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ePaper created 2013-04-23, 15:29:44 | version 1.25.9
03 INNOVATION AT A GLANCE car specifications, and physiological qualities described in the German and US Pharmacopoeia and the German Food Law as well as in the FDA regulations. In-house compounding allows BIW to meet the specific require- ments of each and every case. Using the appropriate raw materials plays a role in com- pounding too of course. These include the basic types of silicone rubber available from BIW’s raw material manufacturers, some of which are Wacker Chemie in Burghausen, Leverkusener Momentive (formerly GE- Bayer), the Bluestar Group, which is partly French and partly Chinese, and the global market leader, Dow Corn- ing, which is headquartered in the USA. BIW has worked very closely with all its raw material manufacturers for years and regularly exchanges information with their experts regarding raw materials, improvements to the qualities of existing raw materials, and the interaction between these raw materials and other raw materials or certain environmental conditions. This cooperation is surely as valuable as it is practical, because it results in direct benefits for our customers in the long term. In addition to these raw materials, the basic silicone types, there is also the additives group, which includes various cross-linking agents, propellants for the silicone foam production process, batches of colours, heat stabilisers, and many more. Ultimately, only combining the right raw materials with the right additives will create the appro- priate mix, which will only ever be made in BIW’s com- pounding department. The BIW compounding department, which is led by Oliver Braselmann, now consists of three large open rolling mills and three conical twin mixers (CTMs), as well as the laboratory rolling mill mentioned at the beginning which has been used since the company was founded. These are modern mixing systems with an integrated, semi-automatic outfeed system. The CTMs produce sig- nificantly better mixing performance and are also less dependent on the machine operator thanks to defined mixing programmes. They therefore have the edge over the rollers in terms of productivity and reproducibility, but not every mix can be created by a CTM with the quality that is achieved by the rollers. Even small quantities are better when produced by the rollers. This means that it is actually the combination of rollers and CTMs which gives BIW the basic conditions it needs to constantly create the right mix with the requested quality level economi- cally. The computer-supported weighing terminal, which weighs all mix components, makes complete charge traceability possible – in both directions, i.e. we’re not just able to see which raw material batches a product was made from; we can also work out which products a particular batch of raw materials was used in. This too is one of the basic prerequisites needed for our many successful certifications according to current quality standards. Regardless of what your requirements are, with a mix from BIW’s in-house compounding department, you’ll never have anything to worry about. When it comes to competence – BIW. — Dr. Markus Wiethoff Oliver Braselmann INTRODUCES HIMSELF Name: Oliver Braselmann Position: Head of Compounding TRAINING: Courses to become a plastics and rubber indus- trial technician, a technical business manager, and a DGQ (German Society for Quality) quality manager INTERESTS: Engine-powered flight, gliding, and cyclo-cross GOALS AT BIW: To continue to develop the department in an environment which is growing dynamically. To develop and create customer-specific compounds that meet the individual physi- cal and chemical requirements demanded of the finished products in the field they are to be used in – just in time. Rolling mill Laboratory rolling mill