Megafarma, an Azelis company, has been authorised by Celanese to distribute its emulsion polymers in Mexico. The non-exclusive distribution agreement includes the following products: Resyn, Tufcor, Vinac, Dur-O-Set, Avicor, Celvolit, EcoVAE, and Flexbond. Azelis said this new mandate further strengthens its strategic acquisition of Megafarma earlier in 2020 to expand into the Latin American CASE market. It leverages its existing Americas CASE assets, including application labs, digital platforms, technical and market intelligence, in the Mexican market.

In support of growing consumer demand, mattress expert Purple Innovation, Inc. has signed a lease for an additional 520,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the East Coast. Before the end of 2020, Purple will create hundreds of new jobs by opening a new plant in Henry County, Georgia. The decision to open Purple's third manufacturing plant – and first outside of Utah – in Henry County came after an extensive search process to find the right location and state partner in this new venture, the company said.

Yutong Bus Co., Ltd., one of the world’s leading bus manufacturers, and BASF have jointly developed a PU-based seating for new-energy buses. Optimized to provide improved flame-retardant properties, the seating made with BASF’s Elastoflex PU complies with the European directive “ECE Regulation No.118” for flame resistance.

Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB) is partnering with Switzerland-based HeiQ Group, a specialist in textile innovation, to create the US market’s first antiviral mattress.

Volkswagen AG and the automotive supplier Brose are planning to create a joint venture devoted to complete seats, seat structures and seat components. The Volkswagen subsidiary Sitech will become part of the JV. Brose will hold a 50 % stake in the company. Volkswagen AG and the Brose Group will each own half of the company.

Plastics behave dependent on temperature and strain rate. When designing components, it is therefore important to know the behaviour of the plastic used, not only under laboratory conditions, but also under the subsequent conditions of use. The entire spectrum of possible temperatures must be considered. To this end, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF have expanded the dynamic possibilities at the institute's own modified high-speed testing machine with a device that enables plastics to be examined even at low temperatures – validated down to -40 °C-– without a thermal chamber.

Altair has announced the acquisition of S&Wise Co., Ltd., a Seoul-based provider of polyurethane foaming simulation. Altair said that the acquisition will allow to offer customers the most advanced solution for PU foam processing on the market. S&Wise simulates the injection, foaming, and gelling processes, accounting for the important effects of chemical reactions during the process. An enhanced version of S&Wise’s solver will be released within Altair Inspire PolyFoam.

Sanjeev Taneja has taken over the management of Evonik’s business line Catalysts effective from 1 July 2020. On the same date, the Catalysts business line became part of the newly created Smart Materials division. He most recently headed Evonik India as President and Managing Director for more than two years. For his new role, he will return to Hanau, Germany, where he takes over the function from Steffen Hasenzahl, who has been named as the Managing Director of Evonik Creavis GmbH.

The International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) has announced that Scott Tinsley, vice president, sales of Serta Simmons Bedding LLC., has assumed the position of chair of the ISPA Board of Trustees. Tinsley replaces Eric Rhea who resigned from his role as ISPA Chair due to his retirement from Leggett & Platt Inc. at the end of July 2020. Hank Little, president of Atlanta Attachment Co., has been appointed vice chair. Bryan Smith, president and CEO of Southerland Inc., has agreed to stay on as past chair.