"Keep your - Altana AG

"Keep your 

eyes on the stars 

and your 

feet on the ground" 

ALTANA Innovation 

Conference 2011 

Our knowledge makes the difference 

Theodore Roosevelt

In Several Decades, 

How Will People Move from A to B?

In Upcoming Societies, 

How Will People Use Technical and Natural Resources?

In Future Cities, 

How Will People Live?

In a Few Quiet Moments, Would You Care to Take 

a Closer Look at the World of Tomorrow? 

Let's Talk About These Questions Now.

"TO HAVE BOTH FEET 

ON THE GROUND 

AND BOTH EYES TO 

LOOK FORWARD." 

Innovation has always been the key to economic success and continuous 

growth at ALTANA – and will remain so. To foster the spirit of innovation, 

to discuss new ideas and to push forward and pay tribute to projects that 

are already ready for market, ALTANA initiated the ALTANA Innovation 

Council and the ALTANA Innovation Conference. 

The initiators, Dr. Matthias L. Wolfgruber and Dr. Georg F. L. Wießmeier, 

have defi ned clear-cut objectives for both of them. Let's follow one of 

their discussions prior to the conference. 

13

Dr. Wolfgruber It's good to see you, Dr. Wießmeier. And 

it's great to have this opportunity to talk about this year's 

ALTANA Innovation Conference. What items are on the 

program and what do you want to achieve during the two 

days of the conference? 

Dr. Wießmeier The pleasure is all mine, Dr. Wolfgruber. 

I will be very happy to inform you about the program 

and our objectives for the conference. I think we can 

agree that we have to employ innovation as a tool for 

creating competitive advantages for our customers – and 

thus for ALTANA, too. At the 

end of the conference, therefore, 

we want to be able 

to say that we have contributed 

to pursue our overall 

goal of creating added value 

for ALTANA. 

On the basis of the "road 

map" drawn up for the 

conference, I would like to 

explain you how we have 

aligned the conference 

with this objective. This year 

it will kick off with the 

ALTANA Innovation Community 

and the ALTANA Identity. 

The focus will be on internal 

and external networks at 

ALTANA, our innovation culture 

and the switching-on of the 

ALTANA Innovation Portal 

14 

"THERE WOULD BE A BENEFIT FOR 

ALL THE DIVISIONS IN THE GROUP." 

Dr. Matthias L. Wolfgruber 

as a new information tool. As we all know, the 

ALTANA Innovation Award is an important pillar of the 

ALTANA Innovation Community and the ALTANA Identity. 

Another item on the program is the important topic of 

"Customer Focus": our customers' requirements are at the 

center of both our short-term and long-term innovation 

efforts. In this context we have invited ALTANA employees 

working in key account management – and for the fi rst 

time even a representative of a major customer. We are also 

holding two workshops on this topic. We will again be 

showcasing the most important innovation projects in 

each division, of course, with a keynote speech on each top 

innovation project. 

Traditionally, the poster session is the part of the conference 

where experts engage in a more in-depth exchange on 

various specialized topics. This year's poster session will be no 

exception, featuring about 60 posters. In response to feedback 

received after last year's conference, we have reserved a 

special lounge for the poster 

session. 

Although the three 

ALTANA Technology Platforms 

– as well as networks 

for prospective platforms 

such as "Batteries & Energy 

Storage" – will again occupy 

center stage this year, 

more details will be provided 

on both ALTANA's 

research topics and the 

Technology Platforms 

during the talks and 

discussions on the topic 

of "new business development." 

Another highlight 

has been reserved for the 

end of the conference: 

a presentation by the 

head of corporate controlling 

showing how our researchers can contribute to our 

joint goal of generating additional value. 

Dr. Wolfgruber That all sounds very promising, and I am 

really looking forward to this event. Another point 

I want to make again is that, when surveying the markets, 

we should constantly look to the future. In the past we have 

always survived diffi cult economic times by working together 

as a strong team. For this reason, I welcome the evaluation

of a possible new ALTANA Technology Platform devoted to 

"Batteries & Energy Storage." If implemented, this platform 

will certainly bring us even closer together in our work. 

You and I are by no means the only ones at ALTANA who 

are giving a lot of serious thought to "Value Management 

at ALTANA." If we could clearly defi ne the control levers and 

determining factors in this context, there would be a benefi t 

for all the divisions in the Group. 

Dr. Wießmeier I agree totally. This train of thought is expressed 

aptly by the motto 

of this year's conference. It 

is based on a quotation from 

Theodore Roosevelt (U.S. 

President, 1901-1909): "Keep 

your eyes on the stars and 

your feet on the ground." 

The conference motto means 

that we should pursue our 

idealistic goals when developing 

innovations but without 

neglecting the practical 

benefits. When developing 

innovations, we should 

listen to our customers and 

then deliver advanced 

technologies meeting the 

requirements they have 

specifi ed. At the same time, 

we must naturally not lose 

sight of the stars. Although 

they should never cause us 

to lose touch with the 

"FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE ARE NOW 

ABLE TO DOCUMENT THE INFORMATION 

POSSESSED BY EACH ONE OF US." 

Dr. Georg F.L. Wießmeier 

ground, visionary ideas should serve as a constant source 

of inspiration for all of us. 

Dr. Wolfgruber This is exactly why networking and inspiration 

based on exchange are not just hollow phrases at the 

ALTANA Innovation Conference. In these diffi cult economic 

times, in particular, it is extremely important to take stock of 

the specifi c conditions prevailing on every local market and 

to react accordingly. This can only be achieved by a team 

that has found its own rhythm and works together well. 

The conference participants can take a big fi rst step toward 

a successful future by forming networks. We should – in 

fact, we must – do everything we can to encourage this. 

I personally believe that the poster sessions and the workshops 

offer ideal opportunities for connecting with other 

members of the ALTANA Innovation Community. In a similar 

vein, you still hold an ace in your hand for the researchers and 

members of the ALTANA Management Board who are 

among the conference attendees. 

Dr. Wießmeier That's right. 

You surely mean the 

ALTANA Innovation Portal, 

which will offer the entire 

range of modern networking 

possibilities in 

the future. Incidentally, 

the participants at the 

ALTANA Innovation Conference 

will all have access to 

this portal and will have 

a chance to try it out there. 

The portal is an important 

milestone in information 

management at ALTANA. 

For the first time, we 

are now able to document 

the information possessed 

by each one of us and use 

it jointly across all borders 

to create knowledge. 

Topics can be developed 

in a highly selective manner without regard to geographic 

locations and borders. As a result, we will be 

able to exploit synergies more effi ciently. For example, 

we have incorporated a semantic search function into 

the portal with capabilities transcending the textbased 

search algorithms used by most search engines. 

Furthermore, internal and external Wikis provide 

fast access to information. We thus have the possibility 

15

of developing the contents and functions 

offered by the portal in an organic and highly 

structured manner. 

Dr. Wolfgruber Those are highly enticing 

prospects. I, too, am convinced that the 

portal is a major milestone – also for opening up 

new fi elds of business activity and future technologies. 

The ALTANA Innovation Conference 

offers an additional platform on which all researchers 

and everyone in R&D can get to 

know one another and talk shop. We have to 

use our knowledge consistently for the good 

of the company. This is the only way that we 

can develop new solutions and create added 

value for all our employees, customers and 

shareholder – and for the company itself. Let 

us look forward into the future again. At the 

start of our meeting you mentioned the item 

"new business development." 

Dr. Wießmeier It's good that you have brought up this 

topic again. As I said earlier, this will be an important 

part of the conference and will be discussed extensively. 

In this context I would also like to say a few words 

about our new Image Campaign; the reason I like it 

so much is that it is all about tomorrow and solutions 

for tomorrow. The challenge of actively helping to shape the 

future of mobility, urban living, energy effi ciency and even 

the phenomenon of "lifestyle" is exciting and presents a 

wealth of opportunities for ALTANA. We also naturally want 

to live up to the vision communicated by the campaign. We 

will thus be moving more and more into various business 

areas in the future including photovoltaics and wind energy. 

Among other things these technologies have the potential 

to make energy use signifi cantly more effi cient. 

With our solutions we want to participate in these existing 

markets, and we have already amassed an impressive amount 

of expertise. Similarly, the "lifestyle" sector will play a role 

at ALTANA in the future. The technical textiles now being 

developed for this sector will attract customers besides the 

traditional target group of athletes and will have a positive 

impact on comfort, functionality and especially on human 

health. And who knows? Maybe someday the estimations 

of the potentials and technology – as well as the crossdivisional 

collaboration exploiting the synergies available at the 

company – will lead to innovations which will win the 

ALTANA Innovation Award. 

Dr. Wolfgruber Dr. Wießmeier, now that you have mentioned 

it, I would like to add that I am looking forward to 

16 

"I AM CERTAIN THAT A BALANCED APPROACH TO VISIONS 

WILL HAVE A BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON THE COMPANY." 


Dr. Matthias L. Wolfgruber Dr. Georg F. L. Wießmeier 

this year's conference and especially to the presentation of 

the ALTANA Innovation Award. I know that many interesting 

projects have been submitted this year. I am happy for all the 

teams nominated for the award but I am also proud of the 

commitment shown by the teams which did not succeed in 

being shortlisted this year. As you always point out, a submission 

can be revised and entered again. 

