Bayer MaterialScience polyurethane ups sustainability and worker safety

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer MaterialScience, a leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials, recently launched its new water-based polyurethane (PU) for the manufacture of PU leather, called INSQIN, which is working to improve worker safety and sustainability, as per Sourcingjournalonline.

INSQIN provides the footwear and apparel industries with a more sustainable and safer method of coating fabrics. It allows for all types of coated fabric processes to be carried out without using a solvent. And because the water-based method doesn’t require harsh solvents to coat the fabrics, the working environment is safer for employees too.

About seven billion pairs of shoes, two billion bags and one billion garments are produced with PU leather and other PU coated fabrics annually.

The INSQIN PU reduces environmental harm to local ecosystems by eliminating the pollution risks of the previous process, including water pollution, air pollution and hazardous solid waste. INSQIN also requires 95 percent less water and 50 percent less energy than the previous solvent-based method.

Bayer ensures the quality of the material is not at all affected without a solvent present. The INSQIN PU is specially formulated to retain the innate traits of PU leather including soft feel, high durability and voluminous, porous structure. INSQIN can be used on all types of fabrics that are commonly used in PU leather application including, wovens, non-wovens (including microfiber types) or knitwear.

Using its R&D setup and testing facilites, Bayer is able to work directly with brand owners to develop new kinds of materials that offer specific hands and characteristics they are looking to offer their customers. The company then uses its technology to create these new materials.

Bayer is also developing a quality assurance system called the INSQIN Partner Manufacturer Program, in which manufacturers will be audited to determine consistency and high standards in the application of waterborne PU technology. Brands will be able to source newly developed materials from an INSQIN partner list and have better transparency throughout the supply chain.

As MRC wrote before, Bayer MaterialScience expands technology and production by investing in a new ultra-modern technical centre for polyurethane foams and new production plant for coating raw materials. The total investment in both is more than EUR 45 million.

With 2013 sales of EUR 11.2 billion, Bayer MaterialScience is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction and the sports and leisure industries. At the end of 2013, Bayer MaterialScience had 30 production sites and employed approximately 14,300 people around the globe. Bayer MaterialScience is a Bayer Group company.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker, the Munich-based chemical group, has introduced ultrapure precision silicone films at Energy Harvesting & Storage USA, reported the company in its site.

The film is available as roll stock in thicknesses down to 20 microns. Marketed as ELASTOSIL Film, the product broadens the application potential of silicones significantly, making new product ideas possible, such as functional membranes and components for medical electronics or innovative technologies based on electroactive polymers such as sensors, actuators, and generators.

Precision silicone film: ELASTOSIL Film from the Munich-based chemical group Wacker is thinner than human hair. The film is manufactured under cleanroom conditions and has excellent dielectric properties. Potential applications include functional membranes and innovative technologies based on electroactive polymers (EAPs).

ELASTOSIL Film is a precision silicone film that has not yet been made commercially available in this form. It is made entirely from silicone elastomers and is available as roll stock in thicknesses down to 20 microns. ELASTOSIL Film is manufactured in cleanroom conditions without the use of solvents. For improved handling, it comes with an intermediate backing which can be peeled off easily without damaging the product.

ELASTOSIL Film is suitable as a gas-permeable packaging and protective film or as a membrane for separating or enriching gases. In this regard, silicone films exhibit a beneficial property typical of silicone elastomers: the film is permeable to water vapor and certain gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, but not to water.

Silicone elastomers are electrically insulating, have good dielectric properties, and endure long-term mechanical loads with hardly any signs of fatigue. Therefore, ELASTOSIL Film can also be used as an electroactive polymer (EAP). Under certain conditions, EAPs are able to alter their shape when electrical voltage is applied. Thus, they are able to replicate linear and natural forms of movement. Based on this principle of an artificial muscle, silicon films can be used to design novel kinds of sensors, actuators, and generators. Possible applications range from consumer electronics, electrical relays, valves and pumps to artificial limbs.

