SPE Central Europe has announced a new sponsor: Solvay Speciality Polymers will support an award category at the 20th Automotive Award 2021. According to SPE Central Europe, Solvay contributes with innovative and competitive solutions to meet today's and tomorrow's requirements in a wide range of areas, while at the same time conserving the resources of our planet. The Automotive Award of SPE Central Europe is awarded to innovative vehicle parts and components made of plastic.

The digital FK Conference 2020, offered by the German company Fecken-Kirfel GmbH & Co. KG, a specialist in the manufacture of customised splitting and stacking machines for the plastics, rubber and cork industry, will take place from 8 – 10 December 2020. A total of six presentations in English will inform about trends and current new developments. Interested parties can register to participate at the event from mid-November 2020 via the website www.fecken-kirfel.de. For the entire duration of the conference, participants also have the option of individual video conferences.

SaarGummi Group and the Japanese weatherstrip supplier Tokai Kogyo Co Ltd. have signed a wide-reaching technical agreement. The companies have been in contact since the beginning of 2018. In addition to a strategic partnership, the focus of the cooperation is above all the exchange of technology between the Japanese and German company.

Evonik announced that construction work on its largest investment to date – at more than EUR 400 million – is progressing well. The first plant at the site in Marl, Germany, was completed on schedule in mid-October 2020 and is currently being commissioned. Further plants will follow by Q1 2021, with full completion expected in H1 2021.

Repsol and Elix Polymers announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to promote circular materials in products with high added value in sectors such as automotive, health, household appliances, building and construction, amongst others. Under the agreement, Repsol will supply circular styrene from chemical recycling, certified under the ISCC Plus scheme, which Elix Polymers will use to produce technical polymers, such as ABS and SAN.

IMCD N.V., a distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients, announced the opening of its new US headquarters in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. IMCD said that the company debuts its new location to accommodate its expanding business, invest in its people and future growth, plus complement its global digitalisation initiatives to better serve its markets across the USA.

The Pinneberg-based German company Tramaco GmbH announced the launch of new expandable microspheres. According to the manufacturer, some materials, e.g. TPE/TPU, cannot be processed by chemical or physical foaming due to their low melt strength. In these cases the new product can offer an adequate solution.

Trinseo, a manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, announced that it has received mass balance certification for three families of products it manufactures in Europe.

Tyrata Inc. and Marubeni Corporation announced a collaboration for the distribution of Tyrata’s IntelliTread Drive-Over System (DOS) in Japan. The DOS and corresponding data analytics platform have proven effective in the automation of tyre tread depth monitoring. In connection with the collaboration, Marubeni will obtain the right to distribute and service Tyrata’s DOS in Japan, and Tyrata gains the support of a trusted technology partner in the Japanese market. Marubeni will start introducing DOS units to its customer base in Japan in Q4 2020.

Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS), a value chain initiative to increase the circularity of styrenics, announced that it has successfully demonstrated that polystyrene is mechanically recyclable to food contact standards. In cooperation with the Fraunhofer-Institute für Verfahrenstechnik und Verpackung IVV, SCS performed so-called challenge tests, which confirmed the high cleaning efficiency of the mechanical recycling technology for polystyrene to remove impurities originating from waste streams. These results enable the first application for an opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the use of recycled polystyrene (r-PS) as food contact material.