On 2 December 2020, Trinseo announced the inauguration of its TPE pilot facility in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company said that the facility represents a major step in its wider growth strategy for TPEs, enabling it to locally produce custom-engineered TPE together with its bioplastics portfolio, for key customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The state-of-the-art pilot facility is built at Trinseo’s existing manufacturing site in Hsinchu, and will enable faster innovation cycles in close collaboration with customers in the Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Footwear and Medical markets. It complements Trinseo’s existing main TPE development center in Mussolente, Italy, which is leading industry developments in the design and production of sustainable soft-touch plastics.
The new Hsinchu plant has been launched on schedule, despite the challenges associated with constructing a state-of-the-art facility during the global Coronavirus pandemic. Upon its opening, Trinseo celebrated 15,000+ safety hours in a development project that spanned three regions under the most challenging circumstances.
“We are very excited to start up the pilot facility for our custom-engineered TPE and thermoplastic urethanes (TPU) closer to customers in Asia-Pacific,” said Francesca Reverberi, Vice President, Engineered Materials and Synthetic Rubber, Trinseo. “The pilot plant offers a potential platform through which Trinseo can fulfil increasing demand for TPEs, brought about by megatrends such as the growth in telemedicine and the convergence of medical and consumer electronics. These trends bring a requirement for more user-friendly and sustainable devices with greater use of soft-touch materials and bio-based plastics.”
The plant will play a significant role in helping Trinseo achieve its 2030 Sustainability Goals, which specify that sustainably sourced materials will form the basis of 40 % of Trinseo’s portfolio within a decade. Trinseo’s biobased and biodegradable TPE materials comprise a significant portion of the company’s environmentally friendly portfolio, and the pilot facility is expected to accelerate adoption and development of these solutions.
The Hsinchu plant is already supporting Trinseo’s sustainability aims by compounding resins made with post-consumer recycled plastics, used primarily in consumer electronics. The company furthermore said that the plant will enable them to continue the evolution into a true solutions provider to customers in Consumer Electronics, Footwear, Medical, Automotive TPE and Appliances & Tools with a strong focus on sustainability.