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Research And Development
Expenditures for research and development (R&D) in the BÖHLER-UDDEHOLM Group rose from 19.0 m€ by 8.4% to 20.6 m€ in 2006. These expenses were divided among the four divisions as follows: High Performance Metals 13.0 m€, Welding Consumables 4.8 m€, Precision Strip 1.1 m€ und Special Forgings 1.7 m€. At the end of the reporting year the member companies of the Group held 861 patents and patent applications, which represents an increase of 10% over the previous year. BÖHLER-UDDEHOLM invests roughly
10% of total R&D expenditures in long-term strategic research projects and approximately 90% in short-term and medium-term projects to improve products and production processes. More than 160 researchers are currently active in the production companies of the Group.
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