Covestro well on track

Group sales and EBITDA up significantly in the first quarter

27-Apr-2018 - With a successful start to 2018, materials manufacturer Covestro continues its strong growth. Thanks to ongoing robust demand and higher prices, sales rose by 5.4% to EUR 3.8 billion in the first quarter. The main sales drivers were the Polyurethanes and Polycarbonates segments. Core volumes ...

A polymer that puts plastic on a better path toward recyclability

27-Apr-2018 - Researchers have developed a family of synthetic polymers that can be repeatedly recycled, an important feat because current efforts to recycle plastic are so limited. Globally, the production of plastic has increased to the point where output is expected to exceed 500 million metric tons by ...

Change at the top management of Covestro brought forward

Patrick Thomas retires on May 31, 2018, by mutual agreement

16-Apr-2018 - The Supervisory Board of Covestro has agreed on an amicable retirement of Patrick Thomas’ tenure as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective May 31, 2018. Patrick Thomas contract as CEO would have originally ended on September 30, 2018. Already in May 2017, Patrick Thomas had informed the ...

Gabriel Performance Products acquires Royce International

10-Apr-2018 - Gabriel Performance Products announces the acquisition of Royce International. Headquartered in Sarasota, FL, Royce is a custom solutions provider of specialty epoxy resins, diluents, curing agents, and additives. These are sold under the RoyOxy TM trademark into CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, ...

Turning polymer films into self-sensing high-tech actuators

28-Mar-2018 - They might only be made from thin silicon film, but they can squeeze down hard, deliver a powerful thrust, vibrate or hold any required position. And because they can act as sensors, they are becoming important tools in technical applications. Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University ...

Covestro sells business unit in North America

26-Mar-2018 - Plaskolite announced that it is acquiring the North American polycarbonate sheet manufacturing business of Covestro. The acquisition transforms the North American sheet industry by combining the leader in acrylic manufacturing and the leader in polycarbonate manufacturing. As a part of the ...

Customizing polymers using visible light

22-Mar-2018 - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University used a light-sensitive iridium-palladium catalyst to make "sequential" polymers, using visible light to change how different building blocks are combined into polymer chains. By simply switching the light on or off, they were able to realize ...

SONGWON begins large scale manufacture of functional monomers

21-Mar-2018 - Having started to develop functional monomers about two years ago, SONGWON has now begun bulk manufacture at its production site in Ulsan, South Korea. These monomers provide resins and polymers with special functions, one of the most important being improvement of the physical and chemical ...

Evonik plans new polyamide 12 complex in Marl

Evonik's largest investment in Germany

15-Mar-2018 - Evonik is planning to build a new production complex for the high-performance polymer polyamide 12 (PA 12). The Group intends to increase its overall PA 12 capacity by more than 50 percent. Polyamide 12 is required in attractive growth markets such as the automotive industry, oil and gas ...

What the Smell Can Tell

The degradation status of modern polymeric museum artifacts can be classified by their smell

08-Mar-2018 - Breath analysis in disease diagnostics is a promising research field, and the advances in instrumentation allows the accurate detection of metabolites. But not only the health status of patients, but also the preservation status of museum artifacts could be monitored. Heritage science researchers ...