I would like to thank you for the information on the 

conference. I think that we will derive a lot of inspiration 

from the fourth ALTANA Innovation Conference, and 

that our internal worldwide community will be able to 

network to an even greater extent. The best possible 

preparations have been made. I am certain that this balanced 

approach to visions will have a benefi cial effect 

on the company. 

Dr. Wießmeier I am also looking forward to the award ceremony. 

The projects submitted are all extremely interesting 

and have made it a challenge for us to reach a decision. 

I would like to thank you for agreeing to personally deliver 

your "CEO Message" to the ALTANA Innovation Community 

again this year. This personal message will fi nally bring home 

to every single participant the great importance you place 

on this topic. As a fi nal word, I would like to state that we 

quite naturally have visionary ideas and our eyes on the 

stars; however, we also want to keep our feet fi rmly on the 

ground and to temper our visions with targeted creativity 

and the requisite dose of pragmatism. 

Chief Executive Offi cer, ALTANA AG Chief Technology Offi cer, ALTANA AG

Published by 

ALTANA AG 

Content Responsibility 


Corporate Innovation 

Dr. Georg F. L. Wießmeier 

Corporate Communications 

Heike Dimkos 

Sven Kremser 

Layout and Design 

Engelmann & Kryschak, Düsseldorf 

Photos 

Martin Meissner 

Jens Nieth 

Printed by 

B&K Offsetdruck, Ottersweier 

Coated with TerraWet ® gloss coating G9/230 

made by ACTEGA Terra / formulated with 

additives from BYK 

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Agenda 

ALTANA Innovation Conference 2011 – 1st Day 

ALTANA Innovation Conference 2011 – 2nd Day 

Innovation at ALTANA 

CEO Message: Innovation Is in Our Genes – Expression Mandates Collaboration – 


CTO Message: Innovation – The Fuel for Growth – 


Technical Presentations / Key Innovation Projects 

Resins for Heat-Seal Lacquers – Today's and Tomorrow's Market Demands – Ralf Dickmann 

Beyond the Silver Shade – Dr. Oliver Struck 

NRS – A New Reactive System – Dr. Jörg Hinnerwisch 

High Performance CRP Technologies for Sophisticated Applications – Dr. Bernd Göbelt 

Impressions 

Share Your Visions for Tomorrow. 

Innovation Honored 

Developing Visions for Tomorrow and Rewarding Innovations. 

Innovation and Idealism 

Division Overview: BYK Additives & Instruments 

From Applied Science to Sustainable Business – 

Dr. Jürgen Omeis and Peter Schwarz 

Innovation: The Driving Prerequisite to Maintain Competitiveness in Our 

Customers' Perception – Co-Innovation Approaches of BASF Coatings and ALTANA – 

Dr. Winfried Kreis (BASF Coatings GmbH) 

New Business Approaches: "Photovoltaics" – CDDP Innovation – Dr. Anna-Maria Pütz 

New Business Approaches: "Smart Textiles" – Effect Pigments Confer Functionality – 

Peter Wißling 

ALTANA Value Management Translated to R&D – Oliver König 

Networking for Innovation 

Photo Gallery 

Success in Figures 

Research and Development 

Employees at ALTANA 

Overview of ALTANA Locations 

19

20 

Innovation Is a View to Tomorrow.

22 

1st Day 

ALTANA Innovation Conference 2011 

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 

9:00 – 9:15h 

Welcome Address / Opening Remarks 


9:15 – 9:45h 

CEO Message: Innovation Is in Our Genes – Expression Mandates Collaboration 


9:45 – 10:15h 

CTO Message: Innovation – The Fuel for Growth 


10:45 – 11:30h 

Introduction & Highlights Division ACTEGA Coatings & Sealants 

"Resins for Heat-Seal Lacquers – Today's and Tomorrow's Market Demands" 

Ralf Dickmann (Introduction: Dr. Peter K. Jenkner) 

11:30 – 12:15h 

Introduction & Highlights Division ECKART Effect Pigments 

"Beyond the Silver Shade" 

Dr. Oliver Struck (Introduction: Dr. Mark Stoll)

13:30 – 14:15h 

Introduction & Highlights Division ELANTAS Electrical Insulation 

"NRS – A New Reactive System" 

Dr. Jörg Hinnerwisch (Introduction: Dr. Horst M. Sulzbach) 

Controlled 

Radical Polymerization 

14:15 – 15:00h 

Introduction & Highlights Division BYK Additives & Instruments 

"High Performance Controlled Radical Polymerization Technologies 

for Sophisticated Applications" 

Dr. Bernd Göbelt (Introduction: Dr. Jürgen Omeis) 

15:00 – 15:15h 

Introduction Poster Session 


15:15 – 18:00h 

Poster Session 

18:30 – 21:30h 

Dinner Buffet 

ALTANA Innovation Award 2011 Ceremony 


Moderation: Achim Struchholz 

23

24 

2nd Day 


Thursday, November 10th, 2011 

8:45 – 9:00h 

Opening Remarks / Introduction 


9:00 – 9:45h 

Division Overview: 

BYK Additives & Instruments 

From Applied Science to Profi table Business 


9:45 – 10:30h 

Key Account Management & Innovation: 

Innovation – The Driving Prerequisite to Maintain Competitiveness in Our Customers' 

Perception – Co-Innovation Approaches of BASF Coatings and ALTANA 


10:50 – 11:15h 

New Business Approaches: "Photovoltaics" – CDDP Innovation 

Dr. Anna-Marie Pütz 

11:15 – 11:40h 

New Business Approaches: "Smart Textiles" – Effect Pigments Confer Functionality 


11:40 – 12:00h 

ALTANA Value Management Translated to R&D 

Oliver König 

13:00 – 13:15h 

Introduction Workshop Session 

Dr. Georg F. L. Wießmeier

13:15 – 15:15h 

Workshop Sessions 1 – 12 

1 Printed Electronics 

Dr. Martina Weidner 

2 Industrial Biotechnology 

Dr. Birthe Borup 

3 Nanotechnology 

Dr. Michael Berkei 

4 Batteries & Energy Storage 

Jim Wittig, Christian Wolfrum 

5 Self-Healing Materials & Smart Corrosion 

Dr. Oliver Struck, Dr. Anna-Maria Pütz 

6 Foils for Automotive – Risk or Opportunity? 

Claudia Weiß, Dr. Stephanie Arzt 

7 UV Technology 

Dr. Jörg Hinnerwisch 

8 Green Technologies 

Dr. Andreas Diez, Wilhelm Wessels 

9 Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) at ALTANA 

Dr. Peter K. Jenkner, Dieter Prölß 

10 Digital Printing 

Dr. Stefan Engel, Tristan van Vuuren 

25

26 

2nd Day 


Thursday, November 10th, 2011 

11 KAM 1: Replicating Successful Commercial / 

Technical Innovation to Other Group / Key Accounts 

Klaus Wiesner, Prof. Christoph Senn 

12 KAM 2: Differentiating Our Innovation Approach to Realize Growth 

Potentials with Group / Key Accounts 

Andreas Freytag, Dr. Axel Thoma 

15:45 – 17:00h 

Presentation of Workshop Results 

Moderators 

17:00 – 17:15h 

Closing Remarks 


17:15h 

Social Event and Farewell Dinner at Archaeological Park Xanten

28 

Innovations Are the Memories of Tomorrow.

30 Innovation at ALTANA

CEO Message: 

Innovation Is in Our Genes – Expression 

Mandates Collaboration 

As ALTANA, we share one common goal: to be the best at what we do. To remain or become the best we have to excel 

in innovation. Successful innovation will differentiate us from our competitors and at the same time enable us to serve 

our customers' needs better. Our aim in doing so is not only to create specialty solutions. It is rather to create value – 

for ourselves, for our customers, for the shareholder and for society as a whole. This year we hold our fourth ALTANA 

Innovation Conference. Not only to honor the most innovative among us, but also to understand where we stand and 

what our capabilities and our current and future challenges are. One thing is certain: with innovation in our genes we are 

ready to create a brilliant future. 


The ALTANA Innovation Conference 2011 is the proof: 

our company is becoming more diverse. I see 

an increasing number of overseas 

colleagues and women 

among the participants, I see a good mix 

between young and more experienced 

colleagues – overall a healthy blend of 

different functions and backgrounds 

and that is key to successful innovation. And 

if you look at the title I have selected, 

it's because I fi rmly believe that we do 

have innovation already in our DNA. 

But: We know that our genes are 

obviously just a blueprint. In order to decipher 

the genetic code, expression is needed. The 

expression of genes requires a 

number of different factors to 

work together, the right environment 

and the right conditions. F o r 

us, no doubt, the conditions for 

optimal innovation are an atmosphere 

of collaboration and close cooperation. 

And that's what the ALTANA Innovation 

Conference is all about. For ALTANA as whole 

it becomes increasingly clear that innovation 

and leadership in technology are really what 

will make our business successful in the long run. 

