ALTANA Innovation Award 2012 Goes to BYK

A BYK innovation team has won the 2012 ALTANA Innovation Award. The prize was awarded for high performance CRP wetting and dispersing additives for sophisticated coatings applications. The prize awards technically outstanding innovations that are already successful in the market. The presentation of the prize took place within the framework of the fifth international ALTANA Innovation Conference, held in Wesel on Nov. 7-8, 2012.

BYK’s winning team has developed a new technology platform based on CRP comb copolymers with quaternary ammonium structures as pigment-affinic groups. Dispersants based on this structure are used in various high-end applications, like FPD, automotive coatings and inkjet inks.

With this development BYK shapes important market trends and enters new application fields. The potential of this new core technology for other fields of application is currently being investigated and further developed in a series of marketing projects.

BYK’s winning team is made up of Dr. Bernd Göbelt, Mark Heekeren, Marcus Meichsner, Dr. Stefan Mößmer, Markus Rößner, Sabine Stelz, and Akihiro Wakahara.

For ALTANA, innovation is the pivotal key to further growth. With research and development expenditure of approximately 6% of sales, which is clearly above the industry average, ALTANA secures its technological edge and provides its customers with unique innovative products and services. More than 50 laboratory and research sites worldwide provide customers locally with innovative solutions in the area of surface protection and surface finishing. More than 20% of ALTANA’s employees globally work in research or application technology.

“The ALTANA Innovation Award and the ALTANA Innovation Conference are an integral part of our innovation culture. After having achieved a very high level of cross-linking of our innovation community not only with the help of these elements, we will now also turn towards an intensive use of external knowledge in open innovation communities,” said Dr. Georg F.L. Wießmeier, chief technology officer of ALTANA.