People
February 15, 2023
Covestro CFO to Leave for Airbus
Thomas Toepfer to leave Covestro as of August 31, 2023
02/15/2023 | 12:38pm EST
The Supervisory Board of Covestro has today acceded to the request from CFO and Labor Director Dr. Thomas Toepfer for the early termination of his current contract, which expires on March 31, 2026. Dr. Toepfer will leave the company as of August 31, 2023 to pursue a new role as CFO at the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. Until then, Dr. Toepfer will continue his work as CFO and Labor Director to the full extent and with the same high level of commitment. The Supervisory Board has started its search for a successor and will make an announcement in due course.
Dr. Thomas Toepfer has been a member of Covestro’s Board of Management since April 2018 and, as Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for Accounting, Controlling, and Finance, among others. He has additionally held the position of Labor Director since January 2019. “We respect Thomas Toepfer’s personal wish to terminate his contract early in order to pursue his professional career outside the Group. Since he assumed office, he has made a major contribution to Covestro’s successful development,” says Dr. Richard Pott, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Covestro. “In the past few years, he and his team have continually expanded the company’s financial structure and established the Group’s Finance board department very well at all levels. Thanks also to his commitment, Covestro enjoys a high level of trust by the capital market and today has all the tools to ensure the long-term Group strategy is sustainably financed. On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I thank Thomas Toepfer and wish him good luck and every success in his new role.”
Covestro’s CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann says: “Through his tremendous commitment, Thomas Toepfer has played an important role in developing and implementing our strategy. Together with our strong management team, we have successfully driven Covestro’s organizational realignment and in this way created the conditions necessary for Covestro to successfully generate sustainable growth.”
February 9, 2023
Michel Baulé Tribute
Elastomer entrepreneur Michel Baulé passes away
With great sadness Covestro and its employees learned about the death of Michel Baulé, entrepreneur in the cast polyurethane industry, who has passed away January 13th at the age of 79.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with Michel’s family,” said Thomas Braig, Head of Elastomers at Covestro. “We will forever and fondly remember the entrepreneur, the exceptional man and our friend who was at the origin of Covestro Elastomers.”
Graduating with a PhD in chemistry, the native of Cavaillon, France embarked on entrepreneurship in 1976 at the age of 33 by creating a moulding company for cast polyurethane parts in Romans-sur-Isère, France. Fate, circumstances and his passion for innovation made him establish a second business in 1983, specialising in the formulation of cast elastomers systems. Together with companions such as Philippe Jeantin, currently Head of the Machines business at Covestro Elastomers, Antonio Alvarez and Mauro Modugno, he then founded yet another business in 1987, dedicated to the design and manufacture of low pressure dispensing machines.
These businesses became a leader in its realm as a co-operation. It later divested its molding entity to its executives to become EXSTO, while Baulé, combining the material formulation and the machines manufacturing, successfully established a Joint Venture with the MaterialScience division of the Bayer company in 2008. In 2012, this turned into a merger and Baulé’s former business became officially part of the Bayer group. In 2015, it became part of the carve out of Covestro from its parent company Bayer. Today, this business finds its heritage in the Elastomers Business Entity of Covestro, still headquartering in Romans-sur-Isère.
“We pay tribute to the genius that was Michel Baulé, for inspiring dozens of innovations in the cast polyurethane industry, among them the development of three-components systems with quasi-MDI-prepolymers and many innovative processing concepts that lead us to maintain and promote the brand Baulé® for our machine technology. He will be missed dearly,” Abdel Arhzaf, Managing Director of Covestro Elastomers SAS, added.
After a valuable contribution to the growth of the cast polyurethane industry, Michel Baulé developed a family office called EXIMIUM which has maintained all its entrepreneurial culture through acquisitions and participations while developing financial activities and support services. Until his last days he remained very active and energetic in his entrepreneurial role.
https://polymerspaintcolourjournal.com/news/elastomer-entrepreneur-michel-baul%C3%A9-passes-away
February 3, 2023
Patten Jr. Joins Everchem Specialty Chemicals
Everchem Specialty Chemicals today announced that Dave Patten Jr. has joined the company as Director of Marketing
Patten Jr. comes from the film and commercial production background, having run his production company South9 since 2009. He has produced and sold films to Netflix and series to Comcast, directed/produced music videos for record labels including Atlantic Records, RocNation and Warner Brothers, as well as commercials for brands like Under Armour, NFL, Lincoln, and Jack Daniel’s.