Innovation is much more than just the work in our laboratories 

– it's a cross-functional and cross-divisional 

effort that needs to take place to effectively innovate. 

Innovation and technology enjoy a highly respected status 

in our company which is also refl ected in our strategy. Our 

current strategic position is one of our strong positions in 

attractive markets. But we only can maintain this position 

if we maintain our technology leadership. Specialization 

in combination with innovation: that is our key to create 

value. If we create value for the customer, we consequently 

also create value for our employees and our shareholder. 

Shareholder value is the outcome of what we do. Successful 

value creation also puts us in a position to share 

value with society, with the locations where we have our 

plants and where we can give something back to society 

– and not only as taxpayers. Value creation for our 

customers has a lot to do with innovation. We offer new 

growth opportunities for them, we allow our customers 

to differentiate themselves in the market or to lower their 

costs in order to become more competitive. Of course, 

we measure and evaluate our investment in R&D and the 

fi nancial outcome. But fi rst we have to focus on what 

we need to put in to make our customers win, to make 

sure that they can grow and succeed in their markets. 

Only if we create value for our customers can we also 

achieve the desired margins. And the more innovative we 

are, the higher is our margin potential. Innovation fi ghts 

also commoditization. Every commercialized product will 

commoditize over time because customers have an active 

interest in to have substitutes and competitors will try to 

copy it or offer alternative offsets. The more we can 

avoid commoditization, the more we can maintain 

our margins and this helps us to continue 

to invest in innovation. 

An optimal 

environment for 

innovation is one of cross-functional 

collaboration. What we can take from 

the ALTANA Innovation Conference is that we are 

basically one large team that operates across various 

functional and organizational boundaries. And 

if we learn to fully apply and exploit the potential of 

the whole team, we can reach enormous achievements. 

Innovation at ALTANA 31

We are in a unique position as a private company with 

one owner who is really interested in the long-term 

development of ALTANA. We also have leadership positions 

in most target markets of our divisions and business 

lines, and not only in mature but also in emerging markets. 

Additionally, we also have a very strong fi nancial position. 

Our balance sheet provides a lot of fi ring power which 

we want to apply to grow profi tably and sustainably. We 

are moving and changing but in all of this we have a reliable 

and steady basis. We continue to focus on specialties, 

and even more specialties than we have ever done 

before. We will continue to be decentrally organized 

because that keeps us 

fast and fl exible. We can 

react to changes 

and needs very fast, and we can 

respond to our market requirements 

and technology developments very quickly. We 

will increasingly try to exploit the knowledge 

we have within the company. And we will continue 

to make investments in the future, in research and 

development, in developing people, and in our 

presence in all regions. In order to foster the crossdivisional 

and cross-functional approach we need to 

better understand our common identity. Based on 

the structure of ALTANA, there is a lot of diversity – 

different companies, different cultural backgrounds. 

What is the common denominator, where is the 

common ground, what do we share? 

32 Innovation at ALTANA 

We don't want to make everybody the same. But we 

do need to have a shared foundation. We need 

an identity that defines our common goals, 

strategies and values so that they are understood by 

everyone in the organization the same way. Now 

we have undertaken the endeavour to put this 

into proper words and the results are our 

very specifi c and very own guiding 

principles and leadership guidelines 

which provide orientation for our 

daily work. This identity tells us who we are: 

a company that wants to be leading in 

everything we do. To say this in the words 

of a chemist: we are a composition of various 

monomers, individual elements which are forming 

together a polymer. The process of coming 

together is not a radical reaction: it's rather 

a living poly-condensation which 

releases value. This reaction 

of coming 

together 

leads to a much 

more advantageous status, 

but to get there we have to overcome activation barriers. 

To lower the barriers we need catalysts. All of you 

have to be catalysts: we lower the barriers when we 

work together. ALTANA overall forms the polymer 

backbone and thus provides orientation and stability. Our 

culture is based on appreciation, which means mutual 

respect for each other, fairness and tolerance, appreciation

of differences and different opinions. It 

is also based on openness meaning 

the openness to change, 

openness to constructive 

criticism and of course openness to 

share information. This is mandatory: everybody 

has to openly share information 

they acquire on behalf of the 

company. This openness is a key 

value in our company – open sharing, 

open discussions and openness 

to different opinions. 

Another one of our core values is trust, a 

decentral organization with empowerment 

on all levels can only work 

based on trust – because 

you can't empower anybody if you 

don't trust him. We believe in 

our employees and their 

abilities. Empowerment to 

act is the fourth core value 

and that means to encouraging 

initiative decision-making and taking responsibility 

on all levels. Our values and our leadership guidelines are 

the constitution for ALTANA. Only by accepting and living 

these guidelines and principles can we realize the full 

potential of our company. Our common identity defi nes 

the frame that allows people to work effectively together. 

Thanks to the leadership guidelines, we will create a 

culture that will make us even stronger and more 

successful. We make knowledge available to all those who 

need it without barriers throughout the organization – 

across boundaries, functions and divisions. It is our task to 

lower the barriers and to really use the knowledge that is 

available within the company. We actively look for 

information and knowledge, actively demand it and 

actively provide it to everybody who needs it: we don’t 

wait until we are pushed. Overall we have to practice open 

innovation internally as well as externally and develop 

a culture as well as tools and processes which will allow us 

to do so. This way we ensure that we exploit the enormous 

opportunities and synergies throughout our organization 

and take ALTANA to the next level. 

Innovation is in our genes. We want to be leading in 

everything we do. That's in our genes as well. 


CTO Message: 

Innovation – The Fuel for Growth 

Innovations enable our company to grow and to maintain its leading position. All our innovations have their origins 

in, and are propelled forward by, the ALTANA Innovation Community and our understanding of what innovation means, 

our Identity. For this reason, fostering a culture of innovation at the company is a crucial part of our efforts to realize 

innovations. Our strong focus on research and development is aimed primarily at achieving direct benefi ts for our 

customers. We therefore involve our customers directly in the innovation process. It is important to take foresighted 

action to a certain extent – to open up new markets using new technologies, for example. In this context, it is important 

to put together an eminently practicable project portfolio with a balanced mixture of visionary, high-risk and pragmatic 

projects. In this way we will succeed in generating sustainable benefi ts for our customers and sustainable value for our 

company; this is ultimately the aim of all our innovations. 


34 Innovation at ALTANA

Innovation Creates Value 

Our Conference Roadmap 

Customer Focus 

• Customer Presentation 

• KAM Workshops 

• KAM Posters 

Community & Identity 

• C EO / CTO M essage 

• ALTANA Competence Map 

• ALTANA Innovation Portal 

• ALTANA Innovation Award 

• Community Event Xanten 

R&D Focus 

• Technical Presentations 

• Poster Session 

• Expert Talks 

New / Existing 

Platforms & Networks 

• Workshops 

• Posters 

Community & Identity - ALTANA’s Innovation Brain 

During periods characterized by complex global interrelationships, 

short product life cycles and dynamic markets, 

these are our internal and external networks which first 

allow us to exploit and use the knowledge of all members 

of the ALTANA Innovation Community. Today we can no 

longer meet the standards demanded by this situation with 

isolated knowledge stored in the heads of individual people. 

For this reason, continually improving and supporting 

our own culture of innovation is one of the main tasks of 

Corporate Innovation and the ALTANA Innovation Council. 

Our understanding of the word "innovation" goes far 

beyond research and development. The task of linking 

our innovators into networks requires our utmost attention. 

Knowledge must be shared without barriers and 

without regard to self-interest. It must be accessible 

quickly and easily. The ALTANA Innovation Portal 

is a very important tool which will be available to the 

ALTANA Innovation Community for the first time at this 

conference. ALTANA has invested vast resources and 

deployed a highly committed team to make this portal a 

reality – and will continue to do so in the future. 

New Business 

Development 

• Technical Textiles 

• Photovoltaics 

Value Creation 

ALTANA Value 

Management and R&D 

The heart of the portal is the ALTANA Competence Map, 

which draws together the technological competencies 

of the entire Group along with direct links to experts. 

Every member of the ALTANA Innovation Community is 

"on the map" with a detailed profi le. The portal also offers 

an ideal communication platform for the expert networks 

on our technology platforms (nanotechnology, industrial 

biotechnology and printed electronics) and other networks 

devoted to specialized topics of interest to the company. 

These networks could serve as the starting points for additional 

technology platforms. During the development of the 

ALTANA Innovation Portal, immense importance was 

placed on ensuring that all the information can be 

retrieved easily and accessed worldwide. 

Another important building block of our culture of 

innovation is the Cross-Divisional Development Program 

Innovation (see page 90, lecture by Dr. Pütz), currently 

with three members. In addition to taking part in a 

cross-divisional project, the participants in this two-year 

program are subsequently involved in a project in each 

division. This gives them the chance to familiarize themselves 

intensively with the products, culture and working 


practices of each division and to establish an excellent 

overarching network – an agenda totally in keeping 

with our innovation culture! 

The ALTANA Innovation Conference and the presentation 

of the ALTANA Innovation Award are undoubtedly the 

annual climax of our innovation activities. Intensive 

networking, and the exchange and generation of concrete 

new ideas, are the raison d'être for these events. 

