Ionic Industries has announced that it has taken the first steps in the development of a comprehensive collaboration arrangement with Tata Steel, one of the world’s largest steel manufacturers and the largest in India.
The first step in this process has been the signing of an MOU with Monash University for the creation of a Centre for Innovation on Environment and Intelligent Manufacturing. Tata has formed similar partnerships with only two other universities: Imperial College and The Henry Royce Institute (Manchester University).
Tata Steel CEO, T V Narendran, explained their reasoning for seeking partnerships like this: “As the oldest steel maker in India, Tata Steel has taken upon itself the responsibility of leading the change towards more sustainable manufacturing practices. Today, we are building a comprehensive ecosystem that involves partners from academia and the world of startups.”
This step comes after nearly 12 months of thorough discussions and exploration of ways to deliver new materials technology through Tata to global markets. This has involved a range of technical exchanges on several of Ionic’s technologies, including Ionic's sensing geosynthetic products that are currently sold in market in Australia and the Pacific.
The next steps in this process will be to explore more detailed commercialization arrangements, including planning for any further R&D work that will be required to deliver those technologies to be conducted in collaboration with Monash University across both Monash and Ionic facilities. In particular, Ionic sees enormous potential in the Indian market for its leak detection capabilities in mining and resources applications as well as sensing surfaces for applications like smart conveyors. Once it's possible to cement the commercial arrangements, Ionic expects India to be one of its first stops on the road to global expansion.