Professor Christian Hopmann, institute director of the IKV Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University, has been honoured as the newest "Fellows of SPE" at Antec 2019, the largest international technology conference. He was nominated by SPE’s Injection Moulding Division (IMD) and received the prestigious award by Dr. Brian Grady, president of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) on 17 March 2019 at Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Huntsman Tecnoelastomeri has introduced a range of customisable, MDI-based hot cast elastomers. The Tecnothane VTER series is described as being exceptionally resilient polyurethane materials for the manufacture of wheels, castors and industrial parts, which need to be equipped to perform in extreme working conditions. Easy to process compared to NDI-based technologies, the new series includes six elastomer solutions which can be adapted to match customer-specific requirements. As standard the products offer very good tear and cut resistance plus high rebound and very low hysteresis properties.

Byk is expanding its operations in the Shanghai region and has opened a new site. The company said that Asia accounts for one third of sales, and has made a substantial contribution in past decades. The five-hectare site in Shanghai (around 54,000 sqm) is home to laboratories, a distribution center, and administration and was constructed in just two years. BYK invested around EUR 38 million. Some 100 employees will work here it is in full operation.

Rampf looks back at a successful Foam Expo 2019. The company offers more than 400 foam formulas and presented its range of silicone and polyurethane foams used for IP sealing, BSR/NVH abatement, insulation, modeling, and light-weighting in the automotive, household appliance, electronic, packaging, energy technology, recreation equipment, and medical industries. Foam Expo 2019 took place from 26-28 March 2019 in Novi, MI, USA.

From 26 – 27 March 2019, the international PU industry met for PSE Europe at the MOC Munich, Germany. Once again, the International Exhibition for Polyurethane Solutions offered an excellent platform for in-depth expert talks.

BASF and Aspen Aerogels announced the expansion of their strategic partnership with the signing of an addendum to their exclusive supply agreement. The addendum provides for the production and supply of a new non-combustible, high-performance thermal insulation product. The new product, complimentary to the existing Silica aerogel Slentex is said to have shown excellent performance in early testing with lead customers. As part of the agreement, Aspen has received a second tranche of prepayment from BASF which will be used to support product optimization and new process development. BASF receives exclusive rights to market the newly developed product.

From idea to series production-ready fibre composite solutions: At JEC World KraussMaffei has highlighted its system expertise in developing and implementing series production-ready processes for fibre-reinforced lightweight construction. The focus of the trade show appearance was on new processes and applications that are based on both thermoset and thermoplastic matrix materials. The FiberForm process, pultrusion and unidirectional (UD) tapes are front and center.

The Rampf Group has realigned the cooperation with its long-standing partner Orient Dosiertechnik from Korea with the founding of Rampf Korea Co., Ltd. Within the framework of the new joint venture based in Hwaseong City, mixing and dispensing systems are being developed and produced especially for the Asian markets. For this, Rampf Korea will predominantly be using dispensing components from German company Rampf Production Systems.

FoamPartner, the Swiss polyurethane foam specialist, has partnered with Rinspeed, the renowned creative think tank and mobility lab for the automotive industry, to develop advanced concepts for the mobility of tomorrow. The microSNAP concept car developed by Rinspeed illustrates the potential of innovative foam technology for automotive interiors as well as acoustic and thermal insulation.