Kirn. SIMONA AG today held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Technology Centre to be built at the company's headquarters in Kirn.

The event, which included the initial "cutting of the sod", was attended by guests from the world of politics and industry as well as representatives of the various planning, engineering and construction companies involved in the project. In pressing ahead with this substantial investment, the global plastics processing company is looking to further enhance its capabilities as a top-level innovator. At the same time, SIMONA is keen to extend its capacity levels for new development projects and pioneering processing methods. The latest project also serves to reinforce the company's commitment to Kirn as a business location.

The allocated site at Plant II in Kirn will accommodate a production facility spanning 1,200 sq m and a three-storey administration building – 1,000 sq m in size – for a laboratory and development unit. In his speech held on the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony, Dirk Möller, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of SIMONA AG and the executive responsible for Technology & Logistics, outlined his thoughts on the upcoming construction project: "This facility will ensure that production and development can operate in close proximity to one another, thus promoting the exchange of professional expertise and accelerating our product development processes. In future, this will provide us with a better basis for differentiating between manufacturing on the one side and innovation projects on the other; our existing machinery and equipment were simply not designed to cope with both aspects simultaneously – neither in terms of capacity levels nor with regard to technological capabilities. Bottlenecks relating to test procedures and the development of new formulae will soon be a thing of the past. Last but not least, the new facility will allow us to step up our efforts in the area of energy efficiency and the planning of new production systems."

Machinery and systems used in the development of extruded sheets, profiles, solid and hollow rods as well as pipes will be installed as soon as construction work on the new building has been completed. In this context, the first measure will be to install a system for the extrusion of new high-tech plastics. They include SIMOWOOD, a natural-fibre-reinforced hybrid material that has the appearance and haptic properties of wood, PLA, a bioplastic, and PFA, a fully fluorinated high-performance plastic. The Process Development, R&D and Laboratory departments are to be brought together at the Technology Centre.

"The new Technology Centre is a milestone in our company's evolution and reflects our belief in strategic realignment. This investment is a committed effort aimed at strengthening our abilities in the field of innovation, speeding up our processes and generating growth at an international level. SIMONA's technological pulse will continue to beat in Germany. Here, from our base in Germany, we have been developing the products that are now driving our company's success within the non-European growth markets for thermoplastics," said Möller.

An investment of €4 million has been earmarked for the first of two construction stages. In total, SIMONA plans to invest more than €10 million in new machinery and systems in the coming years, the aim being to extend its technical capabilities and introduce processing methods for new types of material.