Flow improvement with bFI A 3745 – request your sample now

Apr 8, 2022 | News

A flow improvement with a sample of our bFI A 3745 is now ready

For our research team, the last few months have been all about scaling up: The goal of placing the first samples with customers in the test phase was preceded by numerous agreements, comparative measurements and optimization steps. In the meantime, the first large production batch has been manufactured and arrived at our premises, covering several tours by lift truck. After some modifications to achieve the optimal balance between energy saving and flow improvement, we proudly present our bFI A 3745. From now on, our customers can request a bFi A 3745 sample for their flow imorivement.

Our first product is not only interesting for injection molders, compounders and masterbatchers, but brings measurable benefits to all processors of PMMA, PS or PC:

up to 33% energy saving
up to 1.5 times increase in throughput
massive reduction of viscosity
reduction of processing temperature

If interested parties would like to test the first samples in the test phase on their own machines and in their own processes, a phone call or e-mail will suffice. Our quantity of bFI A 3745 is limited. However, further batches and greater scaling will naturally follow. We are particularly proud of the fact that transparency is retained when used in PMMA – a feature that we would also like to transfer to other types of plastic and which we also want to achieve with our second product, the bSR shrink reducer.

In addition to saving energy during processing, our additives, which also replace parts of the base polymer if they are ideally miscible with it, are non-toxic, more homogeneous and easier to recycle. Both aspects, energy savings (and the associated lower CO2 impact) and recyclability, are also forward-looking for the sustainable development that is emerging for the plastics industry as a whole. In its report “Reshaping Plastics” Plastics Europe estimates a 70% decrease in unrecycled plastics in industrial use by 2050. Polytives also supports this direction with its in-house polymer additives.

Initial samples in the test phase are usually followed by a wide range of feedback with positive aspects and requests for improvement. We are curious to see what adjustments still need to be made in the future – and what creative solutions we will come up with to overcome these challenges.

Now you too can request a bFi A 3745 sample!

Request sample

2nd company birthday

Mar 5, 2022 | About us, News

The 2nd company birthday is used by the startup from Jena to look back on what has been achieved

Polytives GmbH – a startup from Jena – celebrates its 2nd company birthday. We look with joy and pride on our two years of company existence! Surprisingly fast the last two years have passed since the company was founded. And who doesn’t know that: Not even “of age” yet, but full of energy and more than ready to go on. A lot has happened in the last few years, a lot has moved our team, which has only recently grown to nine people, and a lot will still change in the coming months and years: Funding, upcoming sample quantities, trade fairs and also the media are permanently interested in the startup from Jena. Most recently, Minister Tiefensee was a guest. The list of thoughts that come to our team while remembering could be continued. All the milestones that our young company has reached so far can be found under ABOUT US.

The fact that the ideas around our managing director duo, CEO Viktoria Rothleitner and CTO Oliver Eckardt, mature and bear fruit is also due to the strong partners, supporters and companions, to whom Polytives GmbH would like to say thank you! All the prizes and awards we have received so far (ThEX Award, Innovation Award, etc.) also give us public motivation to continue our work. Of course, these achievements are due to the entire great team, which has jointly contributed to these successes – thanks also to each and every one of you! Together, we want to continue our success and turn our visions into reality.

As children, many of us wished for various plastic toys for our birthdays. Our wishes are now somewhat different; we would like to see Polytives additives IN the toys with which the next generation can build their dream world and thus also a piece of the future. We are not just waiting in anticipation to see whether our birthday wish for the new company year will come true – we are working together every day to revolutionize the plastics market in the long term!
If you want to know how we continue to work on this vision, stay on our heels, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media.

Commitment to the polymer industry in Thuringia

Feb 10, 2022 | News

Location intentions of Polytives GmbH

On February 09 Minister of Economics Tiefensee visited us again in Jena. As last year, he inquired about the concerns and problems, but also about ideas and perspectives that we see for our young company and for the polymer industry in Thuringia. Encouraged by the renewed support that Mr. Tiefensee assured us on behalf of the Thuringian economy, we are now disclosing our location intentions:

To remain located in Thuringia as a company was already considered certain for us in the long term. We have built up a good network here, including research institutes, universities, industrial companies, and a growing startup community. Here we have found reliable partners and we are in constructive exchange with experts in the plastics industry in Thuringia. They all have strengthened our resolve to commit ourselves to Thuringia in the medium term.

The fact that we have been encouraged to expand the dimensions of our ideas once again shows us the conviction with which our investors and partners stand behind us. Supporting a plant for Polytives is not only a commitment to us, but also to the entire polymer industry in Thuringia.

Numerous facts on www.invest-in-thuringia.de prove that the plastics industry in Thuringia is one of the industries with the highest turnover in Thuringia and already has a success story of more than 100 years. The plastics industry has experienced rapid growth, which we as Polytives GmbH would like to follow. With our innovation, we see sufficient potential for this. Currently, there are about 520 companies in the polymer industry with approximately 34,000 employees, generating a turnover of 7.2 billion euros. These companies specialize in injection moulding, extrusion, functionalized plastic products or process technology for multi-material systems, and much more. Here Polytives GmbH is perfectly located as a startup with innovative products.

As a member of the Thuringian plastics cluster PolymerMat e.V. we will contribute our share to further strengthen and expand the Thuringian plastics industry. The innovative power generated by networking offers customers a competitive advantage.

Scaling of our plastic additives now even more efficiently

Feb 7, 2022 | News

We have invested in scaling our plastic additives more efficiently

Scaling up our plastic additives is an essential process on the way to their market maturity. At the beginning of the year, we at Polytives already reported on a new investment that should make our lab team’s work easier. Now that we have been able to familiarize ourselves a little with its handling, we would like to introduce our latest acquisition here and explain the benefits it will bring to our customers. Especially in the context of our service, where we not only develop individualized plastic additives for plastics processors, but also provide them in relevant quantities for testing, our investment will lead to a significant process shortening. Find out more here.

Different steps are necessary for the production of our polymer plastic additives. One of them is the work-up at the end of each reaction, which results in the high-quality product that our customers in the plastics processing industry use. These steps can be reproduced relatively well on a small scale in an efficient manner. However, as soon as it gets into the upscaling process – as many who deal with this know all too well – many things are no longer so trivial. Scaling up our plastic additives therefore requires a lot of technical know-how and appropriate equipment.

We would like to be a little more specific and give a brief insight into the possibilities we have gained through the acquisition, which will serve to scale up new products, also in the context of customer projects. Thanks to the support of the Free State of Thuringia and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), we were able to expand our technology with a so-called thin-film distillation plant.

This plant facilitates the separation of solvents from our polymers and, above all, makes it much more efficient. The end product, our plastic additive, is not only drier and purer – our laboratory team can also bundle many time-consuming, small-scale work steps. This frees up resources for further developments and optimizations. The reprocessing process is significantly accelerated, the throughput of our product is increased immensely, and the scaling of our additives almost runs by itself. In addition, the separated solvents can be collected safely and conveniently in this way, also as part of a tailor-made solution for our customers, and reprocessed for reuse. Conserving resources and working efficiently, we thus contribute to sustainability while still offering all the advantages of scaling up to the kilogram scale for our customers.

Even if individual operating refinements can still be further optimized (after all, you never stop learning), Polytives GmbH is pleased with this helpful, indeed necessary, investment. It is another step that shortens the prototyping phase and brings us closer to our goals even faster.