Polimeri Europa Research Centers

The R&D centers, born in the '60s, are organized into departments of technical and scientific expertise, characterized by a high level of professionalism and able to develop a new idea, from laboratory to industrial realization.
In addition to its R&D facilities, Polimeri Europa can count on an extensive network of contacts and collaborations with leading Italian and foreign university laboratories.
All the PE research centers are equipped with sophisticated scientific equipment to achieve a thorough understanding of the characteristics of the products and to adequately assess performance, according to the needs of customers.
The active role of PE researchers in the scientific areas of interest, the effective monitoring of developments in production technologies and applications, the continuous and direct relationship with customers - realized through skilled technical assistance structures - can focus PE targets for innovation and development of products and processes.
The workflow shows the typical development pattern of the industrialization process, together with the departments in line and those who collaborate in the matrix.

The R&D Center in Mantova has acquired a deep knowledge in research and development of innovative products and processes concerning monomers and intermediates  (primarily phenol and styrene),  styrenic polymers and more recently ethylene polymers.

The R&D projects cover various subjects, involving a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines:

Styrenic polymers

• Kinetics and modeling of radical polymerization for the synthesis of homo-and co-polymers
• Correlations between synthesis of polymers and their structure
• Innovative approaches to polymerization

Polyethylene

• Omo and copolymerization of ethylene and alpha olefins
• Catalysis for olefin polymerization
• New polymeric products targeted to specific applications

Monomers and Intermediates

• Alkylation of benzene
• Dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene
• Modeling and study of phase equilibria liquid-liquid and liquid-vapor
• Development of catalytic processes for the hydrogenation of phenol and alpha methylstyrene

For all types of product

• Technical support to maintaining and strengthening the market position
• Troubleshooting
  

The R&D Center for Elastomers of Ravenna and Ferrara as acquired a deep knowledge in research and development of innovative products and processes concerning elastomers. 

The main topics developed in the Center are:

• Anionic polymerization to produce polybutadiene (BR), statistical styrene-butadiene copolymers (S-SBR) and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymers
• Hydrogenation of SBS copolymers to give SEBS
• Polymerization of butadiene with organometallic catalysts
• Synthesis of new ethylene-propylene copolymers and ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) with Ziegler-Natta catalysts
• Kinetics and modeling of the polymerization in solution to give homo-and co-polymers
• Correlations between polymerization parameters and structure of obtained elastomeric polymers
• Thermal stability of elastomeric polymers.