in the Finnish chemical industry - Kemia-lehti

The aggregated turnover of the members of Rubber Manufa4turers56sso4ia8on of Finland 2000–2012 Milj. € Million euros1000 800 600 400 200 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Share of exports Lähde: Kumiteollisuus ry Se#menta(on of rubber raw material use of the members of Rubber 5anufa6turers78sso6ia(on of Finland in 2012 1.7.2013 1 Natural rubber Synthe(6 rubber Other polymers The turnover of NokianTyres and other Finnishrubber companies is mainlycreated in the exportmarket.Nokian TyresSami Nikander 27.5.2013 1 of the labour market are playing a centralrole. Flexibility is required in order tomaintain the competitiveness of thecompanies also in the future.Biobased productsfrom natural rubberBiobased products and bioeconomyhave recently been the subject of muchdiscussion. The rubber industry hasalways operated within this products andapplications scope.Presently over 40 per cent of the rawmaterials utilised by the rubber industryare based on natural rubber. The greaterpart of raw materials based on naturalrubber are being used in the tyre industry.The main raw material in the manufactureof technical rubber is synthetic rubber orother polymers, although natural rubberis also being used.The availability and price of rawmaterial are central issues also in therubber industry. Examples of factorsaffecting the availability of naturalrubber include weather conditions,political situation in the production areas,competition for land areas with other cropplants, and politico-commercial issues.Responsibility issues related toraw materials are also significant.Development of alternative raw materialsis conducted all the time. Examplesinclude guayule and a project of interestfrom the Finnish perspective, in whichnatural rubber is produced from woodcellulose. These raw materials are,however, not yet able to replace therubber tree.Nature shows the wayfor new rubber materialsThe rubber industry develops biomimeticelastomer structures in collaborationwith the Materials Science departmentof Tampere University of Technology(TUT), where the work is led by Dr.Amit Das, a top international expert inelastomer science. During the next threeyears Dr. Das together with his group willinvestigate and develop in collaborationwith the industry elastomer-basedbiomimetic actuator materials and modelstructures based on them.In nature, materials often exhibit acombination of exceptional strength,high ductility and adaptability. The sameis now being strived for by utilising theexceptional mechanic properties ofelastomer materials and by modifyingtheir electrical properties with additivesand fillers. The aim is to produce acontrolled structural transformation inthe material by using electricity. Thistype of materials are expected to havemany potential applications on a longertime span.The author is Managing Director at RubberManufacturers’ Association of Finland.sami.nikander@chemind.fi5/2013 KEMIA53