Bekaert, VITO and ART to market new coating technologies in Europe.

A joint venture will be set up in Belgium for this purpose, under the name of "BEKAERT DYMONICS".

N.V. Bekaert S.A. (Belgium), Advanced Refractory Technologies Inc. (ART) (USA) and VITO (the Flemish Institute for Technological Research)(Belgium) have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture, Bekaert Dymonics, to produce and market new coating technologies in Europe.

The new company will be headed by Dominique Neerinck and is headquartered at Karreweg 18, Zulte (Belgium).

N.V. Bekaert S.A. holds 59% of the shares, VITO holds 21% and ART 20%.

N.V. Bekaert S.A. is the parent company of the Bekaert Group and headquartered in Belgium. The Group is world leader in steel wire, steel wire products and steel cord, with more than 60 production units spread over more than 20 countries. In 1996, the Group realised a turnover of BEF 77 billion and employed more than 16,000 people.

The new venture fits one of the core competencies of Bekaert, namely coating technologies.

ART, headquartered in Buffalo (USA), manufactures non-oxide ceramic powders and has for some years now been involved in advanced vacuum-coating technologies, specialising in particular in diamond-like nanocomposites (Dylyn®). These will be produced under license by the new joint venture. ART had a turnover of USD 10 Million $ in 1997, grows by 50 % each year and employs 110 people.

VITO, a research company based in Mol, has a staff of more than 400 and is active in a number of areas of technology, including surface technology. VITO has amongst other things, a unique and international reputation for its research into the applications of diamond-like coatings and the development of plasma-enhanced coating processes. The past few years have seen VITO becoming increasingly involved in collaborations with industry, with a view to introducing these new coatings into the business world.

The current joint venture combines the technological know-how and the existing commercial applications of all three partners.

These diamond-like coatings are characterised by a unique combination of properties: extreme hardness, low friction and great wear resistance. This makes these coatings ideally suited for a broad range of industrial applications, for instance as protective coatings against wear for moving machine parts or in moulds for remodelling of metals and as scratch-resistant coatings for optical applications.

In addition, their non-sticking properties make these coatings ideal for coating moulds used for injection moulding of plastics. As well as increasing the life of the moulds, the coatings resolve many of the problems caused by adherence and thus effect a dramatic increase in productivity.

The deposition technologies employed permit a high degree of customisation in the properties of the coatings, whereby solutions tailored to specific requirements can be offered. For example, the electrical conductivity can be modified by the introduction of metals into the coatings. New coating types are also being developed that combine good scratch-resistance with high transparency.

In the future, Bekaert, VITO and ART will tune their research and development activities to one another in order to keep their joint venture in technological pole position.

Bekaert Dymonics, the latest venture in the Bekaert Advanced Materials business unit, aims primarily at introducing the various types of diamond-like coatings to the market as answers to customer-specific problems. A secondary activity will be the provision of licences and the supply of know-how.

This joint venture will also act as a distributor of ART´s non-oxide ceramic powders, such as aluminium nitride, titanium boride and boron carbide. Collaboration with VITO will offer significant advantages given the know-how, infrastructure and international scientific reputation the Flemish Institute has built up in this field.

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