1990
Incorporated to develop specialized lightweight aluminum packaging and enclosures for the telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries.
1995
Acquired the exclusive North American license to manufacture and sell SAF under patents held by Alcan International Inc. and the license to sell outside of North America under patents held by Norsk Hydro.
1998
Built the world's first commercial SAF casting line.
2000
Appointed a new Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer and assembled a strong research and development team to accelerate commercialization of Cymat's aluminum foam technology.
Extended license agreements with Alcan to enlarge Cymat's exclusive rights to manufacture and sell SAF to include Europe and a non-exclusive license to manufacture and sell SAF world-wide.
Processed initial commercial orders from Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, an international, full-service automotive supplier based in Germany.
2001
Acquired process patents for SAF from Norsk Hydro, covering the significant Western European countries, Hungary, Brazil, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Hydro became a significant shareholder in Cymat and joined Cymat's Board of Directors as part of this transaction.
Completed a $17.25 million financing and listed its shares on Canada's senior stock exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CYM".
Commenced a co-development program with Valeo, a top-ten global Tier 1 automotive supplier for a SAF crashbox. Later in 2001, this progressed to the commercialization phase.
Filed a patent application for low-pressure casting technology.
Licensed hybrid aluminum foaming technology from Cambridge University and QinetiQ (UK Department of Defense).
Began experimental work with NASCAR (race car) frames.
2002
Closed a $8.35 million bought deal financing which allowed the company to further develop its SAF material in the automotive sector as well as its Alusion material in ht architectural industry.
2003
Reached milestones with various automotive and industrial companies. Due to the highly positive final testing results and strong interest from automotive OEMs, Valeo shifted its target market for Cymat crashboxes from niche platforms to high-volume, mainstream platforms. Decoma has satisfactorily completed its initial testing of Cymat’s SmartMetal™ in bumper beams and will now move to more comprehensive testing and design with the object of evolving the component to a “technology-ready” stage to be offered to OEMs. Upon successful development and field testing of its first acoustic dampening product, Dynatec will now formally launch a line of underground mining fans using Cymat SmartMetal™.
2004
Continued to advance its strategy targeting the commercial application of stabilized aluminum foam (SAF) in the automotive sector:
Technical
Further progressed its proprietary near-net shape casting process for manufacturing SAF. These improvements resulted in increased tightening in the uniformity and consistency of Cymat’s SAF product. Initiated the integration of its proprietary near-net shape casting technology into its commercial-scale Low Pressure Casting (LPC) unit. This will enable the Company to use the LPC to produce larger and more complex near-net shape parts with the density, uniformity and consistency required for automotive applications.
Commercial
As part of its increased strategic focus, Cymat identified four application areas for SAF within the automotive sector:
- Crash Management
- Casting Cores
- Structural Reinforcement
- Pedestrian Protection
- Crash Boxes
- Casting Cores
- Structural Reinforcement
Held discussions with several companies – including two major European foundries and a North American OEM – regarding programs to evaluate the use of SAF as a casting core.
2005
Closed a $2.674 million private placement with the intention of using the proceeds of to continue its strategy of commercializing the use of aluminum foam in the automotive industry.
2006
Completed with Georg Fischer Commissioning of Commercial Scale Pilot Production System for Near-net Shape Aluminum Foam Components
Granted additional patent protection in Europe covering its proprietary Low Pressure Foam Casting (LPFC(TM)) process. This process is used by Cymat and its commercialization partners to produce Stabilized Aluminum Foam (SAF) near-net shape components for the automotive sector.
Completed its announced recapitalization and reorganization by way of a plan of arrangement which was approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on August 4, 2006. The plan gave Cymat access to approximately $1.7 million in non-dilutive financing and resulted in a name-change of the company to Cymat Technologies Ltd.
Reformulated its strategy to transition from a research-focused to a revenue-focused enterprise by focusing on flat panel production and marketing.
Entered into a licensing agreement with Georg Fischer Automotive (GF), a global automotive supplier with annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion, to develop and manufacture automotive components utilizing Cymat’s proprietary Low Pressure Foam Casting (LPFCTM) aluminum foam technology.
The agreement provides GF with exclusive global rights on a component-by-component basis in exchange for meaningful royalty payments to Cymat. These royalty payments commence in the development phase of the component and end with completion of platform production. GF has commenced with preliminary development work on numerous components utilizing Cymat’s LPFCTM aluminum foam technology and Cymat expects that many of these will become royalty generating programs in the near future.