The Sika Experience

We are very proud to announce that this year’s Sika award has been granted to Benedikt Wanner a student of ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland). He has written the best master thesis in Polymerchemistry and Organic Synthesis in 2011 at the ETH!

Are you ready to go into details why Benedikt’s thesis was so outstanding?

The topic of Benedikt’s winning Master Thesis is the development of a catalytic, enantioselective synthesis of dihydropyridones from simple, widely available starting materials. These products are highly sought as scaffolds for the synthesis of bioactive compounds. It proved critical to have the correct enantiomer and to prepare enantioenriched variants. Surprisingly, and against the conventional wisdom, Mr. Wanner found that he could do this reaction best without protecting groups on the nitrogen. The products can be synthesized in two steps, therefore, they are directly amenable to further elaboration. This project, from conception to publication, was accomplished in less than three months! Wow!

In the picture below you see myself congratulating this promising young scientist.

The Sika Award 2011 goes to the student who wrote the best master thesis in Polymerchemistry and Organic Synthesis in 2011. The Sika Master Award is endowed with CHF 2’000 and is the highest endowed price for a master thesis in this department. Such prices are enormously important to young scientists as they support young people in their career start. Congratulations to Benedikt!

The importance of rooftop solar applications has long been recognized by Sika: Solar reflective membranes (SR) can increase the performance of the photovoltaic (PV) panels. To assess and monitor their performance, Sika has built its own solar parks in several locations using different PV technologies. See Case Study.

It is until several weeks ago when I received a email from dear Daniela – our coordinator of Sika experience “Automotive” 2010, that I suddenly realized it has been already one year since we had this exciting experience in two weeks of May in 2010 ! How time flies, and every time when I tried to remind those pleasure moments, I could see them there, vividly. During that period, with another winner all the way from Thailand – dear Sompol, I got to know lots of kind colleagues, traveled to different beautiful places and of course learned the fascinating technology of advanced foaming materials and universal adhesives. I still remember the unforgettable dinner we had together in the most famous restaurant in Munich – Hofbräuhaus, it is the most delicious and also the biggest pork knuckle that I have ever had; during the first several days in widen, we were very lucky to had the chance to make our own sandwich prototype all by ourselves, and it got even more interesting when the material was heated up in the oven while you could see the expansion process clearly; we were so surprised in the BMW factory in Munich by the splendid view of hundreds of highly automatically robots working under one roof; we climbed up on the Titlis mountain though heavy fog was surrounding us making everyone feel lost in a white world; we had been Paris for a weekend, we had been Zurich for the city night tour… There are countless precious memories which I could not tell about one by one. Such a wonderful experience is truly a big treasure that I would cherish in my whole life.

Starting from this activity, I have been knowing more and more about Sika and we have been keeping touch with each other since then. Just half of year ago, I was again very lucky to obtain an internship in Sika research department in Zurich on the topic of foaming materials. The job was interesting and I had so much fun working with those very nice colleagues. I learned a lot from them, not only on the technical knowledge but also on the cultural aspect, plus a little bit Swiss German as well :-b. The internship was about 4 months and then I was back to school for the studies. Now I am already doing the diploma project of my Master program, and the choice of the topic was also inspired by the research work done in Sika during the internship.

I am sincerely happy to learn that Sika experience 2011 is currently going on, and that there will be even more new breathtaking programs ready for young talents from everywhere in the world. I truly hope that such a mutual beneficial opportunities could be created every year and that those brilliant youths who were luckily invited will greatly enjoy such a valuable experience !



Working in the chemistry laboratory in Sika Technology in Zurich

My name is Tony Smith and I am the Business Unit Manager for Distribution at Sika in New Zealand. Over the next few months I want to tell you about some of our simple sustainability projects here in New Zealand.

The term “sustainability” is often used in conversation and discussions about the environment. However, not everyone is certain about the meaning of sustainability, and different people think about it in different ways.  In general sustainability aims to balance the needs of our communities with the needs of the environment. Sustainability promotes biodiversity, the preservation of our unique ecosystems, the health of the environment, and a better quality of life.

In New Zealand we take our role in protecting the environment very seriously so we are always looking for ways to make a difference.

As a sales company our staff need to see their customers at their place of business and travelling by car is the best option. New Zealand is an island nation with two main islands, North Island and South Island. The total land area is 268,670 square kilometers (103,733 square miles), making it about the size of the state of Colorado, with a coastline of 15,134 kilometers (9,404 miles).

As our customers are spread all over our country you can imagine our sales team has a high annual vehicle mileage, around 45,000 kms each. Poor planning and inappropriate vehicle usage mean increased fuel consumption. This not only adds cost to our business, it wastes a valuable and limited resource and increases our CO² emissions.

