Polyscope SMA grades quickly qualified for more than 50 auto apps

When Nova Chemicals discontinued SMA production this past summer, many automakers around the globe needed help. Changing materials can be time consuming and costly. SMA maker Polyscope Polymers jumped on the challenge, and within five months has qualified its Xiran SMA resins as direct replacements for more than 50 former applications of Nova Dylark SMA.

Xiran SMA (styrene maleic anhydride) components are now being used in the production chain of vehicles from Ford, Audi, GM, Toyota, and Ferrari, among others, which are marketed in Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2009 was already a year automakers hope to forget, none of them wanted to halt production due to missing components. 



"We at Polyscope are proud of how quickly our global team worked during such a difficult time to ensure that no automaker's or tier supplier’s plants were forced to idle or shut down during the supply switchover from Nova Chemicals," noted Patrick Muezers, Polyscope managing director. He added that, besides moving quickly on the material qualifications, Polyscope also acted to ensure it would have capacity to stay ahead of customer demands.



Another change is offering customers the option to buy in bulk using lined ocean shipping containers, which are easily handled at ports and whose contents can be blown into a silo easily. In light of the new business it has acquired, Polyscope, which makes SMA at its headquarters in Geleen, The Netherlands, is investigating potential compounding locations in North America and Southeast Asia for added capacity. —[email protected]