JOIN USThe new facility will help accelerate the company’s localisation initiatives India. “The labs set up in specific countries are dedicated to cater to the needs of those particular markets,” 3M Chief Technology Officer & Executive Vice-President (R&D) Frederick J Palensky said. The company intends to increase its R&D personnel to 300 in next five years.
The Rs 100 crore R&D centre has a floor area of 1,50,000 sq ft and houses more than 25 labs for product and technology development. It will initially focus on developing products for key industry segments as infrastructure, automotive, healthcare, construction, oil and gas safety and retail, and developing subject matter expertise in technologies such as adhesives, non-wovens, acoustics, polymer processing, software & integrated systems and design, predictive engineering and modeling, protective coatings and accelerated weathering. The new facility will act as critical hub contributing new product platforms not only for India, but also globally.
3M India Managing Director Ajay Nanavai said the company’s R&D spend in India is 2 to 2.5 per cent of its sales. In 2010, 3M filed 14 patents and developed 23 product innovations in India. It aims to target about 40 per cent of its revenue from its new ‘In India, for India’ range of products in the next five years, as a result of recent addition at its Delhi and newly-opened Bangalore R&D centres.