Over the next three years, Bayer MaterialScience AG will be investing over EUR 1 billion in research and development, including customer-related development projects. “Innovative materials are our core business. Therfore, we are focusing our creativity and innovative capacity on actively developing the future of this area,” declared Ian Paterson, the member of the Bayer MaterialScience Board of Management responsible for marketing and innovation.
This investment in research and development around the world and a well-stocked innovation pipeline lay the foundations for sustainable market success and profitable growth. A key objective of Bayer MaterialScience’s innovation strategy is to systematically expand the company’s technological leadership in its core polyurethane and polycarbonate sectors. This covers all levels: from production and processing to product and technology development in partnership with customers. New technology platforms and “transformational growth”
The comprehensive expertise of Bayer MaterialScience is also to be further incorporated into the development of new technology platforms in the future, thus enabling the company to strengthen its presence in future markets such as mobility, communications, and electronics. “In the future, we want to work with these sectors more intensively and on a broader front, winning new customers and tapping into newly emerging markets,” explained Ian Paterson. For example, polymer innovations are paving the way for safer, more economical, and comfortable cars, new generations of optical storage devices, and exciting communications experiences with LCD televisions, cell phones, and holography. Accordingly, the company is to increase its focus on areas that, in terms of transformational growth, are expected to make a significant additional contribution to its core business. “We want to focus more on the future, but without neglecting established products and skills. When the market or customers need new products, we want to be the first to offer them,” commented Paterson, describing the strategy. More than ten percent of R&D investment is already being channeled into projects such as these. From the idea to the market
Alongside the business units, which usually implement specific innovation projects in close cooperation with customers or industrial partners, the New Business section adopts an across-the-board approach covering the monitoring and analysis of trends and the development of ideas into products. For example, it is to develop holographic applications for hightech plastics other than data storage to a stage when they are ready for the market. Successful projects are often incorporated by business units at a later stage. Alternatively, projects outside core areas of business or with a business model heavily geared to forward integration start off in the “Greenhouse”. This is how the subsidiary Lyttron Technologies GmbH came into being. This company will be developing innovative applications for freely formable electroluminescent film. Bayer MaterialScience also focuses on overarching technologies such as catalysis and nanotechnology. For example, the “Greenhouse” has already provided the basis for driving the production and marketing of carbon nanotubes (CNTs, nanoscale, tube-shaped carbon particles). One key property of these minute tubes is that, when used as an additive, they significantly improve the mechanical strength of plastics. This offers enormous potential for innovation in the automotive industry, sports goods and construction sectors. Technological head-start for Bayer MaterialScience and its customers
In the polymer materials segment, production, processing, and coating technologies are all crucial to market success. That is why technological development both for and with customers has a long history at Bayer MaterialScience. The use of films to produce functional, intelligent surfaces forms one such strategic pillar for innovation. Whether they are electrically conductive, luminescent, printed, coated, or have an attractive feel, functional films are opening up increasingly interesting options for product and component design while also offering the potential to increase manufacturing efficiency. “Innovation makes Bayer MaterialScience what it is. It distinguishes us from the competition and ensures sustainable, profitable growth. Our customers profit from our know-how in the development of tailor-made solutions and products,” declared Paterson. |
