DuPont opens new facility at Hyderabad knowledge centre

US multinational DuPont expanded its knowledge centre here by opening an Application Development Centre focused on integrating advanced material science with other scientific disciplines for the automotive industry.

The centre would enable solutions for light-weighting, engine performance, comfort and safety. These capabilities also are relevant to other industries such as railways, electrical/electronic components, food processing, agriculture, irrigation and textile, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

The facility is aimed at developing value-added solutions to customers enabling better, safer and sustainable products, it said.

"The integration of scientific disciplines in advanced materials, such as high-performance polymers and elastomers, are critical to developing cost-effective and sustainable solutions to some of the big challenges that our company is focusing on, for example, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels," said DuPont Performance Polymers president Diane H. Gulyas.

"This new facility is connected to the global DuPont community of 10,000 scientists and engineers around the world, thus connecting our global science capability to local market needs. I am confident this will enhance our ability to serve customers in India and South Asia," said Rajeev A. Vaidya, president - South Asia and ASEAN, DuPont.

The new Application Development Centre at the DuPont Knowledge Centre (DKC) houses thermoplastic and elastomer processing and testing equipment and leverages existing analytic equipment shared with several DuPont science disciplines. It complements the manufacturing facilities in Savli, Gujarat, and the DuPont India Innovation Centre in Pune.

On the fourth anniversary of DKC in November last year, the company had said it would expand in the areas of food, energy and protection. It is developing applications for food packaging, fabric care and solutions for light weighting automobiles.

The company had then announced that it so far invested over $50 million in DKC.

The 209-year-old company spends $2 billion globally on research and development every year. It has presence in 90 countries.

Started on 15 acres in ICICI Knowledge Park in Genome Valley, the DKC recently acquired another five acres for expansion and plans to double in size with the addition of new labs and areas of research.