Wittmann Battenfeld has intensified the cooperation between its Sales and Application Engineering departments. To this end, special focal areas of application technology have been defined and appropriate reorganization measures taken. Six fields have been selected to receive special attention over the next two years: medical technology, micro injection molding, packaging technology, elastomer engineering, multi-component injection molding and light-weight design. Wolfgang Roth, Head of Application Engineering will be in charge of directing the product experts jointly with Valentina Faloci, Head of Sales.

The General Directorate of Rubber under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and World Wide Fund for Nature-Cambodia (WWF-Cambodia) have announced their cooperation to build a multilateral partnership for transparent and sustainable natural rubber supply chains in the Kingdom. WWF-Cambodia country director Seng Teak and rubber directorate director-general Pol Sopha signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 12 January 2021.

Celanese announced it will build a new world-scale, multiphase liquid crystal polymer (LCP) polymerization facility at either an existing or greenfield site in China. The plant is anticipated to have an LCP production capacity of around 20,000 t/y, with the first phase of the project expected to come online in 2024.

Endurica LLC has received the 2020 United States Small Business Administration (SBA) Tibbetts Award which recognises companies that best exemplify the spirit and intent of the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme. Since 1982 this programme has been supporting the most innovative research entrepreneurs in science, engineering and technology start, grow and transition into high-growth companies.

Momentive Performance Materials, Inc. announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire KCC Corporation’s Silicones business in Korea and the UK as well as its sales operations in China. According to Momentive, the transaction will further enhance its global capabilities in advanced silicones and specialised applications.

Arburg announced that in January 2021 it has entered into a trade partnership with LSVN Co. Ltd. to expand its injection moulding business in Vietnam. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, LSVN has more than 20 years of experience in the field of injection moulding, during which time it has successfully established itself as a distribution partner and service provider for the injection moulding industry.

Covestro has received ISCC Plus mass balance certification for its Antwerp, Belgium, and Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, sites. This means the company can now offer its customers large product volumes of polycarbonate made from renewable attributed raw materials in the same good quality as fossil-based polycarbonate. The polyurethane raw material methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) from Krefeld-Uerdingen and its precursor aniline from the Antwerp plant are now also available with ISCC Plus certification.

With the Pioneers!Talks, in 2021 KraussMaffei will continue to rely on digital events: The focus of the new format is on topics relating to current trends and developments in the plastics sector. The next two events in February 2021 will cover Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) and the trends and potential of plastics in medical technology.

On 14 January 2021, Biesterfeld announced that it is expanding its partnership with Denka Company Limited by taking on the distribution of Denka ER acrylate rubbers with immediate effect. The new agreement applies to the whole of Europe (except Spain and Turkey), Russia and Brazil.

Due to the corona pandemic, Deutsche Kautschuk Gesellschaft e. V. has rescheduled DKT IRC 2021 to summer 2022. After intensive consultation, the committee responsible for organizing DKT IRC 2021 has decided that the conference and trade show cannot take place as planned from 28 June to 1 July 2021. The trade exhibition will be moved to 27 to 30 June 2022. The venue NürnbergMesse will remain the same.