Winners of the UTECH Europe Awards 2024 were announced at the UTECH Europe global polyurethane conference and exhibition in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The seven awards recognise and celebrate outstanding achievement and innovation in the European polyurethane industry. The most hotly contested category this year was the Sustainability Initiative Award, and sustainability factors proved decisive across all seven awards.
- Sustainability Initiative Award: Econic Technologies for its CO2-based polyols
- Material Innovation, Flexible Foam Award: Evonik Operations for TEGO® RISE
- Material Innovation Award (not flexible foam): Dow for SPECFLEX™ CIRcular
- Rising Star Award: Sam Hill of The Vita Group
- Machinery Innovation Award: Covestro for Baulé® alpha
- Polyurethane Processor Award: Spanset Secutex
- Polyurethane Ambassador Award, Adri Aerts of The Vita Group
Each award winner received a sleek UTECH Europe Awards ‘Column of Victory’ trophy designed by Better Future Factory. The distinctive trophy’s UTECH ‘U’ logo is 3D printed in thermoplastic polyurethane and its column is 3D printed using recycled PET plastic.
“Congratulations to our seven winners including our Rising Star Sam Hill and Polyurethane Ambassador Adri Aerts, both of the Vita Group,” said Matt Barber, Global Events Director of UTECH Europe organiser Crain Communications. “These innovations are a testament to the industry’s commitment to increasing sustainability and developing polyurethane materials into new applications.”
Econic Technologies beat eight other finalists in the Sustainability Initiative Award, sponsored by Evonik Operations. Its CO2-based polyols can replace up to 50% of the polyol in a viscoelastic formulation and still meet the quality performance requirements. Econic’s polyol grades for mattress foams can deliver up to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Winner of the Flexible Foam Material Innovation Award, Evonik Operations TEGO® RISE is a novel software solution that combines production line parameters, chemical know-how and data science into optimising foam production. It helps foamers achieve the best production settings and speed up the process.
Dow Polyurethanes’ SPECFLEX™ CIR, winner of the Material Innovation Award (not flexible foam) is a circular feedstock sourced from waste of the mobility sector that replaces virgin fossil-fuel feedstock through certified mass balance approach.
Rising Star Sam Hill has driven sustainable innovation at The Vita Group. His achievements include producing a concept foam to suit automotive physical property requirements while replacing all the virgin polyol with sustainable alternatives. He was also pivotal in the design of the VitaFirst mattress manufactured using innovative and sustainable technologies.
Winner of the Machinery Innovation Award Covestro’s Baulé® alpha machines provide a gateway to scalability for cast polyurethane parts manufacturers. Each module within these machines is highly versatile, offering a wide range of options and variations.
Spanset Secutex carried off the Polyurethane Processor Award in recognition of the innovation behind its secuBlock universal stacking blocks used to store wind turbine rotor blades on construction sites.
The winner of the Polyurethane Ambassador Award, Adri Aerts, Senior Technical Advisor of The Vita Group, was also inducted into the UTECH Europe Hall of Fame, which recognises leaders who have made a significant contribution to the polyurethane industry.
UTECH Europe, the triennial global polyurethane conference and exhibition where the awards were presented is uniquely placed attracts visitors from over 80 countries around the world. Unique to Europe is the growing breadth of the applications of polyurethanes technology from automotive interiors, medical devices, textiles, furniture and footwear through to insulation, adhesives, paints and coatings.
