The Sika Experience

Hello Sika Experience! This is my 5^th post, finally! I’m glad to tell you that I’ll be working in the Promotion department (in marketing). This new assignment will consist in support the release of new products on to the market.

On other topic, this year we started as always with a Kick-Off event. All Sika employees spent a nice weekend in San Miguel Regla, in the state of Hidalgo (Mexico) doing many activities and learning our goals for the year.

Recently we had another event, the visit of the CEO from Switzerland, he showed us the goals he has planned for Sika and how we had been doing, the goals for Mexico and of course he is going to support us to become one of the best Sika in the world. At the same time we inaugurated Pan de Vida’s new bleachers for their American Football field. Pan de Vida is an orphanage which Sika helps with construction of the buildings that the orphanage needs. To help them is our mission and social commitment.

Sika Experience students – learning about our famous Sarnafil Roofing Membranes.

You wouldn’t know from looking at the building’s façade, but 100 Dan Road in Canton, MA holds more than just Sika Sarnafil’s corporate offices. This address is also home to the company’s 85,000 square foot manufacturing facility! The factory runs 24 hours a day, 5 days a week (7 during the busy months) in order to supply the membrane used in projects all over North America.  This week I was lucky enough to get a tour “out back” for a closer look at how Sika Sarnafil’s world renowned roofing and waterproofing membrane is made.

Assistant Manufacturing Process Engineer, Jason Murray, guided me through each stage of the process, from powdery vinyl resin (it looks like sugar!), to rolled sheets of recognizable membrane. Walking onto the manufacturing floor, I was greeted by the towering M-48; the “Green Mile”. This machine was first brought to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1978 and is still in use today. No point messing with a process that works right? Around the right hand corner of the facility, stretches the M-61. The M-61 is an automated machine that runs all Sika Sarnafil EnergySmart and Sikaplan products in widths of up to 10 feet. With the ability to produce 1 roll of membrane (50-150ft) within 3 minutes, this thing is a membrane making monster.

Although I was surrounded by huge machinery, it was a relatively small thing that caught my eye. Beside the M-61 was a box of scraps from the membrane edge cutting. Peering into the deep box, I saw what looked like Christmas bows! I was intrigued by how something so industrial could, at the same time, look so delicate. As I stopped to look at the long ribbon-like strips, Jason informed me that all of these scraps would be recycled in their on-sight recycling plant. I thought, “This is SO COOL!” but didn’t want to let on that I’m a huge recycling nerd. So instead I listened as Jason continued to explain the recycling process.

Using a high powered roller, the material is fed into the first of three grinders where it is chopped into progressively smaller pieces. The grating is so fine that it separates the PVC from the polyester backing. Using wind and gravity, the PVC falls down through the chute and into a large bin. The lighter polyester fluff is carried upward through a chute to a separate storage space, where it is then sent to waste energy facilities for fuel use. The PVC regrind is once again melted down to be used in the membrane backing.

Each year, the recycling plant at 100 Dan Road consumes an average of 5 million lbs. (over 2.2 million kg) of recyclable material. “We are the only roofing manufacturer certified by UL Environmental for 10% recycle content contained in our membrane,” Jason informed. “I’m hoping that 2012 finishes with 4.5 million square feet of post-consumer roofing recycled.  That would bring the total number to 15 million square feet recycled since the start of the program in 2006.” That’s the equivalent to 76 and a half football fields of material being saved from landfills each year! And the work here has not gone unnoticed. The recycling program has been recognized by the State of Massachusetts, Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) for their efforts. As well as the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) who awarded them the Plastics Recycling Technologies and Applications Award in 2011.

I guess being a recycling nerd is cool after all…

Hello to everyone from New Jersey!

Here at Sika, we are always trying to improve our products and our data sheets for the customer. This week’s project was with Sikafloor 1610 which is under our Industrial Flooring division. Our task was to test the workability, penetration ability, and how well it sealed off the concrete pores. Product manager Harald Sturm, intern Julio Pecho and I were trying different application procedures to find the best format to go with. We found two different locations to do the testing which was a conrete slab located outside one of the doors leading into the factory and a concrete sidewalk beside the Technical Services lab here at Lyndhurst. After the Concrete slabs were prepared by grinding and being cleaned, we applied Sikafloor 1610 which is a moisture tolerant primer. Sikafloor 1610 was applied in 2 layers, both applied by using a rubber squeegee and back rolled with a medium nap chemical resistant roller after 30 minutes. After the primer had cured, we applied Sikafloor 300N and flakes were later broadcasted. Sikafloor 300N is a polyurethane and it is UV resistant. Sikafloor 300N is part of the Sika comfort and decor flooring systems. We had seen blistering going on in certain locations because of moisture that was on top of the Sikafloor 1610 primer. This could of been caused by someone stepping on top of the primer with wet shoes but other than this, much was learned about applying the primer. It was a very succesful test!

Here are some pictures of the floor:

Captain Vinyl spreading the contest news.

Today marks the second week of Sika Sarnafil USA’s Virtual Scavenger Hunt Contest!

The contest is being held over four weeks with four scavenger hunts on four different roofing topics. Each hunt is open for one week. Participants are given a roofing clue/question that will help lead them to the “treasure” or answer. Once the “treasure” is located, participants submit their answer via our social media platforms. The first three people to submit the correct answer win a Kindle Touch! The goal of the contest is to encourage as many professionals within construction, engineering, architecture, and roofing industries to learn about our products by way of social media.

I have been working with Tracy, our Senior Marketing Specialist, to build up our Facebook and Twitter pages by reaching out to contractors and clients using these outlets. Within the past month and a half, our following on Facebook and Twitter has quadrupled! It’s exciting to see how fast the fan base has grown and hopefully will continue to grow within the next three weeks of the contest.

