Beauvais, France Backgrounder

GE Plastics (www.geadvancedmaterials.com) is a world leader in providing high-tech materials solutions through engineering thermoplastics.

GE Plastics is headquartered in the United States in Pittsfield, Mass., with a European site in Beauvais, France.

The plant at the Beauvais site was originally built in 1870 by the Antiseptic Products Society. GE Plastics revitalized the plant in 1988 with the acquisition of Borg-Warner Chemicals and expanded the production of ABS.

GE Plastics’ Beauvais site is listed SEVESO 2 high Tier and it’s Technology centers and Manufacturing plants successfully passed the ISO 9001 audit.

GE Plastics has been operating in France for over 50 years and today employs approximately 250 people serving our European customer base. The plant in Beauvais is the only site in France that manufactures ABS and consists of the following departments: Production, Quality, Technology, Engineering, I.T., Human Resources, Finance & Purchasing, Maintenance, Logistics & Distribution.

The Beauvais site is only one of two sites in Europe that manufactures GE Plastics’ Cycolac* and Geloy* resins. These materials are mainly used by the automotive & transportation, building & construction, household appliances, telecommunications, electronic & lighting devices and the medical industry as well as in sports & leisure applications.

The Beauvais site received the Corporate EHS Award in 2005 and the EHS France Award in 2005. To date, the site counts almost 480 days without a lost time accident.

Cycolac ABS Resins

Cycolac ABS Resins distinguish themselves with the following properties: excellent flow impact balance, high level of thermal and color stability, FDA compliant color availability, high gloss levels and excellent processing characteristics.

Belonging to the family of engineering thermoplastics, Cycolac ABS Resins may be an excellent candidate to meet customer requirements such as impact resistance, easy processing, surface aspects, colorability and toughness as well as dimensional stability and chemical resistance. Moreover, many unique customer requirements with regard to aesthetics can be met by the versatile Visualfx* color portfolio, such as marbling, sparkles, frost, smoke and opalescence.

Cycolac Resin is an ABS based material which is created in three main steps: Polymerization, Isolation and Compounding. These steps are used in each different process technology available for producing ABS, namely, the Suspension-type process, Bulk-type process and the Emulsion type process. At the Beauvais site, GE Advanced Materials uses both the Suspension-type process and the Emulsion-type process for the manufacturing of Cycolac ABS resins.

Geloy ASA Resins

Main characteristics of Geloy Resins are: weatherability, good chemical resistance, processability, mechanical performance retention, low color shift with good paintability and platability with a wide color range as well as an excellent resistance to cleaning cycles.

A modified terpolymer, the property profile of Geloy Resins are an excellent material of choice to meet a broad range of end use requirements such as customer detailed mechanical, aesthetic, chemical and dynamic specifications.

Geloy Resin is a polymer blend that consists of both amorphous and elastomeric components. The combination results in superior weatherability, stress resistance, toughness, good thermal and electrical properties when processed under the right processing parameters.

Cycolac and Geloy Resins and the Ecomagination* Initiative

The Ecomagination initiative is GE’s commitment to the environment. GE will double its investments in research and technology toward cleaner technologies. GE will also release more Ecomagination products each year such as solar and wind energy as well as cleaner and more efficient transportation technologies and products and services that conserve or purify water. GE commits to, not only reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but improve

Reader enquiries

GE Bayer Silicones GmbH & Co. KG
Building V7
51368 LEVERKUSEN
Germany

Robert Scheib
robert.scheib@ge.com

Tel: +49 214 306 71 37
Fax: +49 214 306 71 26
Germany
+49 214 306 71 37
robert.scheib@​ge.com
www.ge.com

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