Nanosurf starts Joint Venture in China

Nanosurf, a leading provider of atomic force microscopes (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopes (STM), and Suzhou Haizisi (Hzs) Nano Technology Co. Ltd., a high-tech company specialized in system solutions for nanodetection, nanofabrication and nanometrology, today announced the founding of a Sino-foreign Joint Venture, Hzs-Nanosurf (full name: Suzhou Hzs Nanosurf Nanotechnology Co. Ltd.), which after a preparation period of several months received its Chinese business license in the first half of August, 2011. The new Joint Venture represents a major milestone in the development of Nanosurf, which expects China to become one of the biggest markets for its products in the near future.

Located in the Suzhou Industrial Park (a Technology Park 100 km from Shanghai that offers home and office space to a residential population of more than 1 million people) and currently having a strong marketing and sales focus, Hzs-Nanosurf has all infrastructure and resources needed to become a strong Asian hub for the Nanosurf group. The joint venture will supply the full Nanosurf product range to customers in research, industry and teaching.

Business is supported by a strong service, application and support center within the joint venture. “Having such strong resources in China will allow Nanosurf to gain a leading position in the research, industrial and teaching segments of this growing SPM market”, comments Dr. Urs Matter, CEO of Nanosurf.

Hzs-Nanosurf is already involved in a Chinese program to provide nanotechnology teaching solutions for high schools and universities. For this purpose, an optimized version of the renowned Nanosurf STM — a scanning tunneling microscope that allows students to see atoms within minutes and of which well over a 1000 systems are operational worldwide — will be assembled at the joint venture and supplied to Chinese educational institutions. With this program, the Chinese Ministry of Education intends to provide state-of-the-art nanotechnology education to Chinese students, in order to foster their innovation capabilities in what will be one of the key technology fields of the future.

The founding of the Chinese Hzs-Nanosurf Joint Venture is part of Nanosurf’s continued growth and innovation strategy: “It is a major step towards the transformation of Nanosurf into a truly global nanotechnology company”, says Dr. Matter.

Nanosurf, the first company awarded with the CTI Start-up Label, is a leading provider of user-friendly atomic force microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes. Headquartered in Liestal, Switzerland, Nanosurf was founded in 1997 and currently has subsidiaries in Boston, USA, and in Langen, Germany.