Sika Industry Magazine INTERNATIONAL NEWS FOR CUSTOMERS AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES No. 06 April 2009

BONDING – SEALING – DAMPING – REINFORCING

P. 8-9 CCT – Centru Termopan TransilvaniaTwo years of hard work in Romania bears fruit

P. 7 The Champion of Energy-EfficientBuilding

P. 12 IAA – Transportation Show in Hannover 2008Was better attended and more successful than ever

P. 6 Sika Click PackagingSika® Click Packaging improves efficiency in theworkplace

P. 4 Windshield Replacement at OEM Repair Market

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Content

Construction of a NewSwiss Bobsled is MakingGood ProgressThe Swiss Bobsled Federation is collaborating with ETH Zurich and eleven industrial part-ners including Sika to develop new bobsleds for the Swiss competition team. The projectis on track. The new bobs will be available for the 2009/2010 racing season and the 2010Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

The Swiss Bobsled Federation began the biggest equipment project in its history in the spring of 2007under the cover name «Citius.» For one and a half years now, dozens of scientists and R&D engineershave been working on this project, whose objective is to give the Swiss bobsled team the fastest bobin the world for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Development and production of the newbobs is headed by Christian Reich, an experienced Swiss bobber and bob builder. Professor Ulrich W.Suter, member of the Board of Directors with Sika, is responsible for the scientific coordination at ETHZurich. The overall project manager is Robert Fürer, who lives in Frauenfeld (Switzerland).The two prototypes – a two-man bob and a four-man bob – were completed in time for the fall season.The two bobs were already tested in the Audi wind tunnel at Ingolstadt, Germany, followed by initialtrack tests at Igls (near Innsbruck) in Austria. The results looked very promising. Based on this, con-struction of the bobs are beginning in spring 2009, and they will be available to the Swiss bobsledteam in sufficient numbers starting with the 2009/2010 season.The results up to now have created a positive mood among the project participants. The Swiss BobsledFederation plans to unveil the new equipment in autumn 2009.

Published by Sika Services AG, Tüffenwies 16, 8048 Zurich Switzerland

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December 17, 2008New Member of Group Management at Sika AG

The Board of Directors has appointed IvenChadwick Member of Group Management as ofJanuary 1, 2009.Iven Chadwick joined Sika as head of the newlyestablished Region India, Middle East and Africa(IMEA) in April 2007. Under his management,business there has developed successfully andgrown significantly. With the appointment of IvenChadwick, all six regions of the Sika organizationwill be represented in Group Management.

Prior to joining Sika, Iven Chadwick gained broadbusiness experience in the IMEA region at MBTand Degussa, later BASF, where he headedCorporate Business Lines. A British citizen and agraduated chemist of the ManchesterPolytechnic, UK, he also holds an MBA degreefrom Leicester University, UK.

January 27, 2009Sika Acquires Technology Leader in LiquidMembranes

Sika AG has acquired Iotech Group Limited, withheadquarters in England and subsidiaries in theUK, USA and Belgium. The transaction closed onJanuary 26, 2009. Iotech Group revenues totaledGBP 40 million for the year 2008. Previously thecompany was privately owned. Iotech specializesin formulation, production and supply of polyure -thane liquid membranes and intermediates.

Liquid membranes are well established in the glo-bal roofing and waterproofing markets. The mem-branes are supplied mainly to the highly profitableand crisis-resistant refurbishment market forsmall to medium-sized roofs. The global liquidmembrane market is fragmented, and is servedonly by regional or local suppliers. Market growthis disproportionately high, outperforming the con-struction market as a whole.With this acquisition Sika substantially expands itstechnology and market know-how and builds up amarket position in polyurethane liquid membranesfor roofing. In addition to liquid membranes, Iotechformulates, produces and supplies hygienic wallcoatings. This product range contributes to Sika’smarket approach in clean room applications, e.g.for the food industry.Iotech’s highly recognized R&D organisationenables Sika to establish a technology centre forliquid membranes. Sika anticipates that liquidmembrane technology will advance materially andhas considerable global market potential.The parties have agreed not to disclose the salesprice. Approximately 250 employees are expectedto join Sika.