As MRC wrote previously, Wacker Polymers, a division of Wacker Chemie AG, has raised its prices for VINNAPAS vinyl acetate-ethylene (EVA) and VINNOL ethylene-vinyl chloride-based (EVCL) copolymer dispersions and dispersible powders in the Americas. Effective 1 November, 2014, Wacker implemented a price increase of USD0.03/pound, or as customer contracts allowed.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US plastics distributor Nexeo Solutions (The Woodlands, Texas) is expanding its European distribution portfolio through the addition of Invista’s (Wichita, Kansas / USA) Torzen PA 6.6 product line, as per Plasteurope.

The materials are used across a wide spectrum of applications in the automotive, E&E, industrial and consumer markets.

Claudio Degiorgi, director of Invista’s Engineering Polymer Solutions Europe division, said the distribution agreement is expected to add value in the European market by strengthening Invista’s reach across multiple market segments and regions.

As MRC wrote before, Nexeo Solutions announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Archway Sales, Inc. and Jacaab, LLC (Archway). The combined capability of Nexeo Solutions and Archway creates a full line distributor in the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE) industry.

Nexeo Solutions is the largest global chemical, plastics and composites distributor and environmental services with a centralized business model. As a private company employing more than 2300 employees with operations across North America, Europe and Asia, Nexeo Solutions is a leading distributor of chemicals, plastics, composites and environmental services.

Invista is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers. The company’s advantaged technologies for nylon, spandex and polyester are used to produce clothing, carpet, car parts and countless other everyday products. Headquartered in the United States, Invista operates in more than 20 countries and has about 10,000 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a move aimed at better servicing its customers in the UK and Ireland, liquid packaging and equipment supplier Sidel (Hunenberg / Switzerland) has relocated its UK office from Hatfield to Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, as per Plaseurope.

The 400 m2 premises now house the company’s Europe & Central Asia team.

The new location offers improved access to customers across the UK, Sidel said, adding that the use of PET by the packaging market in the UK and Ireland has grown by 1.9% in volume terms over the period of 2008-2013. The office will showcase all the latest packaging innovations, equipment and services, Sidel said.

The Swiss company has more than 50 offices worldwide, as well as 13 production sites and seven training centres. Its total workforce comes to more than 3,400.

As MRC wrote before, Sidel Group has opened a new training center in Guadalajara, Mexico, featuring a virtual factory environment, augmented reality and authentic parts that trainees can handle themselves. The new facility, which brings Sidel’s training centers to seven, has been developed to meet local customer needs.

Sidel is a manufacturing company providing packaging for liquids such as water; carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks; and sensitive beverages like milk, liquid dairy products, juices, nectars, tea, coffee and isotonics; as well as edible oil, beer and other alcoholic beverages. Sidel manufacturers and services equipment that enables other companies to package such liquids using one of three main materials: plastic (especially PET, and also HDPE and PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Battered by sanctions and oil’s accelerating price crash, OAO Rosneft has lost 38% of its market value this year in dollar terms and today the whole company, TNK-BP and all, is worth USD50 billion, said Bloomberg.

And buying TNK-BP has left Sechin, Rosneft’s chief executive officer and a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a lot of debt to repay. State-controlled Rosneft owes about $60 billion to banks and bondholders, making it more indebted relative to earnings than any large oil producer apart from Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

"Their aggressive expansion and debt accumulation made them more vulnerable to the falling oil price and the effect of sanctions," Oleg Popov, who helps oversee USD1 billion at Allianz Investments in Moscow, said by phone.

Sechin, who had pledged the combined company would be worth USD120 billion, has bigger ambitions than simply creating Russia’s largest oil producer. Putin’s point man for energy has sought to build a global oil major, swapping drilling rights at home for exploration blocks from Norway to the Gulf of Mexico. He bought production projects in Venezuela and half an oil refinery in Germany.

Rosneft, which achieved a market value of about USD96 billion in the weeks after the TNK-BP deal was announced, has underperformed both Russian and international competitors this year.

"If you have to sell some oil stock you will sell the most leveraged one, and that is Rosneft in Russia," Renata Klita, an analyst at Blackfriars Asset Management Ltd. in London, said by e-mail. Rosneft’s borrowing creates a higher sensitivity to crude prices, she said.

Sanctions imposed to punish Russia’s annexation of Crimea and policy toward Ukraine will limit Rosneft’s access to refinancing for existing loans. The Moscow-based company has already applied for state funds to help repay $30 billion that’s due by the end of next year.
MRC