German chemicals company Wacker Chemie AG has opened a new Wacker Academy international training centre for silicone solutions and applications located in Tsukuba, near Tokyo, Japan, strengthening its presence in the country.
The centre primarily offers seminars on silicone products for the automotive, electronics, sealant and personal care sectors. At Tsukuba, Wacker manufactures silicone products through its joint venture, Wacker Asahikasei Silicone (AWS). It also operates a silicone-coatings competence centre there. With the addition of the Wacker Academy, the site now combines under one roof not only production, R&D and application technology, but also a training centre for Wacker’s silicones.
“Our new training centre in Tsukuba is another milestone in our growth strategy for Asia, particularly for Japan,” said Christian Hartel of Wacker’s Executive Board during the opening ceremony. The Munich-based chemical company’s new Wacker Academycentre will reinforce the company’s leading market and technology position for high-quality silicone solutions and will strengthen its local expertise in R&D, application technology and customer support, added Hartel. The centre’s seminar program is specifically tailored to market needs in Japan and Asia as a whole. “Thanks to this unique Japanese facility, we can generate high added value for our local customers and partners and expand our technical expertise in the region.”
Wacker’s specialty silicones are used in products ranging from airbag coatings to skin creams. “Wacker Academy workshops and seminars are ideal for showing how we tailor the versatile properties of our silicones to a customer’s specific needs,” explained the head of Wacker Silicones, Robert Gnann, in his speech. The centre focuses on specialty silicones, he added. They are used for coating technical textiles and as optical lenses in LEDs, for example. The centre also offers seminars on personal care products, release coatings, electronic applications and sealants.
By having production and R&D labs as well as a training centre all under one roof, Wacker is ideally positioned for supporting customers in the region. Seminar participants benefit from being so close to R&D facilities, since they have access to training labs with state-of-the-art equipment. This allows them to perform extensive practical exercises alongside their theoretical sessions. As a result, the Wacker Academy is an ideal, industry-specific platform for networking among customers, distributors and Wacker specialists.