Besides which, taking part in discussions and comparing 

notes with other members of the community can be a 

lot of fun! 

The knowledge shared and information 

generated at the conference is fed directly 

into the ALTANA Innovation Portal, where it 

can be accessed by all participants using simple 

routines. Making sure this happens is the responsibility 

of the ALTANA Information Management unit 

set up recently at Corporate Innovation. To make 

information available fast and in a well-organized 

form to experts at the company or to transfer it 

to the company, we have also developed an 

internal and an external Wiki platform for the 

ALTANA Innovation Portal. These new platforms have 

been designed especially to facilitate the use of 

internal and external knowledge. With the 

ALTANA Competence Map, the ALTANA Innovation Portal 

also supports the ALTANA KAM & Innovation Initiative. 

This is already the second time that employees 

working in Key Account Management are active 

players in the ALTANA Innovation Conference. This 

year's conference program includes two additional 

highlights: a lecture by a customer and additional 

KAM workshops. This reflects our philosophy of focusing 

on our most important customers in our efforts to achieve 

innovation. 

36 Innovation at ALTANA 

Customer and R&D focus – meeting our customers' 

needs 

To realize innovations, we have to use all the networked 

knowledge for the benefi t of our customers. This 

presupposes intensive cooperation with our 

customers. We prefer a direct and open exchange 

in contrast to an isolated and more 

exploratory approach not involving the 

customer. A secure legal framework 

and mutual trust are prerequisites here. 

It is important to maintain and deepen 

this trust over a longer period. Only in 

this way will we be able to exchange 

information and communicate requirements 

with regard to new business possibilities 

and to cooperate for the purpose of, say, developing a 

new product or tapping into a new market. Since the key 

account and group account managers are responsible for 

relations with our most important customers, it is logical that 

they should be directly and actively involved in our innovation 

process. It follows that our R&D experts frequently 

accompany these managers on visits to customers in order 

to discuss face to face the customers' immediate requirements 

for R&D at the requisite level of technical detail, and 

propose solutions. To set the priorities for the intended collaboration, 

we coordinate the approach and topics in advance 

with the customer's management; subsequently, experts are 

named and project schedules drawn up by both sides. The 

ALTANA Key Account and Group Account Management and 

the ALTANA Innovation Council (AIC) are responsible for removing 

any obstacles to the collaboration and supplying all the 

necessary resources. The status of the project is reviewed at 

appropriate intervals by a Steering Committee consisting of 

the customer's purchasers, our group and key account managers, 

and the CTOs of both companies. These procedures ensure 

that the technical side of the cooperation runs smoothly

and effi ciently. They also help us focus the research on the 

right topics, which is especially important for topics that are 

to be supported over a longer period. In general, a longerterm 

innovation project requires a more strategic approach 

involving the use of new technologies and a market and 

feasibility study. For this purpose our experts set up dedicated 

networks for special topics; these ultimately culminate in the 

creation of new technology platforms. 

Expert networks and technology platforms: do the 

right things and do them right 

At present ALTANA has three technology platforms, one each 

for nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology and printed 

electronics. Furthermore, there are expert networks on various 

topics; most of these were founded in connection with 

the ALTANA Innovation Conference. A team member of the 

ALTANA Innovation Community takes the lead here. This expert, 

someone with extensive experience in the relevant fi eld, 

now sets out to obtain more information on the proposed 

topic by utilizing his or her own in-house networks and the 

ALTANA Innovation Portal. A systematic search is conducted 

for relevant activities already underway at the company. 

A good example of such a network is the "network for batteries 

& energy storage." Starting with the competencies available in 

this area at the company, the expert systematically evaluates 

the market potential of the new idea and develops a business 

model in close cooperation with employees in Corporate Development. 

Additional external consultants can be called in if 

necessary during this phase for a number of reasons, e.g. exploiting 

experience stored in networks which we cannot yet 

access ourselves. If a convincing benefi t for the company can be 

identifi ed at the end of this process, the next step is to ascertain 

the organizational structure and resources required to implement 

the business model. This model, an initial business plan and the 

investment plan are discussed with the ALTANA Innovation Council 

and presented to the Executive Management Team for fi nal 

approval. The aim of all these endeavors is to develop new fi elds 

of business activity and ultimately to generate value for our 

company. 

The aim of new business development and value 

generation – added value for ALTANA 

From the point of view of the ALTANA Innovation Council, it is 

essential that even our researchers in the laboratory know that 

they have a decisive infl uence on whether value is ultimately 

generated or not. Regardless of whether the matter at hand is a 

project portfolio they are working on, the selection of a suitable 

raw material available at lower cost, a reaction path 

leading to more ecologically sound secondary products, 

or a production process which can be carried 

out in an aqueous solvent at lower temperatures, with 

lower overpressure or with less complicated apparatus: all 

of this can have a crucial impact on the generation of 

value for our customers and thus for ALTANA. For 

this reason, there is also close cooperation with 

Corporate Controlling. In conjunction with 

this specialized department, we develop 

guidelines for calculating the value of individual 

projects (net present value) and the economic 

effi ciency of the research (internal rate of return, IRR) of entire 

product groups. Since there are different prerequisites in the 

various divisions, knowledge of internal fi nancial accounting 

and recording procedures is essential and we have to include 

experts from the specialized controlling departments. 

Our Innovation Community, our understanding of the term 

"innovation," our customer and R&D focus, our expert networks 

and technology platforms, and – last but defi nitely not 

least – the realization of new products or services that will be 

accepted by the market all serve the same goal: value for our 

customers, our employees and our shareholder. It is this value 

which ultimately "fuels our growth." 


Tomorrow We Will Remember the Ideas of Today. 

39

Resins for Heat-Seal Lacquers – 

Today's and Tomorrow's Market Demands 

The nature of a "heat-seal lacquer" is presented in comparison with other methods of combining layers. Subsequently, the heatseal 

process is explained and demonstrated by several practical examples. 

Ralf Dickmann (Introduction: Dr. Peter K. Jenkner) 

A heat-seal lacquer is 

- a liquid coating, which is dried to become tack- and 

block-free, solidifi ed, rewound and used later 

- heat activated to become soft and tacky 

- pressed to a second substrate to form a bond 

- cooled to room temperature to form a bond between 

substrate layers. 

In order to deliver the expected performance, a heat-seal 

lacquer has to adhere to both substrates and needs cohesive 

strength. 

The criteria for heat-seal lacquers show the areas of 

development; they have to satisfy many different requirements 

such as: 

- easy opening – a dairy packing should open"smoothly" 

but still remain intact during transport 

- product resistance 

- being easy to use on production machines 

- protection of the fi lling good 

- adaptation to the seal partner (especially polystyrene (PS), 

polypropylene (PP) and amorphous polyester (APET)) 

The basics of heat-seal lacquer formulations are covered 

in a general way while thermoplastic resins are discussed in 

greater detail. The latter are mainly responsible for the sealing 

performance. 

Solvents, resins and additives are part of the formulations. 

40 Technical Presentations / Key Innovation Projects 

The solvents include low-boiling solvents like ethyl acetate, 

medium-boiling solvents like butyl acetate and (in some formulations) 

high-boiling solvents (e.g. aromatic solvents). 

Additives include waxes, slip agents, inorganic pigments, 

fi llers, antioxidants, UV stabilizers, optical brighteners, antifoaming 

agents (for water-based products) and adhesion promoters. 

Various thermoplastic resins are used, e.g. PVC, acrylic resins 

or polyesters. Resins consisting of two different phases are very 

important: a rubber-like phase and a thermoplastic phase are 

combined to confer sealability on different seal partners (mainly 

PS and PP). 

"Market pull and technology push" is a suitable strategy for 

defi ning and emphasizing developments that remain an ongoing 

challenge. 

Market pull 

- New requirements for existing packages (e.g. new food 

legislation and regulations) 

- Compliance trends: being PVC- free, being epoxy- / bisphenol A 

(BPA)-free 

- Use of low-boiling solvents 

- New packaging required for convenience (e.g. easy opening, 

reclosable) or due to the use of new substrates (e.g. plastic fi lms 

replacing aluminum, revival of paper and cardboard) 

Technology push 

- New products based on existing technologies and 

formulations 

- New technologies 

This is demonstrated using new lids for food packages 

as examples. 

For example, the formerly used snap-on lids are no longer 

satisfactory for salad packaging. To be"tamper-proof" an additional 

fi lm with a heat-seal coating is needed. 

The requirements for resins are summarized below: 

- different heat-sealable resins with extension of today's 

performance are needed to create new solutions. 

- well-established, but no longer accepted resins like PVC 

and epoxies have to be replaced with solutions of equivalent 

quality and cost. 

- Supply chain reliability has to be maintained or 

re-established.

Beyond the Silver Shade 

The potential fi elds of application for stabilized gold bronze and copper pigments range from architectural coatings, as 

used for roofs and window frames, to coatings for outdoor and household goods. For all these different purposes chemically 

stable metal effect pigments are a prerequisite. 