“I’m excited to spice up the current paradigm of Chemical Industry marketing where I can. The team at Everchem are a lot of fun and open to atypical ideas I throw their way. Most of the time, anyway.” Patten Jr said. “More than anything though, I love that I get to work with my dad.”
Media PA, February 3, 2023
February 1, 2023
Bustynowicz Named President of Everchem Specialty Chemicals
Everchem Specialty Chemicals, a sales and marketing distributor of Urethane, Epoxy, Industrial Chemicals and Energy Curing products, today announced that Walt Bustynowicz has been named President.
Bustynowicz has more than 25 years of experience in the Urethane and Epoxy industries, working in various Technical and Commercial roles at companies which include ICI, Huntsman, CVC Thermoset Specialties, Emerald Performance Materials Company, and Cardolite Corporation. Bustynowicz transitions from his most recent role as Vice President and General Manager at Everchem.
“I am very honored to take on this new position at Everchem,” said Bustynowicz. “Our employees are what differentiate us from all other suppliers. We have dedicated people that go the extra mile to serve our customers. Everchem is uniquely positioned to bring cost effective solutions to urethane and epoxy formulators in North America. We have a wide range of raw materials that support our customers in growing their businesses.”
Dave Patten will continue as CEO and CFO of Everchem.
Media PA, February 2, 2023
About Everchem Specialty Chemicals:
Everchem Specialty Chemicals is a sales, marketing and technology driven company that operates in the North American marketplace, promoting urethane commodity, and specialty industrial chemicals. Our sourcing abilities and technical and market expertise result in real savings of both time and money for customers. Our market expertise helps our suppliers reach additional customers and markets in an easy and efficient way.
February 1, 2023
Tire Fill History
An Interview with Early Flatproofing Pioneer, Roger Cude
TAGS: Flatproofing, eliminate flat tires, #foamfill
Carlisle TyrFil recently sat down with Mr. Roger Cude, one of the founding principals of the TyrFil™ brand and an initial innovator in tire flatproofing technology, for a Q&A session to hear about the origins of the industry.
How did you start off in the tire fill industry?
My roots working in the tire fill, commonly referred to as foam fill, technology space go way back—six plus decades—to the very earliest days of the related industry field. I first met Ransome Wyman (a legendary figure in our industry, who went on to be one of the early distributors of tire fill) in 1959—he was a student instructor in my freshman college chemistry class. Ransome eventually went on to become the Lab Director for Chem Seal Corporation. When I went into engineering upon graduation, Wyman offered me a job. That company was involved in early polymer materials development.
I went on to join Pro-Seal Systems, which eventually became Teledyne, working in epoxy resins, as a chemist. I eventually followed Ransome into a new company that he had founded called Indpol (short for Industrial Polymers), which was a forerunner to what would eventually become one of the first developers of polyurethane foam fill technology. The solution was actually borne—almost accidentally, through troubleshooting other ad hoc fill technology solutions—out of the monothane (a single component heat cured urethane) rubber molding materials industry. Through a manual process that pumped polymer fill into a wheelbarrow tire, the earliest iteration of the flatproofing tire fill concept was created. Similar experiments were conducted on larger forklift tires, using a monothane compound to act as a “fill” constitution for tires on molten “slag” (disposed of junkyard refuse) removal vehicles. These foundational solutions formed the first tire flatproofing technologies.
Where did early tire fill technology go from there?
Ransome eventually moved on from Indpol. At that point, I had developed the technology to the point where it could potentially be sold for broader applications, but I moved on to another division of the company, called Grove Specialities, and went on to work in another capacity. Indpol continued to produce monothane and monopole solutions, but the tire flatproofing work, at that juncture, had basically halted. But I fortunately had carefully preserved the chemical formulations for the early work we’d been doing with monothane tire flatproofing.
A gentleman named Ed Gomberg was eventually brought in to run and revitalize an ailing Indpol. He saw that the organization was in trouble and was savvy enough to preserve the early flatproofing formulations that he stumbled upon—ultimately finding a way to build an alternate business model around the promising technology. Gomberg founded SynAir Corporation in Fontaine, CA for the specific purpose of developing and marketing tire flatproofing technology. Without Gomberg’s role in spotting real value in the technology, there would be no tire flatproofing industry as we know it today. And while Indpol eventually went belly up, this new entity was poised to grow the technology with a bright future.
