The Sika Experience

Hello from a ‘Senior’ Sika-Experience, it is almost one year since I registered here for the first time and many things happened since then. First of all I would like to congratulate the four fellows who won the upcoming mining experience-trip. I still remember the feeling of expecting the unexpected like Monserrat describes on her blog. So yes, you will have a great time together and mainly you are going to learn things that never crossed your minds. It is really fascinating to observe and touch all these things that we were reading and studying all these years.

Unfortunately, these ingredients that Sika-Experience offers are not easy to be fully captivated here in Greece, at least nowadays. As you may know my country and mainly its citizens are in the middle of a financial and media cyclone where countries are equal to companies and life equals to numbers.

The consequence regarding people of our age is that there is not a foreseeable future; it is the feeling that it will always be a gigantic invisible hand pushing you down no matter how hard you try.

I believe, the most important thing during this humanitarian crisis is that everyone has to be in deep contemplation and find out the purpose of ‘being here’. We must put on scale our priorities and find out what is worth more, a high-tech camera or a photo with our friends, a re-tweet or a hi-five with our brother?

So it is time to recast our forces, which is always vital, in order to be ready and well-prepared for the challenges to come. After all, in every difficulty seizes an opportunity.

Warm greetings from Greece, best things are still for free!

It’s been a long time since I posted something here! Almost 4 months. But today I watched pictures from the trip and I remembered, how great those 2 weeks were! Lot of things happened for me since then, also thanks to Sika Experience.

After my arrival back to Czech Republic from our Experience trip, there were very busy weeks for me, cause I had to choose a topic for my final project. Influenced by Sika Experience, Fascination glass, I choose glass themed final project. So last 3 months I was really busy by calculating energy efficiency of different types of glass facades, thermal comfort and possibilities of sun shading! So exciting, but I have to say, when I submitted my work last week, I was really glad, that it was over for me. :)

So here’s my final project! :)

Another exciting news for me was being accepted for my master studies to Ecole des Ponts ParisTECH, which was my dream. So next two years I will move to Paris to start a different life. Also, I will work in France this summer, because I have to improve my french a bit.

Anyway, what I wanted to say to all people, who are reading this, if you are deciding – should I apply for Sika Experience (and not only for Sika, but for all the chances to go abroad and meet interesting people and learn some new stuff) – go for it! It will change your life. At least a bit :)

From sunny Czech Republic

Lenka

Monday, 30.01.2012, was our last day with Matthias at the Façade and Fenestration Competence Center where we used our experience gained throughout the trip to build adhesively bonded Façade and Fenestration elements. At the end of the day we had our last dinner with Matthias at a nice Mexican restaurant. We are very grateful to him for supervising us.

After nearly 2000 km road trip on Tuesday we enjoyed our train ride to Milano with Joerg Szybalski and Werner Wagner and on Wednesday we visited the Silicon production plant.

Sadly, Thursday (02.02.2012) was our last day of the Sika experience trip. We had our final meeting of the trip in the morning with Joerg, Werner, Kathrin and Maria. I have arrived back safely to Burgdorf and already missing all the fun we had during the last two weeks. It was a great pleasure to meet all the people during the entire trip.

SIKA Experience “Fascination Glass” was certainly a Once-in-a-life-time opportunity. I feel very lucky that I was part of this great experience and I’m sure that this experience will be very useful for all of us.

I would like to thank all the members of the SIKA experience team and all the people I met during this journey.

PS: Alex and Jihyun, Enjoy your rest of the stay in Milano and Wishing you safe flight home. @Lenka: Enjoy the winter (-15°C) in Prague :)

Here are some more pictures from the trip:

Alex and Lenka at work :)

no no no no no no no no no

There is no Limit

Piazza Duomo Milano

Yesterday, we visited another Sika branch in Widen and made facade by ourselves. It was like `Reviewing our Sika Experience` because everything what we saw and learned in last week was applied. The raw materials, adhesives, glass and window frame were bonded together and that`s what we experienced throughout this trip. Eventhough everyone was a little bit tired (because of the winter activity weekend), it was the best program for us. Sadly, yesterday was the last day with Matthias. Without his help and support, we couldn`t make it. Sometimes like a father and sometimes like a friend, he bonded us as a team like Alex mentioned. Again, thank you very much, Matthias. I`ll miss you whenever I eat Shrimp.

We are now in Milano, Italy and tomorrow we will visit Sika engineering`s silicones factory. (Only three days are left, OMG!) Please expect our next blog post!

Look Matthias and Alex are smiling. The dinner we had at that time was also great. Of course, all the dishes were absolutely fantasic! I really enjoy the time we are eating and talking together. The more I`m getting close with this great team, the more I feel like learning something from them. All of them are quite motivated and active.

This the Fondue what we ate in Iltios and it was  the best Fondue I`ve ever tasted.

Alex, Rahul, Lenka and I made this great picture.

Plus, mango boy Rahul!

One of the most important things about this whole trip is that it’s not only about getting some knowledge but also about meeting new people and having fun with them.
This weekend was the perfect example. It was absolutely beautiful. On saturday, we went a bit for snowboarding, for some of us for the first (second) time it their lives (Jihyun and Rahul did a great job learning that).
In the afternoon we went sky hiking let’s say, to the chalet in the mountains for perfect swiss special dish – FONDUE! Miam… We enjoyed it together with Joerg and “Fishy”, our mountain guide.

But that’s not all! After this soooo delicious dinner we back to the hotel down by sledges. And sauna after was just a cherry on the top of a cake.

Next day me, Alex and Matthias went for snowboard while the others were enjoying walking around. We met on the top of Chaeserrug (2252 m) and the weather was… well you can see it on the picture.