Dr. Oliver Struck (Introduction: Dr. Mark Stoll) 

Silver shades are usually realized by a broad range of 

highly developed aluminum-based effect pigments, such 

as those used in the automotive and consumer electronic 

industries. The use of gold bronze pigments, however, is 

rather limited due to the insuffi cient chemical stability of 

such copper-based pigments. In the emerging Asian-Pacifi c 

countries in particular, there is a high demand for metal 

effect pigments matching real gold shades. 

As a leading manufacturer of metal effect pigments, 

ECKART has developed an advanced double-coating technology 

for the stabilization of gold bronze effect pigments. 

With this combined inorganic and organic encapsulation 

process, gold bronze and copper-based pigments can now 

also be used in exterior and architectural powder coating 

applications which require high chemical stabilities. Moreover, 

these stabilized gold bronze pigments exhibit long shelf-life 

times in cosmetic nail polishes, whereas solely inorganically 

encapsulated pigments cause immediate gelling of the binder 

system. At the same time the double-coated gold bronze 

pigments comply with the strict cosmetic regulations. To 

match stainless steel optics in powder coatings a chemically 

stable aluminum-based champagne shade could be developed 

which possesses good hiding power and contains no 

heavy metals. Potential applications of such gold shade 

pigments and the next steps to even more brilliant pigments 

are discussed. 

Technical Presentations / Key Innovation Projects 41

NRS – a New Reactive System 

Polymer synthesis is a complex procedure and can take place in a variety of ways. The vast majority of industrial polymers are 

synthesized via free radical polymerization. An initiator molecule decomposes into free radicals that initiate the reaction, in 

which monomers are added one after another to the active site on the growing chain. A number of different radical initiators 

are known such as azo compounds or organic peroxides. 

Dr. Jörg Hinnerwisch (Introduction: Dr. Horst M. Sulzbach) 

Organic peroxides are very popular as radical initiators due to 

their reactivity and variability of use. However, their explosive 

nature imposes a challenge for safe handling and storage. 

Alternative systems are available, but their market success is 

limited by their high price and poor performance. 

ELANTAS is preparing the launch of a New Reactive System 

(NRS) that will replace organic peroxides in selected markets. 

Two major advantages of the new initiator technology are 

the superior safety characteristics and signifi cantly reduced 

emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by the manufactured 

product. 

Organic peroxides 

The group of organic peroxides is of signifi cant commercial 

importance. These initiators are characterized by a weak 

oxygen-oxygen (O-O) bond and are widely used for the 

polymerization of polyethylene, polystyrene or unsaturated 

polyester resins. At higher temperatures the unstable 

O-O bond is cleaved and the decomposition of the compound 

accelerates. Once initiated, peroxide decomposition 

proceeds exothermically and irreversibly. For this reason 

strict regulations have been issued for the transportation, 

handling and storage regulations of organic peroxides. 

NRS, a safe alternative to organic peroxides 

Unlike the formation of radicals via the decomposition of 

organic peroxides, radical formation with NRS occurs endothermically 

and can be stalled reversibly. ELANTAS owns 

the patented manufacturing technology and proprietary 

42 Technical Presentations / Key Innovation Projects 

know-how needed to create a dispersion of NRS 

allowing for homogeneously cured specimens. 

A milling process followed by dispersion leads to a 

macroscopically homogeneous yet microscopically 

heterogeneous phase. Feasible applications for NRS 

are restricted by its technical performance: radical formation 

is initiated at about 100°C. NRS is an attractive 

alternative to organic peroxides for high-temperature 

curing (>110°C) of unsaturated polyester resins. 

Such resins are commonly used in electrical insulation 

applications (e.g. impregnation of windings) or sheet 

molding compounds (SMC). Impregnating resins with 

improved shelf life will offer attractive benefi ts for 

ELANTAS customers. 

NRS, an initiator used to fabricate products with 

unique material properties 

Beside the important safety and storage advantages 

of NRS over organic peroxides, performance tests 

have indicated a signifi cant reduction of emissions. 

NRS-cured SMC products exhibit a decrease in VOC 

evaporation levels of up to 80%. This technical 

advantage will enhance the overall prospects for SMC 

materials in the sanitary and automotive industries. 

We believe that the distinct performance profi le of 

NRS will offer a valuable benefi t to our customers.

High Performance Controlled 

Radical Polymerization Technologies for 

Sophisticated Applications 

Pigments are added to coatings to provide color. In order to homogeneously distribute the pigments in the coating dispersants 

are essential. They also help to process the liquid pigmented coating and have to give additional properties to the coating 

depending on the application. 

Dr. Bernd Göbelt (Introduction: Dr. Jürgen Omeis) 

New application fi elds for BYK-Chemie – like color fi lters 

in flat panel displays and inkjet inks as well as new 

coloristic trends in the automotive industry – demand 

the highest performance of the dipersants. Our existing 

dispersant portfolio does not meet these demands. We 

have developed a concept for wetting and dispersing 

additives based on styrene maleic anhydride comb copolymers 

with quaternary ammonium salt structures as pigmentaffi 

nic groups. 

Based on this structural concept we have developed 

an entire product family which is currently used for three 

high-tech end markets: 

Automotive coatings 

Our new dispersant can be used for all grinding technologies 

for waterborne coatings (in water soluble resins, 

emulsions and slurries) giving an excellent pigment dispersion; 

moreover, the dispersant is in line with the VOC regulations. 

Additionally, the development was driven by the automotive 

coatings producers looking for dispersants that give a better 

jetness with newly developed carbon black pigments. 

Inkjet inks 

With this technology a new family of dispersants for inkjet 

inks has been designed especially for UV inkjet inks. It gives 

an outstanding stabilization of the nanoscale pigments and a 

low Newtonian viscosity of the ink with all four major colors. 

Flat panel displays 

For the production of color fi lters for LCD TVs mostly group 

transfer (GTP) block copolymers with quaternary ammonium 

salts as pigment-affi nic groups are used as dispersants due 

to their excellent stabilization of the pigments in the coating. 

Their drawback is the poor "developing properties." This 

means their negative infl uence on the removability of the 

non-cured color resist with aqueous KOH during the production 

process. 

Our new technology is used as a co-dispersant which improves 

the developing properties of the color resist with the 

GTP dispersants. By changing the ratio of both dispersants 

our customers can adjust the developing properties in their 

own formulation to meet their requirements; consequently, 

we can serve them with only one additional additive. 

Technical Presentations / Key Innovation Projects 43

Share Your Visions for Tomorrow. 

45

46 Impressions

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48 Impressions

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50 Impressions

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52 Impressions

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56 Impressions

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60 Impressions

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ALTANA Innovation Conference 2011: 

Attendees on Board

68 

Developing Visions for Tomorrow and Rewarding Innovations.

61 Innovation Honored 69

Keep Your Eyes on the Stars 

and Your Feet on the Ground 

One of the highlights of the annual ALTANA Innovation Conference is the ALTANA Innovation Award ceremony. The three 

teams nominated for the award await the announcement of the winners with bated breath. 

Dr. Georg F.L. Wießmeier CTO, ALTANA AG 

There is a wonderful saying that prognoses are very diffi cult 

especially when they deal with the future. I like this statement 

because it is certainly very true. However, what can we 

say today about ALTANA's share in the world of tomorrow? 

ALTANA will play an important role if we are full of visions, 

full of creativity and at the same time full of pragmatism. 

However, visions and creativity on the one hand and pragmatism 

on the other: that is at fi rst glance a contradiction. 

One might say that someone who has visions should go and 

see a doctor. And if you only focus on visions, this advice 

from the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt is very 

apt. What we need here is the right balance between 

visions, creativity and pragmatism and it is this balance 

I would like to take a closer look at now. 

Another year has gone by very quickly and the 

ALTANA Innovation Conference is now being held for 

the fourth time. It makes me very happy that we will be 

announcing the winners of the third ALTANA Innovation 

Award very soon. The ALTANA Innovation Council was very 

busy this year with many cross-divisional topics. I think 

we obviously and defi nitely can see our culture of innovation 

growing. The ALTANA Innovation Conference and the 

ALTANA Innovation Award are essential and serious parts of 

that culture. Innovation is at the top of ALTANA's agenda 

and is heavily supported by our Management Board and our 

shareholder. The conditions are ideal! However, we have 

to make use of these great conditions and there are many 

good examples in our company to prove that we are leading 

the fi eld here. The statement "We want to be leading 

in everything we do" is not by chance the credo of the 

ALTANA Identity. I am very happy that we can give 

our innovators, who submitted their projects to the 

ALTANA Innovation Council, a forum today. At the same 

70 Innovation Honored 

time, knowing that there is more out in the fi eld, I would 

like to encourage more people to submit their innovation 

projects. Coming back to the topic of vision and creativity 

versus pragmatism, I would like to make my point: Have you 

ever given serious thought to how you or the human race 

will live in 2030? Have you ever taken the time to elaborate 

a detailed vision of the future? No? Then in my opinion you 

are fi ne and don’t need to see a doctor! 