We set a goal to reduce our fuel consumption by 5% within 12 month. The first part of this process was to change some of the sales territories to minimize driving distances. We then completed a review of customer call cycles with all BU Distribution sales staff; again with the intention of minimize driving distances. The next initiative was about smarter vehicle use. A quick Google search on the subject revealed many fuel saving ideals and we implemented as many as possible. These are all very simple and practical ideals, and they can work for everyone, such as:

• Slow down – keeping to the speed limit can save up to 10%
• Avoid carrying unnecessary weight – Every 50kg in your boot (trunk) will add 2% extra fuel use
• Keep your tires at the correct pressure – under inflation cause extra friction and increases fuel use
• Limiting Aircon use can save up to 10%
• Driving smoothly

Before we started this initiative we used on average 3.76 litres of fuel per $1,000 of sales. We are now averaging 2.37 litres per $1,000.

In two years we reduced our fuel consumption by 20,287 litres, and this reduced our CO² emissions by over 47 tonnes. This is Sustainability.

Hello! This is my first time using this blog to report on my experiences during my internship at Sika.

I am Trainee in Corporate Product Sustainability and I am working in Altsetten, in Zurich, Switzerland. I am taking part in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project, what I find very exciting since beside I am making a master of advanced studies in environmental management & technology. I have started with the internship on the 18th of April and since then I have been learning a lot about the LCA software GaBi, where we modell our products considering their raw materials, production, use phase and end phase. I am very looking forwards to all what is coming in the project, which represents for me a big challenge and the opportunity to learn a lot in the area of sustainability.

Bye for now! María José

Sike Vietnam also this year funds corrective facial surgery for approx. 400 Vietnamese children. The sponsorship of 100’000 USD supports the nonprofit organisation Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV) in their efforts to offer surgery for children who have cleft lip and cleft palate defoormities at five missions this year. This is the second year that Sika has joined OSV to support the group’s work. In addition to the financial support, a number of dedicated Sika employees participated in these missions as volunteers to assist the teams with logistics work and experience life changing surgeries.

“We are very proud to support Operation Smile to help under-privileged Vietnamese children. We do hope that our contribution will not only help heal a child, but heal a family, a village but also an entire country” – said Ms. Yumi Kan – General Manager of Sika Vietnam.^ Operation Smile Vietnam is part of a global alliance of Operation Smile Foundations and Resource Chapters dedicated to providing free treatment to children and adults suffering from cleft lips and cleft palates.

Sika offers new high performance sealing and bonding solutions for the car body construction. Applied in the body shop (Body-in-White) direct metal/metal joints are formed using the hot curing process of the e-coat process. Even oily metal sheets and different metals can be bonded!

SikaPower structural adhesives – the name of the new epoxy hybrid range – are based on epoxy resins which improve stiffness and light weight designs. An internal crack stopper makes the adhesive very resilient and improves not only the longevity of the car but the crash performance as well. Sika’s new patented curing system allows an outstanding shelf life which guarantees good application properties and bonding performance.

The SikaPower sealants blend the good corrosion resistance of epoxy with the unique skin formation of a PU-hybrid. Usually sealants are applied during the sensitive painting process but the SikaPower sealant assures a good wash out resistance which allows sealing already during the car body assembly. Moreover the skin makes the applied sealant e-coatable leading to a superior corrosion resistance.

New light weight and long term durable car bodies are enabled with hot curing SikaPower Body-in-White adhesives and sealants.

Geoff du Toit, from CapeTown, South Africa, was our winner of the essay-contest during our last year’s Sika Experience series. We announced our selection last November in a blog at Sika Experience. Geoff received as reward a book voucher and he could nominate a sustainable project where Sika would donate $ 10’000.-. Geoff decided to support a local organization called “Ikamva Labantu” (the Future of our Nation). Their objective is to protect and nurture the most vulnerable members of the community.

With our donation we helped to build an additional multipurpose hall. These halls are used to fulfill the programs of the organization. Such as:

- Education and skills development

- Health interventions at the primary level

- Food security

- Community infrastructure, including securing land and building

Geoff will inform us about further developments of this project as he is following up for us the progresses.

Do you have also such activities in your country? Please inform us.

Geoff with Staff from Ikama Organization

The new multipurpose facility in Khayalitsha

Multipurpose center outside sponsored by Sika

There are still some uncertainties remaining about global warming and we don’t know precisely whether we will experience minor impacts or are about to trigger a catastrophic outcome. In order to act in a precautionary way, one can not wait until every possible scientific proof about climate change has been established. We therefore already develop new products and technologies that are not only value-generating and environmentally sound but also contribute to sustainable solutions for the global challenges we are facing.

Research for products with less environmental footprint