Last September 26th and 27th, Concentrol was invited to participate in the DESMA House Fair 2022 in Achim, where it had the opportunity to exhibit its products to international footwear professionals from Europe, India, Argentina, and South Africa. The event gathered more than 50 exhibitors and 1000 visitors from all over the world.
Mr. Angel Rodriguez, who works in Concentrol’s Technical Department, spoke about the “Experimental factorial design applied to footwear release agents”. He explained the importance of this experiment that allows to study how various factors may affect the release agent. The chemical company offers a wide range of key products for the footwear sector.
Here are some of the ideas discussed in the presentation:
“The importance of release agents in polyurethane footwear moulding processes is well known. In addition to its release performance, it has a decisive influence on the appearance of demoulded soles, on operations such as painting or gluing and on the profitability measured in scrap rates.
A mould release agent is a complex formulation of different polymeric components. Some organic materials such as waxes and oils, and some inorganic materials such as polysiloxanes in their various forms are used as the base material, with additional additives to adjust the finish and other properties. Each component plays a role in the formulation.
When designing a release agent that must meet a number of important customer requirements, the use of a factorial design of experiments saves time and resources and also allows for better product tuning. Using this methodology, not only can the contribution of each component be quantified, but also the interactions between them can be found. In this presentation, we will show how a design of experiments helps in the formulation of a well-adjusted release agent for footwear”.
For Concentrol it is very gratifying to serve as an example for other companies working in the footwear sector. Our work and constant innovation have given very positive results, and we hope to be part of the next edition, to be held in 2024.
