Financial Report 2009
- Start page
- 2009 in brief
- History
- Statement of the Chairman of the Board
- Statement of the CEO
- About Obducat
- Outlook
- Market
- Technology, development, patents and products
- Employees
- Sustainability, environment, ethics
- Five year review
- Key ratios
- Share capital and ownership structure
- Corporate Governance
- Financial Reports
- Affirmation
- Audit Report
- Board of Directors
- Management
- Financial Calendar
- Contacts
- About the Annual Report
Outlook
NANOTECHNOLOGY IS KNOCKING ON OUR DOOR
We are living in exiting times. Despite being a timeless and relatively universal device, we may have every reason to use it today. Especially if one is active in the area of nanotechnology. When almost nothing seems impossible any more – curing cancer, solving global energy needs or making clothes spot-resistant – the next conquest for nanotechnology is however not a new and advanced application area. It is everyday life and our homes. Just as with previous major technological changes, like for instance, when computers and the Internet became universally accessible and when travelling by train became a normal element of life for ordinary people, we witnessed a manifold change in living conditions and everyday life.
Listing current, future and possible application areas for newly developed nanotechnology is no longer meaningful – the list would be too long and embrace too much. If anything, one can see that very few trades will remain unaffected, while many more will fundamentally change. Revolutionising materials properties, an entirely new level of functionality, economising on resources, and energy-saving are a few examples of factors that will drive research and market at a quick pace and during a long period of time.
Concurrent factors behind nano explosion
That a lot is happening in nanotechnology and that it is getting so much attention is not by mere chance. Instead it is a question of a number of converging factors. In parallel with the increased comprehension and knowledge of what nanostructuring and nanomechanics can accomplish, the possibility to model materials extremely accurately has radically improved. At the same time analysis techniques have been significantly enhanced. Add to that an acute need in many areas for technology shifts and streamlining. Here the possibility for Obducat technology to create nanometre-sized patterns provides a common factor for most applications in this area. All in all this has created the basis for a progress as rapid as stimulating the imagination. The only thing that could compete with the extremely high expectations on nanotechnology is most likely what it in fact looks like being able to accomplish.
From abstract to familiar
The progress that is expected from the nanotech sector may be amazing in itself, but the biggest change will probably still be in the public’s attitude. That which until recently was in the borderland between science fiction and unworldly experiments in a laboratory environment, will over the next few years seem less and less unfamiliar. Our inability to actually see what happens will certainly make nanotechnology maintain its exotic dimension, but our attitude to it will be increasingly pragmatic and result-oriented. The closer to everyday life and more user-friendly the applications become, the more they will be played down. Obducat technology for definition of nanometre-sized structures will in this respect play the role of common denominator in order to make the various nanotechnology applications possible. We therefore have every reason to take a bright view of the future, in the full conviction that Obducat is well positioned for what the future has to offer.