Melbourne, Australia 8th February, 2019: Australian advanced manufacturing company Titomic Limited (ASX: TTT) (“Titomic” or “Company”) today announces it has executed an Exclusive License Agreement with CSIRO and an Acquisition Agreement with Future Titanium Technologies. The Exclusive License Agreement with CSIRO grants Titomic exclusive global rights to two patents for the production of Pipe, as well as Continuous Pipe manufactured using Titanium and Titanium Alloys which will open significant revenue opportunities for Titomic across a number of major industries, in particular the Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors.
Under the agreement, Titomic will also receive more than 8 years of exclusive innovative additive manufacturing techniques, background IP, and Know How for the production of pipe and pipe components including, but not limited to, Valves and Fitting Components. This technology results from the 2010 Victorian Government initiated Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre (VDMC) program, which received contributions of approx. $10M, from industry, and research providers to help revitalise the manufacturing sector and deliver economic and environmental benefits to Victoria.
Pipe can now be Additively Manufactured (Metal 3D Printing) using Titomic Kinetic Fusion (TKF) systems without the size and profile constraints of traditional pipe manufacturing techniques.
TKF produced metal pipe has superior wear and corrosion resistant properties in comparison to traditional wrought metal pipe. By utilising TKF’s production method of fusing dissimilar metals for pipes, valves and fitting components means industries will be able to gain access to next generation dual-wall materials for superior wear and corrosive resistance properties applicable to industries such as Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors.
Titomic can now exploit this technology commercially due to these key performance factors:
- Quality: Titanium TKF produced metal pipe has superior wear and corrosion resistant properties.
- Scale: TKF produced pipe has no size and profile constraints compared to traditional pipe manufacturing techniques.
- Cost: Titomic cost effective powder supply chain has overcome the largest barrier to entry for Additive Manufacturing suppliers into Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors. (see Titomic’s Dec 2018 ASX releases a) Sino-Euro and; b) Lasting Titanium)
- Speed: The TKF automated production line enables industry to manufacture continuous metal pipe using Additive Manufacturing.
- Sustainability: Australia dominates the world’s resources for titanium minerals, and Titomic is making a valuable contribution to establishing a titanium manufacturing industry and adding value to Australian natural resources.
As an example, the oil & gas industry are one of the world’s largest users of valves. The inventory required and the lifecycle of these valves and fitting components is significantly influenced by sediments, sand, rock and other abrasive matter running through the pipe and fitting components during the extraction process. These new patents and knowledge capabilities will allow Titomic to produce piping, valves and fitting components with a significantly higher wear resistance than current piping being used.
There are significant cost and efficiency savings for consumers of piping and fitting components not only through longer life cycles of parts, less down time, lower maintenance costs, but TKF systems can also produce piping, values and fitting components with new superalloys and metallurgical fusion of metal powders, combined with alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites to deliver superior performance properties.
This offers opportunities never before available to industries whereby the outside material of a product can be selected for the external environmental factors, for example: metals with corrosive protection from salt water, and the internal material of the product can be a different metal for the internal use factors, for example: high wear protection from abrasive materials.
Unlocking new, high value market opportunities
Mr. Jeff Lang, Titomic Managing Director commented:
“This is a significant expansion of Titomic’s IP and associated revenue opportunities. By adding these two new patents we are broadening our footprint in the Titanium and Titanium Alloys Additive Manufacturing space to firmly secure our future market segments.
Our fundamental strategy has been well timed and managed to perfectly combine the securing of cost-effective metal powder supply chain, with the expansion of our IP portfolio positioning Titomic as the global leader in viable metal Additive Manufacturing.
To capitalise on the significant $300+ Billion global interest Titomic has received from the Oil & Gas, Mining, and Marine industries to provide more sustainable and cost-effective AM manufacturing, these new TKF technologies enable Titomic to provide viable digital manufacturing capabilities leading to significant short, mid and long-term revenue opportunities.”
Stefan Gulizia, Research Group Leader at CSIRO, commented:
“Working with companies like Titomic shows that manufacturing remains a key driver in the Australian economy.
We are pleased that Titomic are licensing the rights to utilise and further commercialise CSIRO research in developing new products and processes that go towards supporting productivity gains, boosting sustainability and helping capture emerging opportunities in local and global markets.”
Overview of the key Exclusive License Agreement and Acquisition Agreement Terms
The key transaction terms of the Acquisition Agreement with FTT are as follows:
- Titomic allot to the shareholders of FTT $400,000 worth of Titomic Limited shares at an allotment price of $2.00 per share, half of which will be escrowed for 12 months.
- Titomic will also issue 1 new option for every 2 shares to the FTT shareholders. Each option will be exercisable price set at a 130% premium to the share price with a 2-year life.
The key transaction terms of the Exclusive License Agreement with CSIRO are as follows:
- Titomic to pay CSIRO $125,000 in cash as an upfront fee for licensing the technologies;
- Titomic will pay CSIRO a royalty on gross revenues received directly from the sales of products produced using either of the licensed patents in accordance with Titomic’s IPO Prospectus; and
- Where Titomic directly sub-licenses any entire license field sector to a third party without adding any value to the intellectual property, Titomic will pay CSIRO a one-time 20% royalty from the revenues received, regardless of multiple licensed patents contained in the product;
- Titomic will pay minimum annual royalties to CSIRO of;
- In addition to the $350,000 research fees payable to CSIRO for Titomic’s initial Load-Bearing Structure patent as disclosed in Titomic’s IPO Prospectus, with the exclusive licensing of the two new patents Titomic will pay an additional $200,000 per annum research fee to CSIRO for 3 years to collaborative develop and explore other Cold Spray related IP projects.
Sources:
- https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2009109016&tab=PCTCLAIMS&maxRec=1000
- https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2014085846&tab=PCTCLAIMS&maxRec=1000
- https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/news/heat-exchangers-market
- https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/industrial-valves-market
- https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-116/issue-2/special-report-worldwide-pipeline-construction/near-term-pipeline-plans-nearly-double-future-slows.html
About CSIRO
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. Its innovations contribute billions of dollars to the Australian economy every year. As the largest patent holder in the nation, CSIRO’s wealth of intellectual property has led to more than 150 spin-off companies. For more information visit www.csiro.au