I think that our vision of the future does not go far beyond 

3-5 years. However, it is very important to have an idea of 

what is happening and how things are developing toward 

the more distant future. We need to understand the directions 

things are moving without attempting to predict the 

details. What we need is an educated vision. To gain an educated 

vision of the future we have to generate knowledge 

about the megatrends leading to possible futures. However, 

how can we achieve this? There are big companies which 

have deployed trend scouts all over the world to look for 

trends; this information is then used to generate scenarios 

and roadmaps by applying the very systematic but elaborate 

approach of scenario technique. These companies subsequently 

use these scenarios as input for their strategy planning 

process. One of them publishes the famous "Pictures 

of the Future" and in written stories they describe what life 

could look like in the year 20XX. You certainly should have a 

look at these "Pictures of the Future." They make the visions 

of the future more tangible. In my opinion that is the key 

benefi t of this approach: They are concerned with the 

future, deal with it directly, and in this way create awareness 

of its importance. However, they are also aware that they 

cannot precisely predict the future by means of visions only. 

There are many possible futures. And one good way to predict 

the future is to shape it as far as possible with our own 

creativity, our abilities and our competencies. At this point, 

I would like to draw your attention to the motifs of our new 

image campaign.

These are our "Pictures of the Future." They are fairly arbitrary, 

simple maybe even childish, static and very busy yet 

at the same time fi ctitious, crazy, with black lines against 

a white background. I like the black-and-white drawings 

most because we can fi nish them ourselves in our own 

colors and with our own ideas. 

As innovators it is our duty to be seriously concerned about 

the future, to look beyond the horizon, to think out of the 

box and closely follow developments in – to name only a 

few – society, the economy, ecology, legislation and certainly 

technology. And even more importantly, we have to very 

pragmatically adapt the visions to our business. We have to 

translate the megatrends and possible scenarios into concrete 

customer requirements. With our feet planted fi rmly on 

the ground, we have to keep our eyes fi xed on the stars looking 

for new opportunities. However, we have to do all of this 

without losing sight of the details. Otherwise, we could lose 

ground by only following our visionary dreams – our utopia. 

And this is where our creativity comes into play. By creativity 

I don’t mean fancy brainstorming or idea-generating workshops 

at fancy locations. What I mean is creativity directed 

towards concrete challenges – creativity that combines all 

the knowledge available at the company in a creative, new 

way. This is exactly the approach proposed by the economist 

Joseph Schumpeter. This is one good reason for us to make 

the effort to meet here at the ALTANA Innovation Conference 

and to encourage our innovators to compete for the 

ALTANA Innovation Award. 

The ALTANA Innovation Community can be compared 

to the human brain – the more stimuli, the more 

interactions take place, the more connections are 

formed between the brain cells, thus enhancing the 

power of the brain and improving the ability of 

the ALTANA Innovation Community to be creative in a 

directed way. 

In this regard we have to focus on our customers. According 

to Steve Jobs, the visionary of our century, "the only thing 

that matters is what is of use for our customer." However, 

it is not only about our day-to-day business of "making it 

better, making it cheaper – achieving more with less." It is 

also about exploring the future jointly with our customers 

and encouraging them to discuss possible business opportunities 

and their needs beyond the horizon of 3-5 years. 

It is our duty to know what our customers need in the 

future; we cannot expect them to simply tell us. To obtain this 

information, we may have to trigger them. 

I hope that what I have said has given you an answer 

to the question of how we can reconcile visions on the 

one hand with pragmatism on the other hand: Visions are 

balanced with pragmatism by our connected and welldirected 

creativity. This is what I consider an educated vision. 

Let me close with the words of Theodore Roosevelt, which 

are also the motto of our conference: "Keep your eyes on 

the stars and your feet on the ground." 

Thank you very much! 

Innovation Honored 71

Nominations for the 

ALTANA Innovation Award 2011 

ALTANA creates value to stay one step ahead of its competitors. For this reason, we have to make sure that we always 

have the best ideas. This year, our employees can once again be very proud of their achievements. They have presented 

great ideas and unexpected solutions as part of their participation in the ALTANA Innovation Award. Out of ten 

submissions, the ALTANA Innovation Council has selected the top three teams and their projects for the 

ALTANA Innovation Award 2011. Here you can see the nominees for the award: 


" Team one 

comes from BYK" 

Dr. Bernd Göbelt 

Sabine Stelz 

Mark Heekeren 

Marcus Meichsner 

Dr. Stefan Mößmer 

Markus Rößner 

Akihiro Wakahara 

BYK has developed a new technology platform based on CRP (= Controlled Radical Polymerization) comb copolymers 

with quaternary ammonium structures as pigment affinic groups. Dispersants based on this structure are used in various 

high-end applications such as flat panel displays, automotive coatings and inks for inkjet printers so that BYK can stay 

abreast of market trends and enter new application fields. The potential of this technology for other applications will be 

investigated in further marketing projects.

Dany Mängel 

Sebastian Landeck 

Dr. Rüdiger Wittenberg 

Heiko Hartstein 

Michael Lucas 

Ricardo Lourido 

Dr. José Quibén 

The ACTEGA team invented a PVC-free twist-off closure marketed under the names PROVALIN and ARTISEAL. These products 

represent the fi rst migration-free sealing compounds for food packaging that meet and surpass all legal standards for products 

that come into contact with food. A corresponding range of products has already been introduced on the targeted markets; 

these products embody important technical advances and are currently technically unrivalled. 

" The third team 

is again from BYK" 

Petra Della Valentina 

Albert Frank 

Dr. Marc Hans 

Mark Heekeren 

Dr. Guillaume Jaunky 

Michaela Michelbrink 

Carsten Nagel 

" Team two 

is from ACTEGA" 

Polymeric additives based on the macromer technology represent a new class of surface-modifying additives. The nominated 

team from BYK has developed a siloxane polyacrylate hybrid that combines both acrylate and siloxane characteristics, named 

BYK-3550. The integration of these additives into automotive coatings has led to a better adhesion of wrap guard foils and 

adhesives on fi nished cars. 


Play: The Highlights of the ALTANA 

Innovation Award Ceremony 2011 

The entire film of animated pictures can be found at: 

www.altana.com/innovation 

74 Innovation Honored

A multi-company and multi-national winner team: Dr. José Quibén, Michael Lucas, Dr. Rüdiger Wittenberg, Ricardo 

Lourido framed by Dr. Peter K. Jenkner (left; CTO of ACTEGA) and Dr. Georg F.L. Wießmeier (right; CTO of ALTANA). 

Not in the picture: Dany Mängel, Sebastian Landeck, Heiko Hartstein. 

For Them It Is the First Time, 

and They Made It: ACTEGA 

They invented a PVC-free twist-off closure marketed under 

the names PROVALIN and ARTISEAL. These products 

represent the first migration-free sealing compounds for 

food packaging that meet and surpass all legal standards 

for products that come into contact with food. A corresponding 

range of products has already been introduced on 

the targeted markets; these products embody important 

technical advances and are currently technically unrivalled.

And the Winner Is: 

Innovation Honored 77 

Welcome to the Hall of Fame: 

The ALTAnA innovation Award Winners 

now and in Previous Years 

It is a great feeling to be shortlisted for the ALTANA Innovation Award. However, it is even more exciting to actually win the 

award! The ALTANA Innovation Award is the most prestigious reward for innovative, brilliant and surprising ideas and solutions 

at the company. So let us have a look at the present and previous winners. 

AWARD WinneRS 


Dany Mängel 

ACTEGA 


Heiko Hartstein 

ACTEGA 

Dr. José Quibén 

ACTEGA

Sebastian Landeck 

ACTEGA 

Ricardo Lourido 

ACTEGA 

Dr. Rüdiger Wittenberg 

ACTEGA 

Michael Lucas 

ACTEGA 


Dr. Günter Kaupp 

ECKART 


AWARD WINNERS 


Michael Grüner 

ECKART 

Dr. Dirk Schumacher 

ECKART 

Jens Depner 

ECKART 

Dr. Ulrich Schmidt 

ECKART

AWARD WINNERS 


Bärbel Gertzen 

BYK 

Dieter Prölß 

ECKART 

Dr. Wolfgang Pritschins 

BYK 

Dr. Stephan Roth 

ECKART 


Be Open for the World of Tomorrow. 

83

Knowledge generation and value creation have been the philosophy and the sound platform for the additive and instrument 

business of BYK and BYK-Gardner ever since the company was founded. Whenever expansion has taken place, either organically 

or by acquisition, since the company’s founding, both parameters have been used for benchmarking. For nearly fi ve decades 

these topics have gone hand in hand and been continuously elaborated into sophisticated and sustainable business solutions. 


84 Innovation and Idealism 

Division Overview 

From now on, each year one Division will be presented more in detail to the 

ALTANA Innovation Community. This year the focus is on BYK. 

BYK Additives & Instruments: 

From Applied Science to Sustainable 

Business 

The knowledge accumulated in this way has resulted in 

a deep understanding of all important phenomena of 

the coating – and later of the plastic – industry and will 

be expanded to adjacent and new applications. Back in 

the early days of 1930 science was already employed 

as a driving force to generate answers to application 

questions. It was Hermann Staudinger, later to become a 

Nobel Prize winner, who filed the first patent on behalf of 

BYK Gulden. Starting from this nucleus, BYK developed an 

important technology – the famous "ATU" (ANTI-TERRA-U) – 

which was later exploited as an industry standard for 

inorganic pigments. 

