solvay_live243_p02a04 somEdito

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
101300
74
A NANO PARTICLE SEED LATEX
AT THE SERVICE OF PVDC
THE BENEFITS OF OPEN
RELATIONS
WITH OUR PARTNERS
Meeting the strong demand for stepped
up production on the pharmaceutical
blister market and on the food packaging
markets is a priority of the SBU. The chosen
solution must clearly be backed up by a
guarantee of innocuousness, as the PVDC is
in direct contact with the medicines and with
food. However, our production was suffering
stability and conservation problems that
meant that they did not meet the
requirements of the Asian and American
markets. The originality of this project lies in
having found, thanks to our partner BASF,
a technology successfully used in the
production of acrylics and then discussing
and transposing this technology to the PVDC
dispersions production. The solution was the
fruit of our cooperation with the BASF
researchers, who helped to develop a nano
particle seed latex, based on an acrylic
monomer and approved for contact with the
food and medicines.
The product immediately demonstrated a
higher stability. Increased productivity is
to be expected as well as improved control
capacity, which is one of the keys
to obtaining satisfactory results on the
high-speed coating lines, on which our
development depends.
> Yves Vanderveken; Peter Claassen; Benoît Faye;
Diego Lancksweert; Roland Offner; Gilbert Pauly.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104100
FORK LIFT CONTROL SYSTEM WITH WIRELESS
TECHNOLOGY FOR REAL TIME ACCESS TO SAP
GLOBAL WAREHOUSE
MANAGEMENT
Avoiding time wasting in stock
management, ensuring that the client
receives what he asked for without error
and, should an error arise, having all
the necessary information at hand to remedy
the problem as quickly as possible. Those
were the aims that the Solvay Barium team
in Bad Hönningen (Germany) set out to
achieve with the implementation
of the wireless warehouse management
control system. It was finally made possible
thanks to a barcode affixed on each pallet.
However, it also called for a sound
coordination in order to perfectly control the
parallel movement of the materials and of
the information. Today, the Bad Hönningen
warehouse is saving EUR 120 000 per annum
with its new system (an investment
of EUR 200 000)! The elevators are now
operating automatically without human
intervention and their activity is completely
controlled by its own programme, integrated
into SAP: goodbye the manual and tedious
management of long lists of references
on paper. All the information is permanently
available in real time: what is in stock
(and where exactly), what has been ordered,
what has been dispatched, what has been
invoiced, what has been paid! With the new
system, there are fewer elevators, fewer
staff in the warehouse, less paper wasted
and less time wasted. The system is already
available in several languages and with some
slight adjustments, nothing prevents it being
applied to other activities.
> Albert Kruft; Klaus Steinbruecker; Norbert Weber.
> SBU BARIUM-STRONTIUM