February 24, 2009Continued growth in a difficult environment

The Sika Group increased sales in 2008 by 7.3% interms adjusted for exchange rates. In Swiss francsthis yielded a net result of CHF 4.625 billion, 1.1%higher than that of the previous year. Operating pro-fit before depreciation, EBITDA, amounted to CHF556.1 million, and consolidated net profit to CHF

267.4 million. Overall Sika achieved the second hig-hest result in the company’s history.

Despite the effects of the declining constructionindustry in various countries felt throughout theGroup in the fourth quarter of the reporting year,growth in the Construction Division, adjusted forexchange rates, was satisfactory at 9.2%. In theIndustry Division on the contrary, the substantiallycollapsed production figures in vehicle constructi-on in the fourth quarter limited sales growth to anexchange rate-adjusted 0.6%. All Regions contri-buted to Group growth. The best results wereachieved as in the previous year in the RegionsIMEA (India, Middle East, Africa; +33%) and LatinAmerica (+25%).

Above all three factors influenced the result nega-tively:– The shift in currency exchange conditions in

some countries such as Great Britain, Korea,Japan and Australia.

– Enormous, short-term price increases for rawmaterials in the third quarter that could only inpart be passed on to customers.

– Preparatory efforts in personnel development ofmanagement functions in the Regions in orderto be able to better exploit the growth potentialforemost in emerging markets in the future.

Gross profit as a proportion of net sales weakenedfrom 53.3% to 51.7%. Operating profit beforedepreciation, EBITDA, dropped 12.8% from CHF637.8 million to CHF 556.1 million. The EBITDAmargin at 12.0% was 1.9 percentage pointslower than in the previous year. Operating profit,

Sika Industry Magazine Sika Group News

Sika Group News

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EBIT, amounted to CHF 422.0 million and therebylay 17.4% lower than the CHF 510.8 million of theprevious year.

Consolidated net profit before taxes decreasedopposite the previous year by 22.2% to CHF373.3 million. The income tax rate amounted to28.4%, thereby falling below the level of the pre-vious year of 28.7%. Thus remained a consolida-ted net profit of CHF 267.4 million. The profit mar-gin amounted to 5.8% (2007: 7.5%).

OutlookShort-term forecasts in the present environmentare very difficult. Due to the spreading economiccrisis Sika reckons with a decline in demand inmany of the markets that are relevant for thecompany. The Construction Division feels the coo-ling demand with some delay, and on the otherhand will also profit later from an economic reco-very. Economic stimulus packages announced inmany countries will help in the infrastructure sec-tor to compensate growth slumps in private com-

mercial construction. It is nevertheless entirelyopen when these effects will be felt.Sika will employ the current business year toincrease the efficiency of production facilities, theglobal supply chain and the whole organizationfurther. Production facilities that are not operatingoptimally will be decommissioned and local pro-duction capacity adapted to demand. In accordan-ce with the Group’s decentralized structure theregional companies will develop individual pro-grams in order to profit from available growthopportunities and – where necessary – adjustcost structures quickly to respective market con-ditions. These programs could also affect jobs. Inview of the corporate structure Sika does not con-sider comprehensive, worldwide plans for person-nel reduction to be an adequate response.

Overall Sika considers its long-term growth chan-ces intact. The growth course consistently pursu-ed during the past years will orient itself duringthe recessionary phase towards reduced or nega-tive growth with adapted costs.

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Sika Automotive OEM gained market share forDaimler and Volvo repair sets and is nominated tocontinue single source repair business at BMW.This success is the result of a strong team workbetween sales, marketing and Research andDevelopment, improving excellent relationshipwith these customers.

The applicator stick was launched in December2008 at BMW and was rolled out to full imple-mentation with them by the end of the secondquarter of 2008.

Daimler has also introduced the applicatior stickin February of this year and Volvo is planning the

same for the third quarter of 2009. These deve-lopments will increase Sika's market share. Sika knowledge out of assembly line applications(BMW and Daimler) is reflecting customer confi-dence in repair sets as well as repair knowledge(Volvo) is gaining confidence to start direct glazingbusiness within 2009.

Sika Industry Magazine Automotive

Windshield Replacement at OEM Repair Market

Shake Break Squeeze Apply

Daimler Aktivator and Primer Stick Daimler Repair Set with Aktivator and Primer Stick

Page 5Automotive Sika Industry Magazine

New Automotive Power with SikaPower®

Sealing Applicatins of ‘A’-Pillars

Since the beginning of 2009 at the Volkswagenfactory, all of the ‘A’-pillars o the four VW existingmodels have been sealed, at the Body-in-Whitestage, with SikaPower®-415P1.

