Trinseo has appointed Andre Lanning as the new Global Business Director, Synthetic Rubber. Lanning assumed the role on 1 November 2019, succeeding Samer Al Jabi, who was recently named Director, Corporate Development.

Electrically conductive fillers can be used as “markers” for condition monitoring of elastomer components, provided the exact correlation between the mechanical and dielectric properties of the material is known. Part 1 of a series of three articles on simultaneous dynamic-mechanical and dielectric analysis, deals with the influence of a defined static mechanical deformation on the dielectric spectra of a carbon black-filled HNBR.

According to Engel Austria GmbH, the trade show JEC World 2020 from 3 – 5 March 2020 in Paris, France, will showcase the entire value-added chain of the composites industry. One important part of this chain is forming thermoplastic fibre-composite preforms, explained the company. The organomelt process from Engel is said to take this one step further. Organic sheets and unidirectional tapes are not just formed, but also functionalised in the same injection moulding step. This will be demonstrated live at the Engel stand N79 in hall 5.

Lanxess announced that it has added a plant-based raw material variant to its Aktiplast PP product range. These processing promoters for polymer blends are used in the production of tyres as well as all kinds of technical rubber articles. According to the manufacturer, Aktiplast PP-veg, which is based on renewable raw materials, was developed specifically in response to a customer requirement from Asia. In this way, Lanxess’ Rhein Chemie business unit aims to enable rubber processors to reduce their CO2 footprint. An international tyre manufacturer from Europe has already expressed great interest, said the company.

The board of directors of Bridgestone Corporation has approved the proposal to appoint Shuichi Ishibashi as new CEO and successor of Masaaki Tsuya in December 2019. The change in the global CEO position is subject to approval at the board of directors meeting to be held after the company’s annual shareholder meeting in March 2020.

On 19 February 2020, the Chinaplas show organiser Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd. officially announced that this year’s event has been rescheduled to 3 – 6 August 2020 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC), Hongqiao in Shanghai, China. Adsale issued the following statement, which is quoted here in its original wording:

Kraton Corporation announced that it will exhibit at Tire Technology Expo 2020 from 25 – 27 February 2020 in Hanover, Germany, to showcase its innovation portfolio at stand C230. This includes Sylvatraxx 8000 tread enhancement additive series, a second-generation polyterpene with high biobased content designed to optimise the balance between wet traction and rolling resistance in silica-filled passenger car tyre treads, especially in all-season tyres.

Hexpol AB has appointed Kenneth L. Bloom as new President Hexpol Compounding Americas. He succeeds Tracy Garrison who, as previously communicated, has decided to leave the company.

On 13 December 2019, Nynas AB has filed for company reorganisation at Södertörn's District Court in Sweden. According to the company, its loans have not been extended by the banks. Thus, Nynas cannot pay due debts forcing it to apply for a reorganisation of the company. Nynas is owned by Neste Oil of Finland and Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) with PDVSA being the majority shareholder. The US sanctions against Nynas’ shareholder PDVSA are said to have eroded the company’s profitability over time. Due to PDVSA's ownership, Nynas has been affected by US financial restrictions since August 2017. Recently, the company has also been stopped from buying crude oil from Venezuela which has been replaced with other crude oils. This has resulted in increased raw material costs.

Ascend Performance Materials has entered into a deal to purchase Poliblend SpA and Esseti Plast GD from D'Ottavio Group for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition includes a manufacturing facility in Mozzate, Italy, the masterbatch portfolio of Esseti Plast and the engineering plastics portfolio of Poliblend, which consists of virgin and recycled grades of polyamide (PA) 66, PA6, polybutylene terephthalate and polyoxymethylene.