Detect and Block privacy threats to your computer. Protect your identity.

2006-05-31 News Headlines

Web jobwerx.com jobwerx.tradepub.com

Search Jobwerx The Engineering Web

New SMA polymers production for paper and automotive plastics industries

The company, Polyscope Polymers, founded in 2006 by plastics industry veterans, will start manufacturing SMA polymers for the automotive and paper industries.

Polyscope Polymers has announced that it will start manufacturing SMA polymers for the automotive and paper industries. The company, which was founded in 2006 by automotive plastics industry veterans Michael Downs and Josef-Michael Eder together with strategic investors, has attracted major international funding from a consortium of investors led by LIOF and Limburg Ventures and is set to revitalise an existing polymer plant at the Chemelot site in Geleen, the Netherlands, to again produce SMA copolymers.

SMA co-polymers (styrene-maleic anhydride) are increasingly being used by leading car manufacturers including VW/Audi, Opel and Ford for automotive interior components such as instrument panels. This choice is driven by the copolymer’s high temperature stability, adimensional precision and adhesion characteristics, important to attach a soft, foamed skin. Applied as a component in paper-sizing the SMA product from Polyscope helps to obtain smooth paper finishes and gives better printability with less ink ‘bleeding’.

Private investors and Management Team in the photograph from left to right: Uwe Wascher, Michael Downs, Josef-Michael Eder and Adgild Hop. Click Go for High resolution image. photo: Polyscope Polymers

The management of Polyscope Polymers has indicated that it plans to start production later this year. According to statutory director Michael Downs: “Polyscope Polymers has the ambition to develop additional applications for SMA and to expand the production capacity over time.”

Leading investors

Limburg Development Company LIOF and Limburg Ventures acted as the lead investors for Polyscope Polymers. Both LIOF and Limburg Ventures offered extensive support during the business planning process. They were also involved in the formation of a consortium which includes private investors Adgild Hop and Uwe Wascher of Kapellen, Belgium. These investors have a long track records in the automotive and plastics industries and agreed to join LIOF and Limburg Ventures in providing venture capital in equity and subordinated loans.

NV Industriebank LIOF is the regional development company of the Dutch province of Limburg. LIOF aims to improve the effectiveness of the companies on which it focuses and has identified four core tasks: Investment Promotion & Business Development, Participations, Development & Innovation and Business Parks. With regard to venture capital LIOF focuses on new and existing, small and medium-sized, industrial and support-service companies which are expected to demonstrate sustainable growth.

Limburg Ventures is a venture capital fund which focuses on innovative businesses in the fields of advanced materials and the life sciences who wish to establish themselves in the provence of Limburg, The Netherlands, and by preference at the Geleen Campus of Chemelot. The fund was founded by DSM and LIOF. Limburg Ventures invests in young businesses that have generated a proven (product) concept and now are in need of capital for rapid growth. In its activities, the fund seeks to link up with the region’s strengths in the fields of materials and the life sciences and to open up networks giving access to universities and the market for the companies in which it participates.

Find more information about Limburg Ventures.

Besides venture capital, the consortium brings important expertise and networks and will actively support the management; it will take two seats in the company’s supervisory board. The size of the investment in Polyscope was not disclosed.

The establishment of the company can be regarded as a boost for the Chemelot site, which aims to attract innovative companies to its ‘Materials valley’. The idea of Chemelot is that companies can use and exchange competences and services with each other and DSM. Michael Downs: “We value the support given by Chemelot and DSM to start our new company. We anticipate to benefit from the expertise available in the field of environment and safety, in purchasing and manufacturing and in customer support, development and innovation.”

Ger Wagemans, managing director of Chemelot, is very pleased with the establishment of Polyscope Polymers: “We are delighted to welcome Polyscope Polymers as they join DSM, Sabic, Sekisui, Celanese, EdeA, LVM, Carbolim, Basic Pharma, Nanospecials and other companies at our site. We believe that the company will benefit from its location at Chemelot, which has rapidly become a centre of excellence, competence and capabilities for the chemical industry.”

Chemelot is the independent chemical and sciences park in the Euregio Maas Rhine. Site users find excellent manufacturing capabilities and industrial services, together with an open attitude towards innovation, high chem and performance materials development. DSM, Sabic, Sekisui, Celanese, EdeA, LVM, Carbolim, Basic Pharma, Nanospecials and many other companies are hosted on the Chemelot site.

Read a recent press release about - 'LANXESS at the 10th international PLASTPOL in Poland presents a comprehensive product portfolio for the plastics industry in Eastern Europe.'

Find Information and Suppliers for automotive plastics.

Polymer Engineering Jobs - Post a Job Today!

E-mail this page to a friend

- Rohm and Haas growing the acrylic polymers business

- Certification, Training and Courses from The American Management Association

- Looking for a Study Program?

- All this Months News

- How Well Do You Know Yourself? Select from 22 different tests and find out!

Copyright - Unless otherwise stated all contents of this web site are © 1998/2006 JOBWERX.COM. – All Rights Reserved. For permission to reproduce any contents of this web site, please advise our Syndication department: Log onto HELP