Cases
What’s the true essence of what DSM brings to this market? Our bright science is helping to improve peoples’ lives and preserve the planet - every day. Read on to find out how.
The curious case of XXXXX e-850
When a famous global furniture producer came to us with the challenge of creating a unique type of wood-laminated furniture we eagerly accepted. But then we got stuck…
The resin our scientists developed (which we christened XXXXX e-850) was consistently getting delaminated whenever a waterborne lacquer was applied to it – and despite all efforts, no easy answer could been found.
So…we threw this ‘sticky’ challenge open to scientists both inside and outside the organization through an open innovation challenge (via social networks like Twitter and Slideshare).
Thanks to a true collaborative effort - including help from the Institute of Materials and Process Engineering in Switzerland – problem solved.
The magic carpet
DSM happens to be the world’s largest producer of caprolactam - a raw material used for making Polyamide 6 – an extremely ‘clean’ polymer.
Caprolactam is used extensively in the carpet industry these days because of its green production process which leads to lower chemical emissions.
But what happens to all that carpet when it starts looking a little…’tired’?
Every year more than two billion kgs of carpet is sent to landfill in the United States alone – or at least it was until DSM found a way of turning old carpet back into caprolactam via a process called, appropriately, Evergreen.
The US carpet giant Shaw liked the idea so much they bought the technology from us and are now recycling around 25 million kgs of nylon carpet a year back into virgin capralactam – for use in the next generation of carpets. More>
