Download - Evonik Industries

More documents

Recommendations

Info

18 CoMMent Innovations make history elements39 Issue 2|2012 Innovations are, and always have been, an important cornerstone of a better future. To ensure the livelihood of future generations, then, we must continue to put good ideas into practice. But without social acceptance, even the best innovations will fail. [ text Dr. Klaus Engel ] A steady source of innovations for more than four decades: eUDrAGIt® tablet coating, which allows temporal and spatial control of the release of pharmaceutical active ingredients What comes to mind? The answer is essential to the future of our country, because inspiration, new ideas, and innovation are some of Germany’s most important resources. Without innovation, we wouldn’t be able to maintain or improve our standard of living. Without innovation, we’ll not be able to drive forward a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle and economy. This insight is no longer truly innovative, but it’s still not generally accepted. We must make sure that Germany, the land of industry, the land of research and production, doesn’t become the land of denial and procrastination if the public refuses to recognize the economic underpinnings of our prosperity. In today’s Germany, the triumvirate of research, innovation, and industry always inspires a great deal of skepticism, or even fear, which we have to counter with fair, fact-based arguments. If we can persuade the public and dispel its anxiety, we can achieve a great deal. It’s still worth our while to establish the facts. Innovations are, and always have been, an important cornerstone of a better future. Indeed, they are our lifeboat. The fledgling Federal Republic of Germany is a good example. Sixty years ago today, in 1952, the new German constitutional state was already three years old. The murderous world war had ended only seven years before. In 1952, rubble and
sorrow were still part of everyday life in the divided Germany. In an address to the German people, Federal President Theodor Heuss complained that privation was “firmly rooted in many, many places.” And yet 1952 was also a year of new confidence, as the first fruits of the reconstruction became palpable. The German economic miracle was taking shape—through a lot of hard work, capital assistance from abroad, and, not least, inge nuity. Innovation as a lifeboat to a better future? While Heuss lamented the poverty back then, he also spoke of confidence and “highly sophisticated inventions that would set the German people back on course.” An end-of-the-year review from 1952 proudly celebrates the television: “We invented and built a number of new machines.” Journalists can point to successful export trade fairs as proof. Even back then, the focus was always on innovations, new ideas that will prevail on the market—in Germany, but also abroad. A core message from 1952 still holds true today; the economic prosperity of the people of our country is not based on the merging of simple components or by merely imitating the achievements of others. Our opportunities lie in forward thinking and improvements, in brainpower, and know-how. Sixty years later, in the Germany of the 21st century, this still applies—even if we use different vocabulary. Ingenuity and industriousness were the bywords of 1952. Today, concepts such as innovative power and competitiveness are more common. The German economy was also gaining steam internationally 60 years ago. As early as 1952, customers around the globe associated “Made in Germany” on goods and products with quality. But the economic size classes have changed: Back then, it was sovereign nations, national economic systems or national economies that competed with each other. In the wake of globalization, on the other hand, we’re more likely to talk of competition between alliances and world regions. Another important difference between 1952 and 2012 is the time factor: The speed of innovations has increased. More than a half century passed from the time the television was invented to the time it was widely found in households across Germany. When it came to the mobile phone, that time span was only a little over ten years. Over the last few decades, Germany has managed to maintain a healthy, powerful industrial climate— despite the crises and dramatic changes across entire industries. The capacity for self-renewal, innovation for our own sake, was a key factor in this regard. Today, the chemical industry in Germany often serves completely different markets, supplies entirely different products than in 1952. Evonik Industries itself reflects this change. The Group began operating under this name in 2007, only five years ago, thereby focusing its energies expressly on the power to create. The new company brought with it decades of experience from the chemical industry—and an appreciation of the value of innovation. Evonik’s history contains names such as Degussa, Chemische Werke Hüls, Th. Goldschmidt, and Röhm, just to mention a few. Even in the decades before the name change, these companies and groups were no strangers to innovation. Some milestones from Evonik’s history provide good illustrations. EUDRAGIT®, the protective coating for tablets, came on the market in the 1950s and made it possible, for the first time, to control the release of a medical agent in the patient’s body. In the colorful 1960s, plastic was king, and awareness of environmental protection was on the rise. In 1964, the Group began producing proprietary biodegradable detergents, the active cleansing agents 333 CoMMent Current research topics at evonik: A binder for corrosion protection formulations that significantly reduces, or avoids, the use of toxic heavy metals The core message is unchanged 19 elements39 Issue 2|2012
Page 1 and 2: elements39 Quarterly Science newsle
Page 3 and 4: esources In 2011, Evonik generated
Page 5 and 6: “Tablets and sprays are more conv
Page 7 and 8: “There’s no success without tru
Page 9 and 10: “If you want to develop advanced
Page 11 and 12: work of the project houses focuses
Page 13 and 14: cessing method for an innovative ap
Page 15 and 16: ficantly smaller piece counts, they
Page 17: On the way to the market cipating b
Page 21 and 22: Honorary professorship for Dr. Klau
Page 23 and 24: evonik invests in High-tech Gründe
Page 25 and 26: it Remains a challenge for catalysi
Page 27 and 28: Figure 3 Performance profiles of va
Page 29 and 30: Patients Who suffeR from stomach or
Page 31 and 32: In permanent bending tests, veStAKe
Page 33 and 34: dr. Markus Braun, 45, is a trained
Page 35 and 36: nologies. The sandwich structure wi
Page 37 and 38: Left: One rapidly growing market th
Page 39 and 40: says Fengler. “And we don’t all
Page 41 and 42: At an exhibition in Darmstadt, the
Page 43 and 44: Creavis starts with new BISOn proje

Download - Evonik Industries

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?