From Collaboration to Innovation

00:00:00: Hello, I'm your host Adam Brunner and welcome to the Evonix Minute, your quick bi-weekly podcast for all the important stories, news, and announcements for Evonix North America region.

00:00:12: The date is October twenty-third, twenty-twenty-five, and on today's exclusive episode, we explore the highlights from the recent RD&I Insights event held at the Allentown Innovation Hub, where innovation and collaboration meet.

00:00:25: That's story coming up in just a minute.

00:00:37: Yvonnex Research Development and Innovation Function, RD&I for short.

00:00:42: The RD&I Insights event brought together representatives from six of Avonix business lines, along with teams from Avonix Technology Functions.

00:00:50: Together they showcased more than thirty projects that highlighted a wide range of research initiatives within the Innovation Hub and across North America, which was organized by Gene Vincent, the head of RD&I in the Americas and her team.

00:01:03: So we've had these RD&I Insights sessions at several sites globally and

00:01:08: they've always

00:01:09: been a big hit.

00:01:10: This is

00:01:10: the first

00:01:11: one we've had.

00:01:12: at our North America

00:01:13: R&D

00:01:13: hub and we were expecting maybe a hundred people.

00:01:18: We ended up getting two hundred and fifty to three hundred people attended, guessing by the amount of pizza that's been consumed so far.

00:01:25: I think it's really been a great way to celebrate the site

00:01:29: and for people to get to

00:01:30: know each other a bit better and really have some insights

00:01:33: into what everybody else is doing on the site.

00:01:36: The presentations cover topics ranging from safety to sustainability.

00:01:40: Notably, several projects focused on direct air capture, a technique designed to reduce CO-II levels in the atmosphere.

00:01:47: Sinead Flanagan, a process engineer with NextGen Technologies, and her colleagues are focused on scaling up these systems in optimal locations and developing effective chemicals that filter CO-II from the air.

00:01:59: Since the motivation for such a technology is based on the carbon credits market, the variables influencing the total cost of capture, like the form that the material is in, the location of a DAC system, and the energy requirements, they all need to be well understood.

00:02:15: This is a customer-driven project where we can leverage Ivonex material development with application know-how to understand that full package.

00:02:23: In this project, we built an experimental test unit to be able to test uvonic sorbent materials under simulated DAT conditions with versatile operating parameters.

00:02:33: The data we collect then informs a techno-economic assessment so we can identify the main levers that drive the total cost of capture and inform the direction of continued material development.

00:02:46: Another project emphasized safety in two crucial areas.

00:02:49: One, dispersion modeling safety, which studies how chemicals behave in different environments.

00:02:54: And two, laser hazard analysis, which focuses on human factors and complacency in laser utilization.

00:03:01: Ali Ayub, a process safety engineer at NextGen Technologies, shared insights on how his team is enhancing safety in these fields.

00:03:09: Dispersion modeling is basically if you release a chemical, we can determine what the concentrations are and what do you need to do to make sure it's safe.

00:03:18: The second laser hazard analysis, if you have a three-B or four-class laser in the US, you need to have a laser safety officer on site and if any site in North America needs to bring in a new laser, we can help support them.

00:03:33: We need to create awareness and that's why we are here, so that the sites know what type of solutions we can provide.

00:03:42: Additionally, the poster session in Allentown showcased several avonic products, including our PA-II powder used in additive manufacturing, commonly known as three-D printing.

00:03:51: Sarah Diem, an additive manufacturing engineer from the High Performance Polymers business line, explained how her team is refining the additive manufacturing process to help customers through viscosity testing, additive blending, and more.

00:04:05: So Avonic is the main producer of Polyamide-II and we produce the PA-II powders for Powderbed Fusion, and my main focus is to help customers use our material

00:04:16: and

00:04:17: help them along with processing.

00:04:18: So some of the issues that we help customers with include, so sometimes when we print three D parts, they'll come out with errors such as

00:04:26: orange peel,

00:04:27: which means the part itself, the surface of it will look exactly like an orange peel.

00:04:31: And we don't want that, we want a smooth surface.

00:04:34: So I'll come in

00:04:35: and

00:04:36: provide some insight as to how they should

00:04:38: change their process parameters.

00:04:42: Organizers and attendees describe the RD&I Insights event as a big success.

00:04:46: This lively and open exchange of ideas across various business lines exemplifies the mission of the Allentown Innovation Hub and Yvonnec's RD&I Americas, promoting collaboration and innovation that fuels future growth.

00:05:01: And that's the news.

00:05:02: I'm Adam Brunner.

00:05:03: Thank you for spending some time with us today on The Yvonnec

00:05:15: Minute.