Exciting technical presentations, an interesting factory tour and a communicative supporting program inspired the participants of the 22nd International FSK Conference, which took place from 22 to 23 November 2013. The Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes Association (FSK) hosted the two-day industry event at the BayKomm Communication Center at the site of the host company Covestro AG in Leverkusen.
The “BayKomm” at the Covestro AG site, an impressive venue for the approx. 130 participants (Source: FSK)
Get-together – a special experience after a long corona break
On the evening before the FSK symposium, the FSK invited participants to the traditional pre-event get-together. This year at the Manforter Hof brewery. With its typical Rhineland character – bourgeois and cosy, cheerful and atmospheric – an ideal platform for a collegial exchange of ideas.
Symposium with a wide range of specialist presentations
The 2023 International Conference of the Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes Association (FSK) took participants to the Covestro AG site in Leverkusen. The inspiring venue was the “BayKomm”, an extraordinary communication and event center at the Covestro AG site. At the official welcome and opening, Albrecht Manderscheid, Cannon Deutschland GmbH, formally still Chairman of the FSK Board of Management, emphasized the increasing importance of recycling and the circular economy for the PU industry. In the long term, polyurethane could only survive if solutions to these issues were developed. He promised the participants a wide range of specialist presentations dealing with the current status of work on recycling technologies. The panel discussion scheduled for the afternoon would give participants the opportunity to have their questions on these topics answered by experts.
After 27 years as Chairman of the FSK Board, Albrecht Manderscheid thanked all his colleagues who had accompanied him during this time. “These 27 years and everything that has happened during this time cannot be summarized in 10 minutes,” he continued. But the few examples he gave, ranging from the work of the various working groups and the many events organized by the FSK to the training platform for the REACH restriction procedure for handling diisocyanates, gave an idea of what the FSK has achieved with him as a driving force during his time in office. – In a separate report, you can read the detailed interview with Albrecht Manderscheid and the worthy farewell by laudator Dr Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro AG and President of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI).
He welcomed the new FSK Chairman Jörg Arntzen, Dow Anlagengesellschaft mbH, as moderator for the two days of the event. Dr Torsten Heinemann, Covestro Deutschland AG, opened the series of presentations with his keynote speech “How to turn regulatory risks into opportunities”, with which he prepared the participants for the panel discussion on “Chemical Recycling”, which took place in the afternoon. The European chemical industry is faced with a multitude of regulations that present it with difficult challenges. He acknowledged that the chemical industry is part of the problem, but also emphasized that the chemical industry is in a better position than any other to solve the current problems. He appealed to the entire industry to minimize the risk for individual companies through cooperation and funding.
Dr Matthias Hinrichs, BASF SE, also set the mood for the panel discussion with his presentation. His technical presentation “Chemical recycling of polyurethanes – closing the loop” was about “cracking the bond”. He presented the recycling process of depolymerization in a clear and comprehensible way. A clear advantage of the approach is the significantly lower energy input compared to gasification and pyrolysis, as well as a significantly lower CO2 footprint than with the extraction of the virgin material. According to Dr Matthias Hinrichs, successful projects in the areas of shoe soles, bicycle seats, refrigerators and the joint project with Neveon in the area of mattresses all have one thing in common: it depends on the quality of the source material. Then the quality of the recycled product is equal to the original.
Top-class panel discussion provides ideas for the future
In the afternoon, high-caliber experts answered the participants’ questions on these topic in a panel discussion on “Chemical Recycling”. In an extremely lively and open discussion, Dr Martin Baumert, BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Dr Torsten Heinemann, Covestro Deutschland AG, Prof Dr Mathias Seitz, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, and Dr Annegret Terheiden, Evonik Operations GmbH, provided an overview of the current technical status and the many unresolved issues, e.g. regarding the collection and sorting of waste or the specification of recycled polyols.
Panel discussion on chemical recycling with a top-class line-up (from left to right): Jörg Arntzen (moderator), Prof Dr Mathias Seitz, Dr Martin Baumert, Dr Annegret Terheiden, Dr Torsten Heinemann (source: FSK)
Innovation awards for innovative products, processes and technologies
Another highlight in the afternoon was the ceremony moderated by Sven Müller, Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH, for the Innovation Award, which the FSK has been presenting for many years. In addition to honoring forward-looking ideas, the FSK Innovation Award is primarily aimed at promoting young talent and supporting cooperation between the award winners and potential industry partners. The expert jury selected by the FSK evaluates according to a number of criteria, e.g. novelty, market and competitiveness, sustainability, technical feasibility and design. Prizes are awarded in various categories in the “Experts/Professionals” and “Young Professionals” categories. Five of the 18 proposals submitted were awarded an innovation prize. – Read the details of the Innovation Award in a separate report.
