“First and foremost, we want
to ensure that we can provide
a reliable supply coupled with
excellent customer service and
logistics for our customers,” said U.S.
Zinc’s commercial vice president Tracy
Baugh. “This expansion continues our
commitment to the market to ensure a
seamless customer experience.”
BASF Venture Capital
Leads $3 Million Series
A Financing in SLIPS
Technologies
BASF Venture Capital has led a $3 million Series A financing with a $1.5 million investment in SLIPS Technologies
Inc. based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Swiss entrepreneur and private investor Hansjörg Wyss has also participated
in the financing.
SLIPS Technologies develops customized, highly-repellent slippery surfaces for customers in all industries
including energy, packaging, consumer,
automotive and environmental. The
company’s technology platform was
created by Prof. Joanna Aizenberg
and her team at the Wyss Institute
for Biologically Inspired Engineering
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
the Harvard University School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Alongside the investment, BASF
has signed a joint development agreement with SLIPS Technologies to develop SLIPS-coated thermoplastics with
primary focus on thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs). TPUs are used in a variety of applications such as sports and
leisure footwear, industrial cables as well
as specialty films.
“By collaborating with SLIPS
Technologies, we will develop and commercialize TPUs with new and exciting
properties,” said Steve Fischer, director of
New Markets & Products, Performance
Materials division at BASF.
The company will use the proceeds
from the financing to advance various
commercial applications of its slippery
surfaces through internal development as
well as in partnerships with its customers
in industry and government.
BASF and Hemmelrath
Technologies Enter into
Development Partnership
BASF and Hemmelrath Technologies,
a company that specializes in modular
facility concepts for the production of
paint and coatings, have entered into a
cooperation in order to develop future-oriented concepts of pigment technology.
The companies said that thier aim is to
improve the output and quality of coatings and paint production and save costs
through the introduction of new processes. Both organizations plan to combine
the modular coating plant technology
(MoFa-Technology) with pigment preparations from the Xfast range of BASF.
Hemmelrath Technologies, which is
based in Erlenbach (Bavaria/Germany), is
a process innovator in the field of paste
production for coatings and paint. The
company has developed the so-called
MoFa-Technology where the individual
steps of coating production are combined
and interlinked in one single facility. This
technology leads to significant savings in
energy, raw material and time compared
with traditional production procedures
and can be used both for large and small
production quantities.
In joint tests, Hemmelrath
Technologies and BASF want to develop
concepts to combine MoFa-Technology
with pigment preparations and are going to use the concentrated, solid preparations from the Xfast range of BASF to
this end. These stir-in pigments in the
shape of free-flowing granules that are
low in dust can be stirred directly into
aqueous coatings and paint formulations
and disperse in no time at all. It is no
longer necessary to grind the pigment
particles in a bead mill.
AkzoNobel, The Economist
Intelligence Unit Investigate
the Future of Cities
AkzoNobel has partnered with The
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) – the
business research arm of The Economist
Group – to explore what makes urban
areas sustainable and examine how cities
can become more liveable.
The EIU will engage with a team of
expert thinkers and writers over the
next few months, culminating in the
distribution of a high-profile report in
January 2015.
Showcased via a series of interviews
and blogs on The EIU’s thought leader-
ship website, topics to be covered will
include how to make transport more ac-
cessible, the benefits of empowering com-
munities to improve their environment,
learning how to integrate slums and as-
sessing what can be done to make cities
more age-friendly.
The aim of the cooperation is to bring
together leading independent commentators from across the world and invite
them to give their own views on how our
cities can better serve the people who live
and work there.
AkzoNobel said it is already working to improve the world’s urban areas
through its Human Cities initiative,
which is designed to address some of the
key challenges of the 21st century. The
introductory EIU article stresses that
“to appreciate and realize the value of
people in a city means creating and designing environments where human interaction can thrive.”
BASF Wolman GmbH
Launches New Brand
Design
BASF Wolman GmbH, a European market leader in wood protection, has officially launched its new corporate brand
design during a two day customer
symposium in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Approximately 90 global key customers and business partners attended the
event. The new design follows the recent name change of the legal entity
from previously “Dr. Wolman GmbH”
to “BASF Wolman GmbH” at the beginning of the year.
It is comprised of the red BASF color
scheme and the reworked Wolman shield
logo with a new graphic design element
of yellow stripes in an interpretation of
the traditional Wolman shield. With the
new claim “Leading the Way in Wood
Protection“ Wolman underlines that it
stands for scientific expertise, partnership, technical competence and problem
solving skills as well as professional service and state of the art products. CW