Beads of SikaPower®-415P1 are applied by pro-duction line robots and look like any other homo-geneous part of the over-painted body structureafter the e-coat process. Following Volkswagenageing lab-agent tests that simulate long-termweather durability where so good that the clientcommenced immediate application on the largestmodel platform.

Good, Better, The Best – SikaPower®-492

SikaPower®-492 is the flagship of a new genera-tion of SikaPower® adhesives that has beenreleased at the Volkswagen Group for most struc-tural applications. This new product is setting newstandards as it pushes the highest technical spe-cifications even higher. Improved bonding to oilysubstrates, better wash-out resistance, extendedlong-term aging and an enhanced capacity for dif-ferent baking conditions not only extend the list ofproduction benefits, but also support Sika’s repu-tation as a provider of top quality solutions and asa perfect technical partner.

Nominations for new SikaPower® generation

Ever since the second quarter of 2008 at BMW,crash resistant adhesive SikaPower®-498 hasbeen used at Roll’s Royce and BMW. This crashresistant adhesive is now to be used on a largerscale on most models of the coming series.

The purely structural adhesive, SikaPower®-480has been released at BMW and gradually replaces

existing products. Technologically superiorSikaPower®-498 and SikaPower®-480, havinggreater wash-out resistance, ten-months shelf lifeand superb application properties, are moving topole-position at BMW for structural and crashresistant adhesives.

Baffles Expand

Sika has been able to extend baffle business onthe current BMW platform and is now also supply-ing Baffles for floor-group and front-end assem-blies on running models.

BiW Anti-flutter Sealer

Since the third quarter of 2008, Sika has suppliedSikaSeal®-710 to Toyota UK. Now, starting fromJune 2009, Skoda is to join the list with expanda-ble anti-flutter sealant applications.

Trim Shop Developments

Audi is using Sikaflex®-250 HMA-3 + Booster fordirect glazing on basic high value models. Thisnew accelerated booster system has many bene-fits compared to current direct glazing solutions.

Pre-assembly Anti-flutter

Sikaflex®-512 is used as anti-flutter sealant atBMW. This si the second largest hybrid applicaitonin Automotive OEM. With the start of production ofthe new models in the fourth quarter of 2009,Sika will condolidate this position.

Page 6Sika Industry Magazine Automotive Aftermarket

Sika® Click Packaging Improves Efficiency in the Workplace!

At Sika, innovation does not always appear in theform of new product performance; it also mani-fests in new designs of product packaging. Sika®

Aktivator PRO is a new pre-treatment agent spe-cifically designed to meet the needs of the auto-motive aftermarket. During its development, Sikatook advantage of the opportunity to investigatethe possibilities for user-friendlier packaging.

Packaging for the original Sika® Aktivator consistsof a bottle with two caps. The inner one forms theseal against vapour and liquid to properly seal thecontents; the outer one provides a secondary sealand protects the inner one from contaminationand damage. Each time the product is used in theworkplace, both caps have to be removed andthen put back on again. Some installers have

found this too fiddly to use efficiently,so they have applied various inappro-priate strategies. For example, some

of them used just one of the caps; some openedthe bottle during the first job and closed it againonly at the end of their shift; others actually madeholes in both the caps.

Of course, optimal use of the product is only asSika recommend. But mindful of the difficultiesencountered by the operatives in the field,Sika, has worked with the Swiss packagingspecialist, Terxo, to develop a new cap thatallows opening and closing with only one hand.In this way, the Sika® Click Packaging systemwas born.

The new packaging system still has two caps. Theouter one is the safety cap that, like the original,provides secondary security against leakage andprotects the inner one from damage. This cap nowonly needs to be fitted during transit. The inner‘snap lock’ cap is the ‘working’ one and this

keeps the material fresh and contained at thepoint of application. In addition to its single-hand-ed operation, the new cap also gives a click-sound as audible feedback to indicate that the caphas closed properly.

Another design issue addressed was the size ofthe opening in the top of the original can. This wasfound to be too large and meant that when apply-ing Sika® Aktivator to paper tissues prior to use,control of the outflow was difficult, resulting inspillage and waste. Sika has included a restrictorinside the new Sika® Click cap to limit the outflowand, on average, this has effectively reduced con-sumption by up to 20%.