Today modern coatings technology and colloidal science 

constitute the common ground of our technology plat- 

forms for the control of interfacial properties. This fundamental 

requirement spreads far beyond the coatings 

industry into graphic arts, inkjet applications and many 

dedicated plastic products. As a perfect fit for all additives 

improving color and other optical properties like 

haze, transparency or surface roughness (to name just a 

few), BYK's optical instruments measure all kind of effects 

influenced by additives in a highly reproducible way. Using 

the strategy of mimicking the human eye, BYK-Gardner 

has developed a specific algorithm that uses physical data 

to perfectly characterize the visual appearance of all kind 

of coatings. In the meantime BYK-Gardner's instruments 

have become the benchmark for quality control of coatings 

in the production and refinish business of all kind of 

vehicles in the automotive industry.

In general wherever a multicomponent system is applied 

that consists of admixtures of different materials, the 

de-sired properties are strongly influenced by interfaces. 

Generally, the interfaces can be solid/solid, solid/liquid, 

liquid/liquid or liquid/gaseous. BYK's additive technology 

is based upon surface-active molecules designed to solve 

various interfacial challenges in coatings, plastics and adhesives 

– to name just a few important markets where we 

are already well established or which we currently intend 

to enter for strategic reasons. Beyond this well-known 

application there is certainly a large potential in other 

industrial areas such as special paper coatings, inkjet, color 

filters and technical ceramics to name some applications 

of technological and business importance. 

Additional applications are also foreseen in polymer electronic 

applications, for example the stabilization of special 

conductive ingredients such as carbon nanotubes. 

BYK's additive portfolio comprises: 

- wetting and dispersing (W&D) agents 

- surface control additives (SCA) 

- defoamers and air release agents 

- rheology modifi ers 

- adhesion promoters and coupling agents 

- functionalized, easy-to-use nanoparticles 

The fi rst two technologies listed above are a perfect fi t for 

the unique technological know-how for optical instruments 

generated by our BYK-Gardner team. Therefore in the 

following only wetting and dispersing agents as well as 

surface control additives will be described in a broader context. 

1. Wetting and dispersing agents 

In the coatings industry these additives are an essential part 

of each pigment-containing formulation. In order to achieve 

optimal color, color effi ciency, brightness and optimal compatibility 

with the binder material, BYK offers an entire toolbox 

for paint formulators. Depending on the nature of the formulations, 

which are specifi c compositions suitable for solvent, 

water or UV-borne application, the chemistry of the W&D 

additives has to be adjusted. 

These surface-active additives are based on various chemical 

platforms and structures, from dedicated polyesters to sophisticated 

block or comblike polyacrylates. A general overview of 

the chemical platform is given in fi gures 1 to 3. Knowledge 

of the appropriate polymer structure and chemistry is essential 

for overcoming specifi c formulation problems. 

Innovation and Idealism 85

In general the task at hand is the stabilization of particles in 

a liquid or polymer matrix. These particles vary in size and 

chemical nature. Pigments and particles are in the nanometer 

to micrometer range regardless of whether they are inorganic 

metals, metal oxides or organic compounds such as perylene 

or phthalocyanine. Owing to the amphiphilic nature of W&Ds, 

these polymers are adsorbed at the particle surface via various 

mechanisms and control the compatibility with the matrix. 

Particle size can be stabilized by altering the particle distribution 

or orientation or by using W&D additives of various types. 

The fi rst generation consists of linear, block-like amphiphilic 

oligomers with a polar head group predominantly suited for 

inorganic particles. 

For organic pigments like carbon black, a second generation 

of comblike polyurethanes with higher molecular weights 

is available. With increasing surface area, for example 

for nanoscale particles, specifi cally engineered additives 

are necessary. 

Our 3rd generation W&D additives are based on controlled 

polymerization technologies (CPT) which are derived from 

living ionic polymerization (CIP) to pseudo living radical 

polymerization (CRP). Molecular weight, functional groups 

and their position can be engineered to meet all 

specifi c demands. 


2. Surface control additives (SCA) 

Apart from pigment incorporation other surface properties – 

especially macroscopic characteristics like roughness slip and 

surface wetting – play an important role in colloidal formulation. 

The driving force for many of these phenomena is the 

surface energy between macroscopic interfaces. To overcome 

certain matrix properties, surface control additives (SCA) and 

leveling additives are used. 

In general organically modifi ed polysiloxanes as represented 

by a generic formula (Fig. 4) are highly suitable SCA additives. 

In contrast to pure polydimethyl siloxanes (PDMS), these 

organosiloxanes exhibit a lot of different structures and chemical 

features. Molecular weights, positions of functional 

groups and types of organic modifi cation are important 

parameters for manipulating the surface activity. Owing to 

the diversifi ed chemical properties of these substances, their 

activity is related to the mobility, compatibility and polarity 

of the respective molecules in a coating matrix which fi nally 

results in a surface orientation and enrichment. 

The affi nity towards the surface and the resulting surface 

energy can be fi ne-tuned according to the requirements in 

the particular case. Smooth and glossy surfaces with a low 

coeffi cient of friction are typically generated by a higher siloxane 

concentration at the interface air-to-polymer-matrix.

If only surfaces with a regular periodic surface profi le are 

required, polyacrylates can also be used as leveling additives. 

Partly incompatible microstructures are used to allow certain 

refl ow properties. 

An overview of the architecture of polysiloxanes is given 

in fi gure 5, which shows the important structures in a 

schematic way. With this set of structures and the 

sophisticated know-how required to engineer the essential 

chemical parameters, further specifi c surface properties 

can be achieved. Typical effects related to the 

incorporation of SCA additives, in addition 

to surface wetting, are achieved via 

the generation of hydrophobic or 

even hydrophilic surfaces and a silklike 

touch to name just a few. 

Specific structures are also used as 

highly active defoamers. 

Recently BYK managed to bridge the gap 

between polysiloxanes and polyacrylates 

by developing the so-called 

macromer technology. The 

incorporation of well-defined 

comblike siloxane units into an 

acrylic backbone permits the precise 

engineering of surface properties. 

One example is an easy-to-clean surface achieved via hydrophobic 

surfaces (Fig. 6). 

Additionally, the combination of nanoparticles (NP) and 

surface-active polysiloxanes expands the technology in the 

direction of the improvement of mechanical properties, like 

scratch resistance, and even beyond to electrical properties 

using CNTs instead of NPs. BYK's nano-based additives comprise 

a full range of inorganic particles in a liquid state that 

is easy and safe to handle. In another step, nanoparticles 

are surface-modifi ed in a proprietary process resulting in 

core shell-like materials which permit the ideal transfer of 

the inorganic properties to the organic matrix. As mentioned 

above, scratch resistance as a result of physical crosslinking in 

combination with polymer refl ow is one possibility if nanoparticles 

are distributed and stabilized homogeneously in a 

polymer matrix. However, there are other properties – such 

as UV stability, corrosion and solvent resistance – which can 

be addressed via the appropriate inorganic particles. 

In conclusion these two examples show the evolution of two 

completely different additive technologies established at BYK 

in close cooperation with the entire coating industry using 

sophisticated instruments from BYK-Gardner. 


Innovation: The Driving Prerequisite 

to Maintain Competitiveness in Our 

Customers' Perception – Co-Innovation 

Approaches of BASF Coatings and ALTANA 

Something new is an innovation only when customers tell us they prefer using our solution over a competitor's. 

In short, innovation is when the market yells 'hurray'! 


The challenge of an internationally operating coatings 

manufacturer is how to differentiate versus the other 

competing coatings providers. The most important 

know-how generated within the coatings industry 

is the knowledge related to the most suitable 

mixtures of raw materials from which coating materials 

can be manufactured. Since these coating materials 

are only turned into an actual coating as a result of 

very specific application processes, it is necessary 

for these different compositions (formulas) to reliably 

meet the target performance profiles of the coating 

material in the stored state as well as the performance 

profile for the finished coating under the specified application 

conditions and after drying, and to do all of this 

reliably during repeated production runs. Usually the 

desired target performance profile is achieved by means 

of a very specific selection and combination of paint 

raw materials such as binders (e.g. resins, dispersions, 

etc.), crosslinking agents, pigments, fillers, solvents and 

specific additives. 

Selecting the most suitable raw materials in the correct 

proportions for the different coatings technologies is the 

development responsibility of our R&D and product labs. 

These results constitute the development know-how which 

safeguards the competitiveness of a coatings manufacturer. 

Evaluation of the performance profiles, 

compatibility criteria, economic and environmental 

influences and availability of the 

selected raw materials plays a key role 

here. If a coatings manufacturer 

has access only to universally 

available raw materials 

the potential to differentiate is very limited. 

Therefore we intend to foster the development of 

specific paint ingredients together with our preferred 


suppliers to achieve a unique coatings property profile. 

By describing several examples where BASF Coatings 

achieved differentation in the past and defining essential 

drivers in our market environments, I want to lay the foundation 

for a competence extension of ALTANA in order 

to discover potential innovation fields. With ALTANA we 

experienced an environment that fertilized the intention 

to co-operate in order to co-innovate. 

