FSK presents Innovation Award for Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes 2022

Stuttgart, 22.09.2022. As part of its International Conference on Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes on September 13 and 14, 2022 in Dortmund, the Fachverband Schaumkunststoffe und Polyurethane e.V. (FSK) once again presented the popular industry innovation award. Now in its 25th year, students, young professionals and also companies can apply for the award with their innovative ideas in foam plastics or polyurethanes. The Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes Association (FSK) has set itself the goal of promoting young people in the industry and motivating them to submit new ideas, concepts and developments. To this end, the FSK announces an annual innovation award in the categories “Technology” and “Design and Creation” from the material areas of foam plastics and polyurethanes. For the first time, the FSC also allowed applications in a new category, thus acknowledging the political development and social demand for a rethink towards more sustainability. As part of the anniversary conference, an innovation award was thus also presented in the sustainability category for the first time.

The award ceremony was moderated by the speaker of the FSK Converter Group Udo J.  Storck, Masterfoam GmbH. The winners of the FSK Innovation Award presented their innovations to the conference participants during the ceremony. The ranking had been determined in advance by the neutral expert jury of the FSK after reviewing all applications.

First place went to Detlef Mies from Covestro Deutschland AG. He competed in the “Skilled, Professional, Company” field in the “Technology” category. The award praised the development and testing of cheaper and more efficient heliostats with polyurethane for CSP plants. The innovation offers the advantage over photovoltaics that energy can be stored in the form of heat, making it possible to supply energy even at night and when it is cloudy. The presentation was made by his colleague Nicolas Frizen, Covestro Deutschland AG.

Second place went to Peter Mechtold of RELAX YOUR LIFE in the Skilled Person, Professional, Company field in the “Technology/Design and Design” categories for the world’s first soft bathtub. Together with his colleague Hamid M. Farahmand, the award winner presented the novel technology behind the elegant and comfortable design.

Third place was awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Mack of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT as an applicant in the field “Specialist, Professional, Company” an award in the category “Sustainability” and Prof. Dr. Axel Kauffmann, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg DHBW Karlsruhe for the development of high-quality lightweight pallets based on foamed biopolymers in the joint research project BioFLiP.

Philipp Surray, Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Trade at RWTH Aachen University, was also third in the “Technology” category as a junior competitor for his innovation “Dry Demolding”, which enables residue-free PUR parts thanks to permanent mold coating.