The participants were able to round off the first day of the event in a pleasant atmosphere in the Barmenia Lounge of the BayArena. Here there was plenty of time and opportunity for networking and further professional exchange.
The second day also impressed with interesting presentations
The second day offered the participants specialist presentations of a somewhat different kind than usual. Alexander Hinzsch, Hinzsch Schaumstofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG, with his presentation “The company is on fire – and now? Experiences and actions of an affected foam processor”, in which he spoke about his experiences in dealing with authorities and insurance companies after his company was temporarily incapacitated in 2022 due to a fire that caused millions in damage.
Cybercrime can also result in high losses, as Michael Glunk, Continental Automotive Technologies GmbH, was able to confirm from his own experience. His company was the victim of a Lockbit cyber gang that stole 40 terabytes of sensitive data from Continental and demanded a ransom of 50 million euros. His presentation “Cyber security – growing demands on our IT systems” made the audience aware of how to deal with emails and websites and warned them to be particularly careful when clicking on links.
After these two somewhat different presentations, things got technical again. Dr Catherine Lövenich, Covestro Deutschland AG, gave an update on the current status of the publicly funded project “Circular Foam: the development of chemical recycling technologies for rigid polyurethane foam. Various solutions are being investigated in the joint project. Dr Catherine Lövenich focused in particular on chemolysis and “smart pyrolysis”.
Dr Dennis Krause, Covestro Deutschland AG, took the current trend towards digitalization into account with his presentation on “Foaming Simulation – A digital technology for early insights during development”. His simulation results make it possible to optimize process parameters at an early stage, in particular the mould design, for example the position of the injection points, venting plan, mould temperature, etc. This can significantly reduce the number of necessary pilot tests and therefore also the development time.
Fabian Tenberge, Remondis Recycling GmbH & Co. KG, with his presentation “REMONDIS Recycling”, which looked at the topic from a completely different angle. Using the example of mattresses, he highlighted the problems that a waste disposal company faces: starting with the fact that the volume of waste cannot be precisely tracked as there is no specific waste code for mattresses, the ways in which mattresses end up as waste are very varied. As a result, the mattresses are usually heavily contaminated, so that ultimately a large proportion can only be used for thermal recycling.
Klaus Junginger, Managing Director of the FSK, gave a positive summary of the event: “We are delighted with the positive feedback from the participants at our association’s all-round successful 22nd symposium. As usual, the event addressed the latest hot topics from the polyurethane industry and the FSK once again offered an ideal platform to actively develop its sustainable network.
In order to make all this possible, the cooperation of many members is required and so he did not miss the opportunity to award two FSK certificates of thanks before the official farewell and the transfer to the Covestro AG technical center. These were presented to the two former FSK Board members Dr Dirk-Endres Hein and Rüdiger Simon for their many years of work and support for the FSK.
The Covestro AG technical center, a crowning finale
The tour of the technical center featured three stations for the visitors. At the first station, the production of a composite material by compression molding was shown in a live demonstration: a polyurethane formulation is sprayed onto a sandwich made of paper honeycomb and glass, natural or carbon fiber mats and then pressed. The result is lightweight composite structures with good flexural strength and torsional rigidity.
The second station showed the modern double conveyor belt for the production of metal sandwich elements and insulation panels, which allows the processing of both rigid and flexible cover layers and is therefore almost unique.
At the last station, the participants had the opportunity to find out about the use of polyurethanes in the construction of rotor blades for wind turbines. These consist of high-performance composite materials that are produced by saturating a glass fiber matrix with an infusion resin using a vacuum. The use of PUR resins allows faster curing times and provides composites with very good mechanical properties and high fatigue resistance.
Further information on the Fachverband Schaumkunststoffe und Polyurethane e.V. (FSK) and its events, as well as on the work of the expert committees, is available online at www.fsk-vsv.de/eng or by phone: 0711 993 751- 0.