HORGEN, Switzerland — April 5, 2012 — In line with the Company’s commitment to innovation, Dow
Europe GmbH (“Dow”) has announced today enhanced formulation and testing capabilities at the
Performance Plastics Innovation Center at Dow’s European Headquarters in Horgen, Switzerland.
Responding to extensive growth in the use of elastomers for adhesives and flexible membranes, Dow
has invested in new lab-scale equipment at the Center which will help accelerate technical
developments in these key market segments. Among the new lab capabilities is the installation of a
hot melt adhesive coating and lamination unit and a direct extrusion line for flexible
membranes. “The Performance Plastics Innovation Center will now house some of the
industry’s most advanced testing facilities for our products in adhesive and flexible membranes,”
said Pierre Burelli, EMEA Commercial Director, Dow Elastomers. “We see our lab as an extension of
our customers’ technical capabilities. We have the ability to develop and test products
simultaneously with them, and, in some cases, we can offer our lab to customers who may not have
these testing capabilities in-house.”
Dow Elastomers will host an Open House event at the Innovation Center in Horgen on April 12,
giving customers, suppliers and other key industry stakeholders a chance to see the new technology
first hand. Specialists from across Dow will showcase the advanced capabilities of the site
and representatives from Nordson Engineering, Eastman Chemical Company, BASF, Albemarle and
KraussMaffei Berstorff will give presentations on their technologies for these applications. The
new equipment includes:
* Nordson Coating and Lamination line designed to help evaluate the
processing performance of hot melt adhesives and to prepare samples for adhesion testing. Key
applications are in health and hygiene, such as non-woven top sheet and back sheet lamination, roll
goods and pressure sensitive adhesives.
* Co-rotating twin-screw extruder (25mm) combined with a flat-slit die and
three-roll calender for direct extrusion of flexible membranes. Key applications include roofing
and waterproofing membranes, flooring, automotive skins, noise vibration dampening and artificial
leather.
“This application-dedicated equipment offers capabilities that will help us develop solutions
faster based on Dow polymers which address specific market criteria and industry demands. For
membrane applications, we now have the ability to produce real life structures, to demonstrate the
highly flexible performance of solutions based on VERSIFY™, ENGAGE™ or INFUSE™ Elastomers from Dow
and test against some of the most stringent of industry standards like fire performance,” said Kurt
Kronawittleithner, EMEA R&D Leader, Dow Elastomers. “In addition, for hot melt adhesive
applications our new testing equipment can be used to determine overall performance on a variety of
substrates with multiple application modes, demonstrating the powerful bonds you can achieve with
AFFINITY™ GA and INFUSE™ Elastomers.”
Dow offers a broad portfolio of Elastomer resins that address some of the specific
performance requirements and industry standards for adhesives and flexible membranes. Hot
melt adhesives based on AFFINITY™ GA Polyolefin Elastomers and INFUSE™ Olefin Block Copolymers
(OBCS) can offer powerful bonds, increased sealing mileage, broad temperature range performance,
exceptional color stability and virtually char- and odor-free processing. For producers of
flexible membranes, VERSIFY™ Plastomers and Elastomers, ENGAGE™ Polyolefin Elastomers and INFUSE™
OBCS can offer ease of processing, high flexibility and remarkable welding properties in addition
to meeting critical fire performance in roofing and other building applications.
Posted on April 17, 2012
Source: Dow Europe GmbH
