The new, expanded application laboratory at the Jinqiao site in Shanghai’s
Pudong district is the first application
laboratory in China that Merck KGaA,
Darmstadt, Germany, launched to deliver comprehensive, customized services
for its quality products and to seek and
foster creative collaboration with customers for new applications and formulations. This collaboration began in 1998
with the opening of the first site at Fudan
University in Shanghai, based on the example of our Customer Support Center.
The TANC initially focused on print applications, with three expansions over the
years leading to additional application
fields – ranging from plastics, coating,
and cosmetic applications, to dispersion
paints and powder coating technologies,
to quality control and cosmetic testing. China is one of the fastest- growing
markets for our pigments and cosmetics
businesses. Many of China’s most popular and best-known brand manufacturers
rely on pigments and functional materials
from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany,
and tap into the TANC when developing
new products.
The underlying TAN (Technology
Application Network) is a global unit
with more than 100 employees in central competence centers who provide
the market regions with technical consultation and access to application technology laboratories. Within a split of a
second, information can be transmitted
from one site to another via a global network, allowing the sites to benefit from
each other.
Thanks to expansion of the TANC
in Shanghai, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,
Germany, can meet the growing number
of customer requests for close collabo-
ration and technical consultation on the
entire product portfolio of pigments and
functional materials and especially on
how to integrate these products in new
technologies. This includes the use of
pigments in high-temperature ceramics,
RGB printing, and waterborne coatings
or the application of polysilazanes. In ad-
dition, more and more customers are ex-
pressing a wish for local training. It thus
made sense to establish a customer expe-
rience center for workshops in a creative
environment and with good connections
to a lab.
The TANC’s core tasks are to evaluate R&D materials according to customer specification, develop demo tools
and steer their production, scientifically
support products with lectures and publications, provide training for employees
and customers, and perform supportive
work for quality control and production.
“The new TANC boosts our capabilities for supporting China and the surrounding region,” said Friedhelm Felten,
Executive Vice President and Head of
Pigments & Functional Materials, about
the latest visible signs of continuous investments by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,
Germany, in China over many years.
“We’re pleased that we can now offer
our Chinese customers even more capacities to make their customers’ color
dreams come true – from automotive
coatings to printing, architecture, and
cosmetics. Furthermore, we’re expanding their possibilities by providing technical services for functional materials,
such as for laser marking or security
applications.” This reflects our custom-er-centric approach of not only developing high-quality raw materials for
innovative products in line with market
requirements and making them its partners, but also delivering the related innovative technologies and applications.
DIC Installs Multireaction
Tanks at its Synthetic Resins
Production Facility
DIC has installed three multireaction
tanks—which enable a high degree of
freedom in temperature regulation and
paddle configuration—at its Hokuriku
Plant, a synthetic resins production facility in the city of Hakusan Ishikawa
Prefecture, with the aim of improving
production efficiency.
This move will enable the plant to
accommodate more product lines than
previously possible and shorten reaction
times, allowing the efficient production of
a broad range of synthetic resins.
Hokuriku Plant produces acrylic resins and polyurethane resins, etc. which
are used in coatings, adhesives and electronic materials.
Against a backdrop of rising
demand for waterborne and other environment-friendly resins,
as well as for high-value-added
products such as functional resins for
electronics materials, ensuring the ability
to efficiently put out a diverse range of
products is an urgent challenge.
The new multireaction tanks enable
mild temperature adjustments over a
wide range, from low to high, which was
previously difficult
The tanks also allow reaction control
with precise temperature regulation
The Hokuriku Plant can now efficient-
ly produce a wider variety of synthetic
resins than ever before, including low-
viscosity, high-viscosity, solventborne and
solvent-free products
Under its current medium-term man-
agement plan, DIC108, DIC has outlined
a policy of concentrating management re-
sources on strategic products. By not only
realizing the efficient production of high-
value-added strategic products, but also
facilitating reaction control, this invest-
ment at the Hokuriku Plant will also help
resolve issues related to the passing on of
technologies, an increasing concern as a
new generation of workers takes over.
Evonik Expands Fumed
Silica Capacities in Antwerp
Evonik is investing an amount in the upper double-digit million euro range in
the expansion of its fumed silica capacities in Antwerp, Belgium. The production
complex is scheduled to become operational in the summer of 2019. Typical
applications of these specialty silica,
which Evonik markets under the name
AEROSIL, include coatings and paints,
modern adhesive systems, transparent
silicones as well as non-flammable high-performance insulation materials.
“The investment is a good fit for our
strategy to concentrate more on distinct
specialty chemicals businesses and to
gradually create a more balanced portfolio,” said Christian Kullmann, chairman
of the Evonik Executive Board. Silica
are part of “Smart Materials”, one of
Evonik’s four strategic growth engines
with above-average market growth and
margin potential.” CW
