6th International specialist conference for foam plastics in Düsseldorf
Dr.-Ing. chem. Emil Brunner was born on 12. 06. 1918 in Winterthur/Switzerland. After attending high school in his home town, he began studying chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. After graduating as an engineering chemist in 1942, he received his doctorate from Professor Dr. A. Guyer in 1944. He then joined Lonza AG in 1945 as a chemist, initially as a clerk for organic intermediates and plastics in the organic development office in Visp. In 1955 he moved to the Sins plant, where he played a key role in the development of closed-cell PVC foams and the start of production in 1953. Since the foundation of Airex AG, a Lonza subsidiary, in 1956, he was its Technical Manager, later a member of the Management Board, responsible for development, production and application technology.
The pioneering achievement of the award-winner is that he was instrumental in the development of the manufacturing processes and application technology of closed-cell PVC foam plastics. He invented new processes for high-quality soft PVC foam plastics. Through comprehensive, technically flawless documentation, he contributed to the introduction of thermoplastic PVC foam plastics in design and technology.