Research & Development

Strategy and science:
Sirmax's unstoppable innovation

Sirmax's technological evolution is the result of material developments coupled with studies in their fields of application and their environmental impact.

 

Sirmax Research & Development centers are located in Cittadella, Kutno, S.Vito al Tagliamento, Salsomaggiore and Mellaredo. Each lab has a global leadership divided by product (polyolefins, engineering plastics, thermoplastic elastomers, circular polymers and bio-compounds) prodiving support to the production facilities and markets of all regions in which Sirmax is present.

 

Our R&D centers are equipped with sixteen extruders used for formulation studies, raw material analysis, and samples production.

 

 

Sirmax has gained a central role in the compounding industry thanks to its specialist knowledge of the markets in which it has operated for over fifty years.

A vertical integration strategy, with the recent investments in circular economy, has allowed the Group to gain expertise with post-consumer raw materials  for the realization of sustainable projects for the development of an environmentally friendly future.

 

Our R&D departments collaborate with some of Europe's top universities specializing in the plastic sector in order to develop innovative projects on materials, technologies and production processes. Sirmax's partnerships with universities also enable it to select and train new talent for the Sirmax Group.

 

The markets that Sirmax operates in require constant technical assistance and product development support, in order to fine-tune products to meet client specifications and propose innovative solutions. Through Smart Mold (www-smart-mold.com), a subsidiary company, Sirmax is able to offer product co-design services using Smart Mold expertise in engineering and simulations in collaboration with the Group's R&D labs.

 

Smart Mold operates in two business areas. Its first and most innovative activity facilitates the processing of recycled plastics.The company has patented a plastic injection mold surface treatment, which reduces injection pressure to facilitate mold-filling.

Its second business activity is to reduce plastic consumption by producing objects using raw materials with a higher added value. Smart Mold supports companies starting from the engineering design process: studying product application (for instance, the internal structure of a car's dashboard) and assessing the mechanical characteristics they require (in this case, load and impact resistance). It uses advanced software to simulate the product's mechanical behavior and is then able to suggest design solutions that reduce the product's weight and its plastic consumption.