Today we have a great experience by building up our own insulated glass and facade element at Sika factory in Widen.

Unfortunately today it was our last day with Matthias. So I would like to thank him for this awesome week and hope to see him again!

THANKS AGAIN!

PS: Tomorrow Milan!

The 5th day of our journey, we visited Austrian company Internorm which is the largest window brand in Europe. The company produces and develops highly insulating window and door systems. Because of my major chemical engineering, I’ve never seen inside of the window frame, therefore, it’s really good experience for me to see how it’s produced and how the SiKA’s glass bonding technologyl is hidden.

Before SIKA’s glass bonding technology is developed, setting (or fitting) the window glass required professional skills and the usability was also not good. Since thermal insulation and energy saving are important for glass and window, this SIKA’s glass bonding technology could be modified to Internorm window. It was really interesting for me so many scientific important factors are needed to make one window. Also in BMW factory, SIKA technology was applied for glass bonding. Isn’t it amazing to see and learn something new you’ve never thought about before?

After having such a great weekday program, we had happy and fantastic weekend in Wildhaus. Snowboard riding and eating Fondue in Switzerland were really wonderful. Moreover in here with Alex, Lenka and Rahul, I’ve learned not only the SIKA technology, but also the way of understanding different cultures to be a friend. We became a real team and this is more than I expected. What a great experience!

Tomorrow, we will visit another SIKA branch in Widen to have a small practical workshop. The secret of workshop will be disclosed next post. Coming soon!

And here is my second blog post of the week. The Sika Experience trip is becoming more and more interesting and adventures :) Here i’m summarizing our last three days.

(25.01.2012) Glass for life! Certainly this slogan suits on this material. Visit to the float glass manufacturing company, Interpane, Seingbouse, France, was an incredible experience. Interpane is the biggest Glass manufacturing company in Europe in terms of capacity of production. Mr. Francis Ritleng showed us all the different sections of the manufacturing process from the point of mixing all the different components of glass till the end of the final product.

Next day (26.01.2012), visit to the BMW welt, BMW Production site and BMW Museum in Munich, Germany, cleared so many doubts of mine related to car manufacturing process. This world-class car manufacturing company also uses Sika adhesives to fix the windshields and some other components. After this amazing trip to BMW world, we had our lunch at the rotating restaurant on the top of Olympic tower, which was certainly extremely pleasant. Thanks to Mr. Matthias Dick !

For pictures please visit -:

http://experience.sika.com/2012-01/museums-a-w-e-s-o-m-e/

and

http://experience.sika.com/2012-01/winter-time-has-come/

Yesterday (27.01.2012), we visited Internorm in Sarleinsbach, Austria, the #1 window manufacturing Company in Europe, which produces nearly 3000 windows per day according to the customer requirements and specifications, where they use adhesives produced by Sika. The technology behind these quality windows is truly fascinating.

And now, we are enjoying a snowy weekend at the Wildhaus in Switzerland :)

Snowy good morning :)

Today was the last day in Germany and off to Austria now. Jihyun, Lenka and Rahul were very accurate for our, full of excitement, program on their posts so there is no need for many words.
About today’s schedule I have only three letters for you,

B M W

so no more writing and let the pictures talk!

To be continued..

Good morning everyone

23.01.2012, was the first day of our Sika exp trip. It was a great pleasure to meet all the member of the Sika experience team. I found all the people exceptionally welcoming and supportive.

A nice presentation about the adhesively bonded windows given by Mr. Matthias Dick was especially interesting. Introduction to all the distinctive R&D departments and the production process of adhesives at Sika Zurich was truly fascinating, where safety and quality are the topmost priorities of the company.

On day two, we had the chance to meet Mr. Beat Kaempfen, a professional architect. The presentation about the ecological buildings by Mr. Kaempfen was really impressive. The way he is using his ideas to build zero energy buildings using solar panels and photovoltaic plates is an enormous example of building an ecological future.

After that we visited the reference buildings, where we could see the real examples of approaches towards building energy efficient houses and to have a closer look on the bonded windows. Visit to one of the Sika’s top most persons zero energy house, where they have also used some of the Sika products and technologies, was a great experience.

Now on day three we are heading towards the France to visit the Float glass production site.

Have a great day !!

Hello, this is Alex from Swiss-France  boarders.

Now we are in our van and Matthias drives us to Kerlingen and finally I found some time to write how things are going.

Tomorrow, in a french factory near this city we are going to see the production of float glass, but more of this on a later post.

So far we had the chance to visit Sika headquarters in Zurich and get a tour of characteristics in the backbone production line of the company.

The most impressive of this tour, I think, is that in the center of Zurich and in a residential area Sika produces large amount of its products like Sikaflex  without disturbing or polluting the local neighborhood. But why they don’t produce their products in another country which has low cost production? The reason emerges from it’s standard as a company and it’s commitment to high quality control. It is very important for the highly-trained employees to check the quality of the product that is going to the market with the provided hi-tech equipments.

Now we are at the end of the second day of this experience trip and the purpose of today’s schedule was to realise the glass as a significant part to the ambitious project of constructing a house that produces itself the energy, it’s residents need, and even more, or more scientifically the zero-energy house.

For this purpose Mr Beat Kämpfen, a highly experienced architect on these kind of projects, showed us characteristic buildings which are about to be constructed or are in use.
Significant part in this project has the bonded glass, which is a great innovation of Sika. This glass while reduces the thermal losses of the building, raises the passing light and aesthetic results using wood as a frame but without it’s maintenance cost.

Anyway we are about to reach the hotel now  so more news about our trip are coming next days.
At last but not least I have to say that it feels very comfortable to be near sika’s members who are very willing to help and give us the guidelines of contemporary design.

Au revoir!