Advanced manufacturing company Quickstep Holdings has announced the establishment of a global research and development centre at Deakin University's Waurn Ponds campus, where Quickstep's automotive division is based.
The new R&D centre will manage ongoing development of all Quickstep technologies and intellectual property, supporting the company's aerospace and automotive facilities in Australia and Germany. Quickstep and Deakin University will continue their close relationship through a long-term Strategic R&D and Education Agreement, and R&D activity currently undertaken at Quickstep's Munich facility will be relocated to the centre.
The R&D centre will support the fast-tracking and industrialisation of Quickstep's patented Qure process for moulding and curing carbon fibre composite parts in niche volumes; and the development of RapidQure, a fully automated high-volume manufacturing system for the automotive industry. These are disruptive technologies which can significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing carbon-fibre components for Quickstep customers.
Quickstep acknowledged the support of the State Government of Victoria's investment promotion arm Invest Victoria to relocate R&D from Germany to Geelong. The funding is in addition to the $1.76 million grant provided by the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund (GRIIF), an initiative funded by the Federal and Victorian Governments and Ford Australia, announced in November 2014.