19-20 November 2024
Vienna, Austria
THE HOME OF THE ELASTOMERS INDUSTRY
For over 30 years, Silicone Elastomers World Summit has been the go-to meeting place for those working in the industry. The event brings together manufacturers, processors, end users, designers, and researchers for technical discussions and unrivalled networking.
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François DE BUYL received his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from University of Brussels, Belgium (1991) and an MSc in Advanced Material Sciences from University of Surrey, UK (2003). He joined Dow Corning Europe in 1991 and worked on various silicone-based materials development and applications, such as, silicone sealant & adhesives, organosilanes, thermoplastics and rubbers reinforcements, and coatings, before joining the Dow Silicones Belgium Silicone Elastomers TS&D team back in 2011, helping for instance customers in LED lighting fixtures using optical LSR in their LED lamps and luminaires designs. Since a couple of years, François expanded his responsibilities to support new business opportunities in the field of mobility & transportation, such as, RTV elastomers for self-sealing-tires, which he will cover during his talk on “Silicone Sealant for Extended Tire mobility” at this conference event.
Bruno Cuocci is a Silicone Rubber specialist with 40 years industry experience. Initial career was spent at a silicone rubber fabrication company before joining Dow Silicone Italy in 2003. From 2003 to 2016 Bruno worked as an AETS within Dow covering HCR, LSR, F-LSR and FSR technologies, gaining deep application knowledge, numerous technical achievement awards and patents. Most recently Bruno has been supporting Dow Silicones HTV product line and in 2023 became Dow’s Global Application Technology Leader for Energy Transmission and Distribution.
Thomas started his education as an apprentice for plastic processing engineer at ENGEL in 1995. In 1998 he moved to the ELAST department where he was responsible for customer training, mould start up´s, mould trials, development trials, and troubleshooting in house and at customers all over the world.
In 2010 he then moved to the application office where he was responsible for machine workouts, project evaluations, and for managing R&D projects.
Since September 2014 he began working in sales department as Senior Area Sales Manager responsible for ELAST, LSR, Solid Silicone, and Thermoset machines.
Timo Hofmann works in the Unipace department of the Institute of Materials Engineering at the University of Kassel. His fields of research include the foaming of high consistency silicone rubbers and the use of recyclate in combination with silicone rubbers.
Thorsten Häuser studied mechanical engineering at the University of Essen from 1996 to 2001, specializing in plastics technology. He wrote his diploma thesis at Ohio State University in Columbus/Ohio at the Edison Welding Institute (EWI) in the field of micro laser welding of polycarbonate. He first came into contact with silicone elastomers in 2001 when he moved to the IKV (Institute for Plastics Processing) at RWTH Aachen University. There he took over the working group for “injection molding of cross-linking molding compounds” and conducted research in the areas of gas assisted injection molding of silicone elastomers, micro injection molding and the physical foaming of LSR. In 2006, he then moved to Momentive Performance Materials in the application development center (ADC), where he supported automotive and medical technology customers. In 2010, he moved to Shanghai, where he became Application Development Manager Asia, with the responsibility for setting up a technology center for Asian/Oceanic customers. From 2013 to 2022 he worked in various roles at Momentive but always with a maximum focus on innovation and customers. After a 2-year intermezzo at Dongyue Ltd. as Senior Technology Development Leader for silicones and membranes, he joined ELMET Elastomer GmbH in July 2023 as Head of Technology, where he and his team research and develop in the areas of process development, tooling technology as well as handling and dosing technologies.
Becoming a toolmaker with master degree
Owner of a toolshop for 8 years
Head of toolshop and development in a mid-size company mainly for medical and cosmetics
Managing director in a company for servo-driven solutions in and around an injection mold
Since 2019 in EWIKON as a Product-Manager for CoolShot, a cold runner system for silicone molding, and as a Key Account manager.
Over 28 years’ experience in technical fields in various industries and market segments.
Experienced application engineer in the field of silicone chemistry.
With a rich background in research, development, and production.
My expertise encompasses various aspects of silicone technology, including formulation design, process optimization, and quality control. Throughout my career at DOW, I developed a passion for innovation, constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with silicone materials. I loved to knowledge-sharing within the industry.
François DE BUYL received his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from University of Brussels, Belgium (1991) and an MSc in Advanced Material Sciences from University of Surrey, UK (2003). He joined Dow Corning Europe in 1991 and worked on various silicone based materials development and applications, such as, e.g., silicone sealant & adhesives, organosilanes, thermoplastics and (silicone) rubbers reinforcements, and coatings, before joining the Dow Silicones Belgium Silicone Elastomers TS&D team back in 2011, helping for instance lighting and optical companies (Tier 1 and OEMs) using silicone in their LED lamps and luminaires designs, with products such as, e.g., optical moldable silicones, optical encapsulants, thermal interface materials, adhesives and coatings for lighting fixtures protection and assembly.
Kurt Manigatter is CEO of ELMET GmbH, a worldwide well known LSR Mold-and Molding- specialist also known as supplier for LSR dosing systems. Kurt holds a Master of Engineering degree and is graduate of Technical High School, Austria. He started his carrier as designer in a shipyard and was responsible for development of automation of technical processes, to build ships as automatically as possible. After 9 years empirical knowledge he changed to the mechanical industry to develop drive concepts. After additional 5 years he changed into his passion, the mold making and automation branch. 3 years he was employed at the market leader for LSR molds. Then he quit his job and founded ELMET GmbH. He is known as an expert for LSR solutions and frequent lecturer and part of advisory boards.
Stefan works for Aptiv Services Deutschland GmbH, located in Wuppertal. He started at Kabelwerke Reinshagen as a tool maker in 1981. He holds a degree in Machinery Engineering from University Wuppertal and a Degree in Since and Economics of University Dortmund.
He held various positions at Reinshagen and later at Delphi Automotive System in Tool & Process Engineering and Operations.
He was 7 Years Plant manager of Delphi Wuppertal Plant and since 2013 he is responsible for Global manufacturing Engineering for LSR. He was 7 Years Plant manager of Delphi Wuppertal Plant and since 2013 he is responsible for Global manufacturing Engineering for LSR
Dr. Ralf-Urs Giesen studied Mechanical Engineering specialized in polymer process engineering at University of Paderborn/Germany, after that he made his PhD at the University of Kassel/Germany. In 2009 he took up employment as scientific assistant in the Institute for Materials Technology, Department Polymer Technology at University of Kassel/Germany. Currently Mr. Giesen is the managing director of the Polymer Application Center (called UNIpace) of the University of Kassel and also the head of the division UNIpace in the department of Polymer Technology.
Oliver studied Mechanical Engineering and Plastics Technology at RWTH Aachen / IKV in Germany and received his diploma in 1990. He started his professional career at Dätwyler / Switzerland as a project leader for rubber precision parts for the Automotive Industry. In 1996, Oliver joined DuPont-Dow Elastomers as Market Development Manager for Automotive. Between 2001 and 2003 he was the commercial director at Omnexus in Europe. In 2004 he joined Momentive Performance Materials in Automotive Marketing for Elastomers and became the Global Marketing Leader of this segment. Since 2020 he supports Sigma Engineering in Strategic Marketing.