Sika® Aktivator PRO is the first product that will besupplied with the new Sika® Click Packaging, andwill be available from April 2009.

It is a simple fact that Sika is the foremost inter-national supplier of Auto Glass Replacement(AGR) adhesive. Our philosophy of being a partnerto our customers means that we are intimatelyinvolved in the development of products that areperfect for their purpose and in most instances,exceed the expectations of our clients. It alsomeans that we have accrued a vast amount ofexpertise in some of the most leading and highlyspecialized applications throughout industry.

In an ever-changing world, modern auto wind-shields have developed roles beyond their primaryfunction of transparent enclosure. These newroles are: to provide additional strength to thevehicle structure, and to remain in place in theevent of an accident, thereby containing the occu-pants. The latter of these roles has come aboutfollowing the testing of airbags, where, in order tokeep vehicle occupants safe, the windshield mustprovide a vital support surface for the inflated air-bag. In this respect, it has become a critical safetycomponent.Vehicle manufacturers have a duty to ensure thatnew vehicles have their windshields fitted to thehighest standards. However, in the auto glassreplacement industry, there are few guaranteesregarding the skills of those charged with repla-cing a damaged windshield, or of the materialsthey fit them with. Serious injuries can result froman improperly fitted windshield or when inferioradhesives have been used. Under these circum-stances, the adhesive can fail in a collision andthe windshield can separate from the car body.Even when fitted properly, in order to be safe, theadhesive must gain sufficient strength before thevehicle is driven away. The waiting period is calledthe ‘Safe-Drive-Away Time’ and good fitters willensure that this is honored.

Sika has produced a short, but clever and enter-taining film illustrating the importance of quality

materials and correct procedures in the fitting ofauto windshields. This can be viewed atwww.no-shortcuts-to-safety.com where Mikeand David learn about the need for skill andknowledge.

Sika’s black-primerless adhesive system hasexcellent application properties that make it easierto use and leave less room for mistakes. Usingthis superior product ensures that not only canwindshields be replaced speedily, but they canalso meet with the original vehicle manufacturer’sstandards. In addition, being black-primerlessgoes some of the way to ensuring that wind-shields fitted by poorly trained fitters have a fargreater integrity than systems that require the useof a more complicated black primer system.

Many companies make claims about their highstandards. With many of these, the statement ispart of the marketing strategy and exists only bet-ween the marketing department and the publicitymaterial. At Sika, product safety has always beenat the core of policy and Sika technicians andengineers place safety of the product and of thetarget application at the highest priority level. Sowhen you read in our literature that «Your safety isSika’s highest priority», you can be sure it is trueand not just a marketing ploy.

No Shortcuts to Safety at Sika

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College and university students from aroundthe world compete in the Solar Decathlon,an international contest to design, build andoperate the world’s best solar-poweredhouse. The current champion, TU Darmstadt,uses insulated windows bonded with Sikaadhesives.

A unique ritual takes place every two years withinwalking distance of the White House inWashington D.C.: A small village is built at theNational Mall by teams of solar technologyresearchers and building designers who gatherfor a three-week contest to construct and operatethe most attractive, energy-efficient solar-powered house. Sponsored by U.S. Department ofEnergy and the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory (NREL), the Solar Decathlon tests theskills of its contestants in ten disciplines, includingmarket viability, appliances, hot water, lighting andenergy balance.

TU Darmstadt, a leading German technical univer-sity, won the contest with a 70 m2 house that pro-duced more solar energy than it used. All teamshad to run a stove, washing machine and 435-liter refrigerator for a week and use reserve ener-gy to power an electric car, which was monitoredfor mileage it could travel.«Generally our goal was to build in energysaving into the design,» says Isabel Schäfer, aproject manager from the TU Darmstadt. «It maybe more of a European approach, but we wan-ted to create a house from floor plan to the buil-ding shell that would save as much energy aspossible even before adding active solarsystems.»The TU Darmstadt team succeeded in building a«passive» house, which does not exceed energyconsumption limits with high insulation that wouldmake it possible to live in a European climate allthe year round without outside electricity. «Wewanted to achieve a passive-house standard thatwould comply with the European norm,» saidSchäfer. Insulated windows were a key success factor.«Adhesives were essential to achieving high insu-lation performance with little profile,» saidMathias Häussler, Sales and Product Manager ofthe window Energate, made by the window manu-facturer Ludwig Häussler GmbH. To achieve a high window insulation, Häusslerused Sika adhesives for large window surfaces,including two 2.5 x 1.2 meter French balconywindows. «We were not worried about the largesurface. Even with the mounting we had morethan enough leeway to hold 130 kg or about foursquare meters with triple glazing.»The TU Darmstadt project used floor-to-ceilingwindows on the north and south sides allowing for

