and haptical characteristics, thereby allowing a more sparing use of resources.