AVX Corporation & NRC

AVX Corporation is a 71 percent owned subsidiary of Kyocera Electronics Corporation and manufacturer of electronic components. AVX has five main divisions; tantalum, ceramics, advanced materials, connectors and KED (Kyocera electronic devices) with factories all round the world including, Czech republic, China, USA, El Salvador and Coleriane.

NRC AVX The Coleraine factory mainly manufactures multi layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) for the automotive industry. This essentially works via stacking layers of ceramic (insulator) between nickel electrode (conductive) to achieve capacitance.

About the Case
AVX Coleraine works on developing new products to meet customer demand of high level capacitors at reduced body size and therefore volumetric efficiently within a chip has to be maximised. Within the AVX development team they have academics from a range of backgrounds, including chemistry, business and engineering. As they develop parts from the raw material and initiate processing through an advanced technology manufacturing line, a solid grounding in chemistry is advantageous. They are required to determine the optimum formulation of Barium titanate with various transition metal dopants to achieve the required electrical specifications. Two members of the staff have embarked on the project; Gary Bones (business background) and Graham Dale (engineering) in an effort to further their understanding of the product and also enable them to make better use of the academic collaborations they already have.

About the Knowledge Provider

The Northern Regional College offers a range of Applied Science Courses on three campuses: Laboratory and Industrial, Medical and Forensic. The college has enjoyed good industrial relations with many of the local Science companies and Universities and look forward to expanding these links in the future.

Johanne Brolly has a PhD in Chemistry and has taught Chemistry on two of the Level 3 Applied Science courses offered in the NRC as well as Mathematics to Engineering students in the college. She has experience of relating a specific theory to a relevant, industrial application, which was an essential skill of this partnership. Although somewhat limited, her experience of applying maths to engineering applications was no doubt an advantage to her throughout the project. Johanne is familiar with the approaches required for working with mature students who have not been in education for a number of years and is knowledgeable in the approaches and activities that should be applied for effective learning.

The Results
AVX has found the tutoring a substantial benefit in helping them to understand the chemistry behind the processes involved in their production. The training has been extended to further their understanding, with the prospect of extending NRC services to other projects within the company.



Contact Details of Knowledge Provider:

Knowledge Provider Name: Northern Regional College
Contact Name: Johanne Brolly
Telephone number: 07967821066
Email: johanne.brolly@nrc.ac.uk