"The ability to replicate manufacturing conditions will facilitate faster and more efficient product launches for our customers, thereby reducing their time to market, risk and design costs...By streamlining the design process, customers can slash development time while optimizing efficiency - two keys for a major competitive advantage," said Jean-Marc Verhaeghe, global marketing director, PolyOne Global Engineered Materials
The Gaggenau facility includes a testing laboratory with processing and color matching equipment, computer simulation software, and a staff of scientists and engineers to help customers. Testing can be conducted for mechanical properties such as modulus, ductility, and strength; physical properties such as density, electrical resistance, and creep; and rheological and flammability behaviors.
Processing machinery housed there includes twin-screw extrusion lines for thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) and engineering thermoplastics, a profile extrusion line for quality assessment of TPEs, and injection molding machines (one and two component) for sample geometries and prototypes.
Injection molding simulation software (MoldFlow and Simpoe-Mold) is available as is 3D-CAD and FEM analysis software, and color matching software and hardware.
PolyOne (Avon Lake, OH) operates nine Innovation Centers around the world. In Europe, the new facility in Germany joins two other locations in Assesse, Belgium and Cergy, France. The company was in the news just last week when it announced its $21 million acquisition of a Brazilian plastics compounder.
