The saving cold

Shot of transmission

We publish materials from the Technopark program dated April 14, 2012

When working modern high -tech equipment, so high temperatures often occur that it cannot be reduced in traditional ways. In this case, thermoelectric elements are needed - miniature cooling devices: without them today it is impossible to develop telecommunications, laser and medical equipment. Among the world leaders in the field of the creation of thermoelectric cooling elements are the Russian company RMT .

Like many Russian technological companies, RMT was formed in the early 1990s. In those years, a scientific group from the Institute of Thin Chemical Technologies, in which Gennady Gromov was engaged in laser research methods, began to experience financing problems. I had to look for the possibility of commercial application of their scientific knowledge.

Gennady Gromov, founder and general director of the RMT company: “We then guessed that this direction would be in demand: local cooling - removing excess heat from miniature objects - relevant for microelectronics, for laser technology, for optoelectronics.”

In 1994, the company sold the first products. They guessed how to sell products and attract customers intuitively. There were no business schools in Russia at that time. The fact that they did everything right, entrepreneurs learned from special literature much later.

Gennady Gromov: “We applied a classic marketing technique: we formed a list of potential customers in the foreign market, selected several hundred companies, prepared good catalogs at that time, described what we can do, invested products, sent and began to wait.”

The reception worked. 10% of the recipients - and this is about thirty companies - entered into correspondence. Three of them became buyers. One of the buyers was then the young American company AMPTEK, a manufacturer of detectors for x -rays. Its products are used in medical equipment and in scientific equipment NASA. The Pathfinder Mark Road, the Chandra orbital observatory, Cassini and Juno satellites - these and many other spacecraft use Amptek equipment, which today operates the RMT element base.

However, after the first successes, it was necessary to develop and improve technology, following the needs of customers. To do this, it was necessary to freeze salaries and invest all funds, including profit, in the development of the company. Few of Gromov’s colleagues approved such a financial policy. As a result, in 1997, only three people remained in the RMT. Gromov began to look for like -minded people in the foreign market.

Gennady Gromov: “In the late 90s, we formed a new team, which included people who invested their money in the company, and we had enough of these investments to move from artisanal methods and create the first small production.”

RMT has unexpected findings that allowed to quickly unfold the production of finished products and, as a result, earn money faster.

Gennady Gromov: “Unfortunately, there are practically no finished sites for clean or half -half production. Therefore, you constantly have to look for platforms for quick reconstruction. And several times in the history of the company it turned out that we stayed on the premises of former dining rooms: in such rooms there are always channels for hoods, electricity reserves and areas. ”

For a long time, the assembly of products was carried out exclusively by hand. However, this seriously limits the potential volume of products. Production had to be automated by leaving manual assembly only for small and experimental series.

Gennady Gromov: “You can’t live with a candlelight for a long time. It is impossible to stop the business, and if we stopped in development, then gradually serious customers would have left us. Serious companies necessarily consider the prospect of their growth, and if they see that the supplier is not developing, they immediately begin to look for another. ”

In 2009, Gromov received an offer of investments from the State Corporation Rusnano. The co-investor of the project was to be the S-Group Vendurz Foundation, created with the participation of capital of OJSC RVK.

Jan Ryazantsev, RVK investment director: “RMT is an interesting company, first of all, by the fact that it is a company with its successful history, a company that is present on the international market, has quite serious sales abroad, supplies its products to large companies, large customers”

Since companies needed money to expand production, offers from investors were accepted. Spacious platforms for production in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod were found. In Moscow, there is still an experimental platform for working out technologies. And large -scale production is located on the territory of the Ankudinovka technology park under construction. There is intensively launched automated production.

The tasks of the company are ambitious. In 2010, RMT revenue amounted to 146 million rubles. By 2015, the company plans to increase revenue to 1 billion 300 million rubles. Today, more than 80% of products are in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. There are few domestic consumers of a high -tech elemental base of microelectronics. But the company hopes that by 2015 the share of Russian consumers will also increase.