Research and development (R&D) is a fundamental part of your manufacturing business, helping you to solve product challenges, research new opportunities, test new formulations, and more. A solid foundation in R&D improves business innovation, efficiency and quality, and can open up new markets and opportunities. R&D also underpins the development of more environmentally friendly products and processes.
However, many manufacturers find it hard to maintain their own R&D functions. Technical teams need people with highly specialist skillsets, who are hard to find and keep. Specialist equipment is expensive to procure – and needs continually updating to meet changing business and industry needs. And for some companies, there simply isn’t the volume of R&D and testing work to deliver a sufficient return on investment in an in-house team.
It’s why many manufacturers choose Rakem for R&D and testing. Our Technical Support Service delivers specialist services for businesses of all sizes, using our wide product and industry experience to solve some of their biggest business and manufacturing challenges.
Meet Rakem’s unique R&D team
Since Rakem was founded in the 1990s, we’ve gained a solid reputation for solving a wide variety of industrial chemical challenges. We do this through a combination of technical expertise, cutting-edge equipment, and quality service. The Technical Support Service (and the research and development it carries out) has been instrumental in helping us achieve our well-earned reputation. Today, as well as serving customers, the technical team also delivers a broad spectrum of R&D services internally across the Rakem Group, supporting new product development and product improvements, and researching innovative new materials and processes.
Rakem’s scientists and chemists operate across two state-of-the-art labs, dedicated to helping us and our customers deliver even greater business success. As a business we find and invest in the latest technology, but our success also comes from our people. We invest in the right skills, trust people to know what they need, and give them the freedom to try new things and discover those new possibilities.
Our chemists and technicians are industry experts and proactive problem solvers, passionate about finding answers to the problems that others can’t solve. With nearly 30 years’ experience working in coating additives and across a number of different sectors, our experts have the skills to research anything, reliably test it, and deliver the results in reports that get straight to the heart of the findings you need. Meanwhile, our highly experienced technicians support them with experience, enthusiasm, and an instinct for the art of the possible.
The challenges we solve
The Technical Support Service works across the Rakem Group companies to create the best, most innovative solutions to manufacturing challenges. Here’s some of the ways we help our customers.
Making your business more sustainable. If you’re looking to improve your environmental stance then our experience in sustainable products can help. Whether you’re looking to hit carbon reduction goals or move to more sustainable manufacturing models, we can help you do this – while also improving product performance.
Improving product formulations and efficiency. If you don’t have your own in-house technical teams, or you need additional capacity, we can support you with product optimisation. We can help you to adapt and test raw material mixes to meet your goals, for example changing ingredients to improve sustainability, increase performance, or reduce costs.
Increasing supply chain resilience. As production processes and raw materials are constantly changing, product innovation is essential to maintaining, and growing, your business. Our technical teams are constantly reviewing the newest and most innovative materials and processing technologies, making us ideally placed to help you adapt your products. We also help our customers to improve existing products, finding better and cheaper alternative materials, and provide additional supplies where required.
Innovative R&D and testing services. We help our customers find the best ways to research and test new materials and formulations or to analyse specific product use cases. Bringing together our technical experts and our cutting-edge lab technologies, we have the skills and equipment to define bespoke formulations for even the most complex or challenging products and conditions, and can test them, quickly and reliably.
Working for you
At Rakem, we’re proud to have a culture of innovation and success that runs through everything we do. We believe in people, planet and profit, in that order. This underpins success for our business and our customers. Working with our technical teams, you can be sure you’ll get the support you need to help you meet your business goals, delivering cost and process improvements and adding long term value to your business.
