Daikin Chemical Europe's new Innovation Center in Dortmund, Germany
Daikin Chemical Europe has opened its new Innovation Center at one of the largest innovation ecosystems in Germany, the Phoenix West Technology Park in Dortmund. The building offers approximately 2,000 m2 of dedicated laboratory and office space for the 40 employees to work on innovation and application development. With its offices, laboratories, warehouse and conference rooms, the building is designed to foster cooperation between teams and the exchange of knowledge: In addition to R&D, this includes marketing (identifying new focus areas for Daikin and enabling future growth) and technical services (supporting and expanding existing materials) with strong interaction with the sales function.
With an investment of 22 million euros, Daikin Chemical Europe has thus built a center where open innovation and technical cooperation projects with partners, customers, start-ups and universities are implemented. The state-of-the-art laboratories offer all analytical possibilities for this purpose. The Innovation Center is a low-energy building, heated, cooled and ventilated in a climate-friendly way using modern Daikin VRV heat pump technology.
Innovation and research focus
As a global chemical company, Daikin Chemical has a long history of innovation. Currently, there is a very rapid transformation and change in a number of important key markets that present challenges in terms of future use of materials and performance requirements. With its innovation expertise and open innovation center approach, Daikin can help shape this change.
The innovation center currently focuses on three technology pillars to support trends in automotive, semiconductors, information devices/IT equipment and telecommunications infrastructure:
- Energy storage (battery and fuel cell materials to make vehicles safer and more efficient).
- Surface modification technologies (working on functional coatings for exterior and interior of parts).
- Electric powertrain and High Frequency Electronics - providing solutions for high voltage and mmWave applications.
Conscious choice of location for a place of collaboration
With its central location and excellent connections to customers, universities and technical facilities, the Phoenix West Dortmund Technology Park offers the best conditions for collaborative research and development. The Daikin Chemical Europe Innovation Center brings together Daikin experts and external partners from industry as well as academia. The open laboratory policy promotes innovation and technical cooperation projects along the various value chains with partners, customers, start-ups and universities and accelerates the innovation process. Daikin Chemical Europe puts the customer at the centre of the innovation and application development process. Many companies are currently facing major challenges and Daikin wants to help shape this change with its Open Innovation Center approach.