How did the creation of Arnco Corporation fit in?
After the creation of the SynAir Corporation, Ransome Wyman saw the opportunities for flatproofing that were unfolding and wanted to get back into the market and get a piece of the foam fill distribution space. He and I teamed up at that point and formed the Arnco Corporation, basically which became an early competitor to SynAir. Arnco was founded in 1971 on my personal savings with a mere $1,800 down! While it was deeply undercapitalized, we believed in the technology and knew there was a vibrant marketplace for reliable tire flatproofing solutions. Our formulations were deeply rooted in fundamental chemistry. In fact, our Arnco company name was based directly on chemical symbolism—if you’re talking about a benzine ring in chemistry, the letters “AR” stands for aromatic. If you attach nitrogen, carbon and oxygen, you have polyurethane diisocyanate—the main raw materials we used to make our products.
There was a great deal of in-market competition in those early days—how did that impact that growth of flatproofing?
There was indeed a great deal of intra-industry competition. And sometimes, that competition is the very ingredient that can spur on innovation. SynAir started selling their flatproofing technology in 1971, and, at Arnco, we started selling ours in 1973. Initially, Arnco wasn’t producing tire fill technology—we were developing a fill for rubber industrial rollers, and it was only later that we adapted the solution fully for tire flatproofing purposes.
Back at that time, SynAir had generated an exclusive agreement with tire manufacturer BF Goodrich. I pulled the patents on their flatproofing solution—and it was based on the same solutions I had created and archived so many years prior. The time for this technology had cleary come. And at that time, Arnco began accruing relationships with tire manufacturers—not offering exclusive distribution deals but opening up the technology to a wide field of buyers. While SynAir technically held the patent, it only covered the process of filling the tire, not the formulation itself. While a series of legal conflagrations continued in court, Arnco marketed our version of the technology called PermaTire. We eventually added water into our urethane foam (water is the element that generates the “foam” in tire fill technology). This solution was essentially cheaper and more cost-effective than what was in SynAir’s technology, which we subsequently established under a separate patent. (In fact, this became the basis for what was known later as RePneu, now TyrFil Ultra)
What was the next phase of tire fill development?
Arnco and SynAir eventually put the legal disputes behind us. In 1989, Ransome Wyman departed the company, and I partnered up with a new team addition Larry Carapellotti, with whom I continued to grow the Arnco brand and offering. We were a small company of approximately 50 employees—and we all wore many hats.
Initially, in the early days, we were selling the tire fill compound by the pound, when it should have been sold by the gallon. It actually cost customers less to buy our compound, but the specific gravity of the material matters—and selling by volume rather than weight was more cost-efficient. Regardless, in the late 80’s, by the time the RePneu product had been patented, it represented a valuable compound. And, of course, the general tire fill formulation then became known as the branded TyrFil™ solution, which is widely sold today.
How did your tenure within the field culminate, and what became of TyrFil?
Having started Arnco in 1971, I decided to leave the industry in 2001 and sold the company to Larry Carapellotti. The company eventually merged with Pathway Polymers after being sold to umbrella chemical brand, Accella Performance Materials. That company, in 2017, was acquired by Carlisle Companies, which continues to market the industry-leading “foam fill” technology under the gold standard TyrFil brand. The flatproofing solutions that we pioneered in those early decades went on to represent a powerhouse technology that has been used and adopted globally by numerous vertical industries.
What do you personally see as your legacy in the industry, as it relates to the future of the market?
I’m proud of my work with the original formulations, and also later in assessing the dynamics of tire fill volume. I produced an adaptation of tire and rim standards and developed the original comprehensive weight charts that are still in use today. I also created a Weight Estimator that provides the mathematics that guides tire volume evaluations—assessing the interior of a tire on first an ellipsoidal, and then cylinder shape-based, formula that figures tire fill volume based on rim and tire dimensions. These guidelines continue as viable tools for the tire fill and flatproofing space.
The global tire fill market overall continues to flourish. Ever since Larry and I focused exclusively on flatproofing, the market has just grown exponentially and I’m very proud to be a part of the start of a phenomenal industry.
Mr. Cude is currently retired and resides in California.
carlisletyrfil.com/news/an-interview-with-early-flatproofing-pioneer-roder-cude/
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