For info and updates on the contest, check out the Facebook page here http://a.pgtb.me/WJ9l0k

or follow us on twitter @SikaSarnafilUSA

Happy Searching!

Two days have passed since Hurricane Sandy hit the US East Coast. Power outages and major flooding extend along the coastlines of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Yet countless other states have also been greatly affected. Luckily Sika Sarnafil in Canton, MA was not too shaken by the storm. We closed at noon on Monday, before the worst of the wind and heavy rain, and were back up and running by Tuesday morning. Although the Boston area experienced power outages and flooding in coastal towns, we fared comparatively well to our friends in New York and New Jersey. Below is a collection of pictures posted by friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram showing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. All of the photos here are real and have been contributed voluntarily. We wish all of those affected to stay safe. You are in our thoughts!

I am working as an intern for Sika Switzerland AG in Zurich for one year now. As trainee in the marketing and technique department, I got the chance to look into various areas of the company and I learned a lot during that time. My internship included a visit of a major customer of Sika Industry, Stadler Rail AG in Winterthur, production tours in Zurich and in the Sika Sarnafil AG in Sarnen. Moreover, I had the possibility to follow experiments at Hagerbach gallery or at the Richi concrete factory in Weiningen. The visit at the Hagerbach gallery was very fascinating and I was even allowed to operate with the large shotcrete machine Sika®-PM 500. That was impressive! Employees of Sika Technology AG gave me insight into the world of research in such a large company and they showed me the labs and some experiments with products from Sika.

During the last months, I wrote my final master thesis at Sika and I was able to implement my own ideas and imaginations. The collaboration with the University of Zurich and the Sika Switzerland AG went smoothly, which finally led to a pleasant result.

Working in a very open and friendly team was real fun. Different product engineers in my department have introduced me into their product fields. Therefore I was able to learn a lot about the products and the marketing of Sika. All those experiences gave me a very interesting and informative introduction to my professional life. I would repeat it at any time!

Hi Everyone! So this is my first post. As you know my name is Sigourney (yep, just like Sigourney Weaver) and I am the marketing intern at Sika Sarnafil US. I had the pleasure of interning in this office last summer and when the opportunity arose to come back for 6 months, I jumped at it!

Last summer, I worked closely with the Marketing Product Manager on launching the online Resource Center for our national sales teams. With the Resource Center up and running, Sarnafil sales men and women now have access to project profiles and photos, presentations, brochures, and other important documents from anywhere in the country. It is exciting to have been a part of a project that is not only nationally utilized, but makes things a little easier for our sales people on the road.

This time around I will be working on number of projects. One that I am particularly excited about involves researching different company’s social media outlets to expand our follower base. If you haven’t already, start following us @SikaSarnafilUS and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sikasarnafilusa Catch you on the web!

Sadly my internship in social media at Sika has now finished. The time went very quickly and I can hardly believe that these three months are already over. Even though three months are only a very short time to work in a company I could gather a lot of knowledge and experiences for my personal and professional future.

From the first day I was assigned with interesting and versatile tasks and responsibilities. Therewith, I got to know this international and multicultural company. I leaned about the challenges of a company with subsidiaries in over 70 countries with the aim to develop an aligned global communication while still leaving the local companies the ability to adapt to local requirements and businesses. I also found out about some of its many interesting projects around the world and the diversity of the products and applications. I found it very interesting to see how many solutions Sika offers – being it the concrete admixture to make concrete fluid to be sprayable onto a tunnel wall, adhesives to mount a glass facade, membranes to waterproof a roof and to enable growing a green roof or many others.

A task I particularly liked during the internship was the work regarding the social, ethical and environmental engagement of Sika. The support of the many different projects shows the dedication of the local Sika employees to the people in their region as well as environmental challenges and it shows that sometimes it takes very little to make a huge difference.

My last day at Sika made me a bit sad. Not only did I leave a very interesting job but also very friendly people. Even though the company counts over 15’000 employees worldwide, it seemed like a small family at the small headquarters in central Switzerland. I surely will keep these months and all the people I met and worked with in very good memory! Thank you for this great time and all the experiences I could make and skills I could develop!

A picture from a boat trip with our team on Lake Lucerne on a very sunny and warm day in Switzerland.

A large part of my marketing internship here at Sika in Switzerland is managing the Social Media channels in which Sika is present, such as Sika Facebook, Sika Experience Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. I check what is going on in these channels, for example if someone has any questions or requests. If this is the case, I redirect them to someone in the local Sika company from the country the person comes from. Since Sika is present worldwide with a huge variety of products and applications tailored to the requirements and conditions of specific countries, we cannot give global recommendations on products or how to apply them. The local Sika subsidiaries and their employees have the know-how of the local market and help out our customers with the available products and how to apply them to achieve the best success in this specific environment and climate.

Since we cannot give any global information about our products, the content on social media about Sika Corporate is also more general and global. It is challenging to find content that is about Sika as a global company and to find information that is interesting for our fans. A little help here are analytical tools that tell you, how many people saw your post and you can compare the success of different topics you have posted:

The blue line indicates the number of people who have been reached with your posts. The purple dots are the different posts which were posted on the Facebook wall. For instance, the recent post about Sika’s E-House was quite a success. It is a nice application by the way, which helps you to find out in an interactive way where Sika products can be used around your home.

What I really like about working in these many social media channels is that I am in contact with people who use our products and who are interested in our activities. Also it gives the opportunity to learn about a lot of fascinating projects and activities Sika takes part in. Since our social media channels are directed to a global network of fans I get in touch with people from different cultures and in various languages such as English, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Indonesian,… This is very interesting but can sometimes be challenging and reflects the focus of Sika as an international player with local focus.