generous daylight (quadruple glazing north, tripleglazing south, insulated frames). Shutters andwindows can be operated manually, extending orlimiting the living space, according to daytime,seasonal, and user demands.

Heating and cooling systems. Correct constructionsignificantly reduces the effects of both heat flowand air leakage. Sika adhesives are widely used inthe manufacture of insulated windows that enablethese remarkable energy savings.

Appliances & Components Sika Industry Magazine

The Champion of Energy-Efficient Building

The Standards of Eco Living

Passive House is a standard forenergy efficiency in buildings. Itgenerally applies to buildings thatrequire little energy for heating orcooling, not exceeding 15 kWh/m2

per year. Total energy consumptionmay not exceed 42 kWh/m2 and theprimary energy for heating, hotwater and electricity may notexceed 120 kWh/m2.

Minergie House – A Swiss standardfor new and remodeled low-energyconsumption buildings. The labelMinergie may be used only for buil-dings, services and componentsthat meet Minergie standards, mea-ning high-grade, air-tight buildingsthat enclose and continuouslyrenew air in a building using ener-gy-efficient ventilation systems. Thisstandard requires that a new single-family home does not exceed 42kWh/m². A refurbishment projectmay not exceed 80 kWh/m².

Zero-Energy House is a standardfor buildings with zero net energyconsumption over a typical year.This may apply to cost, energy, orcarbon emissions. The onsite rene-wable energy source gen-eratesthe same amount of energy thehouse uses. This may also includethe energy used to transport energyto the building.

Energy-Plus House – This standardapplies to a building that producesmore energy from renewable ener-gy sources than it gets from exter-nal sources. A combination ofmicro-generation technology andlow-energy building techniquessuch as passive solar buildingdesign, insulation and site place-ment is used, as well as energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.

Page 8Sika Industry Magazine

CTT – Two Years of Hard Work in Romania Bears Fruit

Centru Termopan Transilvania (CTT) is a largeRomanian retailer producing and supplying alumi-nium and PVC profiles, and just about every otheraccessory for window manufacturers you canthink of. It also produces glass and completedwindow assemblies.

CTT is a consortium that includes companies like:Austroplast Profile, Austroplast Product, and AxxaConstruct, each of whom brings a different spe-cialism to the partnership.

Two years ago, after concentrating only on thewindow market for so long, CTT realized that theywere missing an opportunity in the market insandwich panels and doors. From that timeonwards, CTT has put enormous effort into cor-recting this oversight. They have tried many

unusual methods of manual production and seve-ral in-house machine tool presses but finally, aftera great many experiments, settled on a set ofcomponents, adhesives and methods that workedfor them. In consequence, during 2008, CTT pro-duced over a third of a million square metres ofbonded panels. Two sides of these panels werefixed using adhesives.

During the experimental stage, they were testingSika products for some of the time, but not alwaysthe right ones for the job, and not always in theright way, so these fell by the wayside.

It is understandable then, that Sika Romania’sfirst approach met with considerable resistance.CTT were working with rollers, and a press thatthey had built themselves and it was doing the

job. «Why should we change?» they wanted toknow. They knew nothing about Sika, Sika capa-bilities or of Sika quality.

After many hours of hard work and presentations,the message began to filter across, and followingsuitable trials, they successfully began to con-struct their sandwich panels using SikaForce®-7710 adhesive. However, it was not long beforethere was a major setback and the newfound con-fidence in Sika was shattered when the bondingon 17000 m2 of panels failed. With only a littleeffort, the PVC could be peeled back from the corematerial.

This was confusing for Sika technicians as everymaterial involved had first been thoroughly testedand now, after the failures, checks revealed that

Appliances & Components

Page 9Appliances & Components Sika Industry Magazine

the correct adhesives and processes were stillbeing used throughout.

It eventually became apparent that there had beena change of supplier for both the PVC and the corematerial. The new PVC being used had differentcharacteristics to the previously tested one andthe Sika adhesive was no longer the correctmatch for the application.

New tests were instigated using the new PVC andcore materials and the results identifiedSikaForce®-7718 as being the best for the appli-cation. CTT disclosed that SikaForce®-7718 wasthe best adhesive they had come across. In themeantime they had set up production using analternative adhesive (Kleberit 1K PU) and wereapplying this with a manual roller and using a car

washer to spray the PVC with water. While thiswas working up to a point, they were still produ-cing some failures. But probably the biggest dis-advantage of their in-house process was that theamount of manual work needed was too high.

Working intermittently with CTT, Sika was able toidentify the reason for the failures. This was thatCTT were pressing the panels for only ninetyminutes; which initially seemed impressive – untilit was discovered that the recommended periodwas twelve hours. Changing this period solved thefailure issue, but the longer time meant that thecosts were no longer viable.

Sika worked with VETACS to design a tailoredmachine for the CTT production line. The resultnot only gave a productivity of 240 m²/h with

three presses and with far less effort but also pro-duced a robust product with a high quality finish.The new system now produces one sandwichpanel every minute.

It is easy to see why companies like CTT wouldwant to retain full control over their productionlines and keep ‘interlopers’ at bay. However, hadthey taken full advantage of the Sika expertisefrom the outset to provide a complete solution,they could have saved two years worth of trial anderror and heartache. Sika’s ethos, to be a partnerto our clients is an important message for newclients as it tells them that Sika’s success isbound up with their own. Truth be told, they areone and the same and getting this messageacross is the key to new markets.

Page 10Sika Industry Magazine Research & Development

Sika Invests in Technology Site Switzerland

Modern, innovative, future-oriented andconscious of tradition. Sika has built its newtechnology center where the company wasfounded almost one hundred years ago: inZurich. Sika thereby acknowledges its rootsand the technology site Switzerland.

New opportunities in research and developmentemerge for Sika with the April 2008 opening ofthe laboratories. Some 180 employees from allareas of the Group functions Research &Development (R&D) as well as Operations(Production and Logistics) find space in the tech-nology center. Urs Mäder, Head R&D, remarks,«Before, researchers were spread across varioussites in Switzerland. With the new building we nowconcentrate all research areas at one location andcan thereby work more efficiently. This is part ofStrategy 2010, which foresees the expansion andbundling of R&D and Operations in Zurich.»

Research on Five FloorsThe research activity in the new building is prima-rily dedicated to Sika products in the areas of bon-ding and sealing having polyurethanes, silane-ter-

minated polymers, polyacrylates and epoxyhybrids as a chemical basis. The fundamentals ofbonding and sealing technologies are investigatedin the synthesis laboratories. This consists of thedevelopment of specially coordinated polymers, ofnew hardening mechanisms and of surface-activesubstances for adhesion improvement. In thelaboratories the various components such as pre-polymers are synthesized and formulated withplasticizers, filler materials, pigments, additivesand catalysts to a product with the desired pro-perties. The distinct compositions, called formula-tions, are examined in test laboratories regardingtheir application properties. Also located in thebuilding is a pilot lab, which serves for productionof larger quantities of newly developed productsfor customer tests and for preparation of large-scale manufacturing.The new Technology Center in Zurich,Switzerland. In the surface analysis laboratory,surface characterizations are conducted with thehelp of modern instruments such as the energydispersive spectroscope (EDX) to clarify the cau-ses of disturbances in bonding. In addition, suchsurfaces as glass ceramics are classified and

modified using plasma treatment. Researcherscan also carry out corrosion measurements in thelaboratory and determine dielectric coefficients,for example for Sika windshield and glass paneadhesives. The new laboratories in Zurich arelocated on floors one through five on the buil-ding’s north side – thus protected from light andheat exposure. In their modern furnishings withmeasurement, storage and climate-controlledrooms the laboratories correspond to topratestandards of the chemical industry. They are com-plemented by office work spaces which face in awesterly direction and depending on work requi-rements can be used as open-space or individualoffices. «Our chemists appreciate high lab quali-ty,» says Urs Mäder. «With the new facility we’reable to raise the attractiveness of Sika Technologystill further and as a result find highly qualifiedpersonnel more easily. At the moment we’re hiringabout 20 researchers per year.»

Surrounded by Sika TechnologyThe researchers can take inspiration in their workfrom the building itself, which contains Sika pro-ducts at numerous locations. The exposed con-

Page 11Research & Development Sika Industry Magazine

crete façade with self-compacting SCC fluid con-crete, which allows thin-walled construction ofonly 10 cm through the use of Sika additive pro-ducts, conveys the pioneering performance of thisnew technology. In addition, the new technologycenter follows the Sika concept «from Roof toFloor»: Sika products are used on the roof, in thesealing and fixation of the courtyard glass façadeas well as for flooring and wall coverings, and inbelow ground sealing. The research building hassix floors above ground, one below ground and arooftop control center. Conference rooms, testinglaboratories and a pilot lab with pilot testing faci-lities are situated on the ground floor. The facilityholds a combined surface area of some 10000 m2

and a volume of 40000 m3.

Sika for Lasting Bonds – Two Buildings Become OneThe plant premises Tüffenwies illustrates its histo-ry of growth. The different positions of structures,building heights and façades present a heteroge-neous appearance, as is typical for industrialgrounds. The new technology center towers abovethe other buildings and thereby sets a newaccent. At the same time the new building inte-grates itself well into the plant premisesTüffenwies through its connection to the existinglaboratory facility. For the viewer, the various buil-ding aspects with their strict geometric forms andclear-cut volumes demonstrate their dedication toa classical rationality. The essential artificiality ofthe laboratories is contrasted by a perceptiblemateriality. Materials speak of how they are made.They are not disguise, but follow rather their ownactualized essence: smooth white walls and cei-lings, stairwells and elevator shafts in raw, expo-sed concrete, untreated oak windows as well as

oaken-glazed carpentry. With the chosen configu-ration, not only were the operational and econo-mic requirements for the new technology centerfulfilled, but also an architectural form was foundthat reflects the transformation into a newresearch site. The centrally situated and distincti-

ve inner free space forms the core which drawstogether the various working and meeting zones.This place promotes common spirit amongemployees and reflects the desired openness inour enterprise culture.

Page 12Sika Industry Magazine Exibitions & Events

www.sika.com

06/2

009

DATE COUNTRY CITY EVENT FURTHER INFORMATION

June 12 – 15, 2009 Finland Tampere GPD Glass Performance Day www.gpd.com

Event Calendar

With more innovations and greater exhibitionspace than previous years, the world’s mostimportant commercial vehicle trade show, «IAA2008», was better attended and more successfulthan ever.The huge exhibition centre in Hannover, Germanywas the venue for this international industrial fairfrom September 25th – October 2nd 2008. Thisyear, climate protection, safety and optimumtransport efficiency in the commercial vehicleindustry were the leading themes.Around a third of a million visitors from 110 coun-tries came to the trade show. Ninety four percentof these were professional visitors from variousindustries. This clearly indicates the IAA’s fair as ahigh status, not-to-be-missed event.Countless products were presented on more than

a quarter of a million square metres of exhibitionspace. Among these were 258 world firsts, intro-duced by businesses from 48 countries. A testa-ment to the popularity of the event is evident inthe statistic that more than half of the exhibitorswere from abroad.Sika, led by Sika Germany GmbH, was once againmaking its presence felt. This year Sika wasteamed with Dow Building Solutions, Pecolit andPecocar in manning the Sandwich PanelCompetence Centre. Lightweight and strong, thesandwich panel is seeing ever-expanding interestas the ideal solution to an increasing number ofindustry-wide construction problems.The target customers for the Sika team weresandwich panel producers as well as end userslike manufacturers of refrigerated truck trailers,

caravans and motor homes. There was interesttoo from bus manufacturers, who saw a particularuse of this application in bus roof construction.The concept of the Sandwich Panel CompetenceCentre has proven to be very successful, as allaspects of construction and application can becovered in one place. It was evident that this wasvery much appreciated by customers and otherinterested visitors as they could get completeanswers to all of their queries on one stand.The Sika team were very pleased to see all of thenew and existing customers that took the troubleto visit us during the event. They take away ourgratitude for the efforts they made to turn out onthe day and we look forward to seeing them againin the near future.

IAA Transportation Show Hannover 2008