Essential prerequisites which facilitate co-innovation 

are willingness to engage in open communication, an 

appropriate legal framework, the establishment of mutual 

understanding and trust, patience, perseverance and the 

willingness to take ownership of an activity. To increase 

the probability that the co-innovation process will deliver 

successful results, the establishment of an effective 

steering committee is recommended. The steering process 

should include evaluation of the proper installation of a 

master plan detailing the potential progress steps, the appropriate 

legal agreements, the appropriate environments 

for expert exchange (e.g. workshops, meetings, etc.), and 

the collection of potential co-operation areas. Joint rating 

of areas according to business impact, timely progress, 

the level of competencies, exploration challenge and 

attractiveness should constitute the basis for prioritization. 

Sponsors should help to eliminate obstacles between 

the partners. Core teams and monitoring tools should be 

established for each task or project. 

The high correspondence to the essential prerequisites 

of BASF Coatings together with ALTANA gave both 

companies a head start. Innovation Workshops between 

both companies sponsored by the CTOs helped to define 

and rank the potential innovation fields. Targets in wanted 

and agreed areas were established, the process of installing 

the core teams initiated, and steering tools put in place. 

No crystal ball can tell us if we are right or wrong but we 

are convinced that following our path is much more 

promising than continuing to expect that success will be 

bestowed on us from above.


New Business Approaches: 

"Photovoltaics" – CDDP Innovation 

One of the biggest challenges for the future is to fi nd solutions to satisfy the growing worldwide energy demand. It is not 

only the rapid economic growth in the emerging countries, such as China, that is responsible for the increased requirements; 

manufacturing and transportation are also driving the energy challenge in the developed world. How will we produce the 

enormous amount of energy that is needed cost effi ciently, reliably, and in an environmentally friendly manner? One of 

the possible answers is photovoltaics. 

Dr. Anna-Maria Pütz 

Photovoltaics is a subject of great controversy, 

especially in Germany. The potential of this technology 

to solve the energy shortage due to the limited 

amounts of conventional energy sources (e.g. 

gas, coal and oil) is well understood. A downside of 

photovoltaics in comparison with other renewable energy 

sources (such as wind, water, geothermal and 

biomass) is that its cost effectiveness is doubted. 

Nevertheless, a cumulative capacity of 40,000 MW 

has been installed worldwide, with Germany being 

the largest end-consumer market for photovoltaics. 

Within the scope of the ALTANA Cross-Divisional 

Development Program Innovation (CDDPI), the 

potential of ELANTAS polymers in the fi eld of photovoltaics 

was evaluated. The project "Polymers in 


Photovoltaics" was completed under the supervision of the 

head of R&D at ELANTAS Beck, Hamburg. 

An overview of the different technologies (1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd 

generation) and their development status is given and 

concrete operational fi elds for ELANTAS are presented. 

For example, the UV stability of two products of 

ELANTAS which satisfy the criteria for encapsulant materials 

are currently being tested. 

In general market drivers and the value chain of the 

photovoltaic market are critically analyzed. Furthermore, 

possible development partners or customers in the photovoltaic 

market are identifi ed. Finally, the opportunities for 

both ELANTAS and the ALTANA Group are summarized.

New Business Approaches: "Smart Textiles" – 

Effect Pigments Confer Functionality 

When people think of textiles, pictures of garments and decorative fabrics usually come to mind. Two key properties of 

textile substrates are their textile feel (the so-called haptic effect) and an appealing design. To achieve attractive optical 

performance, effect pigments are applied via screen-printing techniques. This application has now become very much a 

commodity application and is in most cases found in developing countries. 


The existing know-how of the optical textile business is 

used in a novel market approach: technical textiles. Here it 

is not the aesthetics that are important but a functional 

aspect attributed to the textile substrate. This can be 

hydrophobicity, increased tensile strength of fibers, or 

improved light and UV stability. Technical textiles were 

launched on the market in the 1970s; 

the label Goretex ® is a wellknown 

example. 

Since the beginning of this 

century so-called smart 

textiles have represented 

another level of innovation 

in the textile industry. Here textiles are 

developed that are responsive and interact with their 

environment. 

ECKART has developed and modifi ed existing products from 

its optical product portfolio to be offered to the market for 

technical and smart textiles. These are listed below: 

- conductive pigments for smart textiles 

- aluminum and heat-refl ective pigments for IR-refl ective 

textiles 

- stay steel and selected pearlescent pigments for abrasionresistant 

textiles 

- special aluminum and pearlescent pigments for barrier 

layers on textiles 

This market is currently being developed together with 

small scale partners, who have displayed great fl exibility 

in approving these new functional products, and global 

brand owners. 

In the course of the subsequent market development, 

further innovation potentials are discussed with partners. 

Two main areas of interest have been identifi ed: 

- Energy management 

Here the heat-refl ective characteristics of aluminum fl akes 

are used on window blinds in order to keep energy inside 

houses. Since 25% of energy losses occur through 

windows, there is a substantial potential for energy 

savings in this area. 

A very interesting concept in this context is to develop 

products that are heat refl ective but still transparent. In 

this way heat is kept inside houses, but people can still 

enjoy daylight passing through the blinds. The products 

that appear to work are modifi ed conductive pigments, in 

this case silver-plated glass fl akes applied in very thin layers. 

Furthermore, aluminum-coated textile fabrics can be used 

to direct light onto solar cells. This increases the energy 

yield of solar cell modules and makes another contribution 

to energy savings. 

- Printed conductivity on textile substrates 

In the garment industry conductive pathways are of great 

interest. They can be used, for example, to produce 

conductive pathways between an energy source and a 

consumer (lamp) or antenna. This is highly related to the 

ALTANA Platform Printed Electronics. Synergies can be 

harnessed here. Furthermore, conductive pigments can 

be used to manufacture solar cells based on fabrics. 


ALTANA Value Management 

Translated to R&D 

ALTANA focuses on creating value for our customers, our employees and our shareholder. Generating an attractive return 

on the capital we invest is one major pillar of our long-term value-oriented strategy. We need to provide a return on the 

investment of our equity and debt providers. Otherwise we run the risk that these capital providers may remove their capital 

and look for more attractive investment opportunities. To ensure this focus ALTANA implemented value-based management 

using the key fi gures ROCE (return on capital employed) and AVA (ALTANA value-added). 

Oliver König 


AVA is already used in different management 

processes. In the future we will train the whole 

organization to include this concept in 

operative decision-making processes. 

Thinking about the major levers to increase 

AVA, we distinguish between growth, operative 

efficiency and capital efficiency. R&D activities 

influence all of these levers and therefore play an 

important part in our value-based strategy. 

By developing new products, opening up new applications 

and markets, and continuously increasing the quality of 

our services, R&D has become the major growth engine for 

ALTANA. However, successful innovation not only creates 

sales growth; it also secures differentiation and in so doing 

prevents commoditization. Both effects enable us to safeguard 

our profi tability and increase our operative effi ciency. 

Besides growth and operative efficiency, improving our 

capital effi ciency is another pillar that positively infl uences the 

return on capital employed. Making the most of the capital we 

invest in fi xed and intangible assets is also part of the overall 

R&D strategy. Among other things this includes the development 

of production technologies and centralized platforms. 

We see the importance of R&D within the ALTANA world 

if we take a look at the company's expenditures for R&D. 

In 2011 R&D expenditures totaled € 87.7 million, a plus of 

7 % compared with the previous year. Making sure that this 

money is spent on the most promising projects and 

controlling these funds constantly are also major responsibilities 

of ALTANA's Innovation Community.


The World of ALTANA. The World of Tomorrow. 

95

96 Networking for Innovation

Networking for Innovation 97







The ALTANA Campaign 

Not only can you admire ALTANA’s advertising at the 

company; you can also fi nd it in public places – such as 

airports, professional journals and popular websites. 

Consequently, everybody knows that the world of tomorrow 

starts today – with ALTANA. 

104 Networking Innovation Honored for Innovation


106

Innovation Is Our Success for Tomorrow. 

107

108 Success in Figures 

Research and Development 

The individualized orientation of the innovation activity is refl ected by the structure of the 

Group-wide research and development expenses. The total R&D expenditure amounted to ¤ 87.7 million 

in 2011 (previous year: ¤ 82.0 million). 

2011 2010 

300 

241 

137 

109 

4 

791 

2009 

286 

228 

140 

106 

3 

763 

2008 2007 

281 

231 

129 

107 

2 

750 

262 

234 

118 

109 

- 

723 

¤ million 

% of sales 

5,4 

5,3 

6,1 

5,4 

4,9

Employees at ALTANA 

ALTANA had a total of 5,313 employees on December 31, 2011, an increase of 8 % over the previous year (2010: 4,937). 

The increase of 376 staff members is primarily attributable to the newly acquired companies and activities in 2011. 

At the end of the year, 234 people worked at the sites of ACTEGA Colorchemie and BYK Kometra, as well as at the 

manufacturing site for high-quality PVD pigments in the Effect Pigments division. 

Adjusted for these additions, the workforce increased by 3 % in 2011. 

Annual Report 2011 

Success in Figures 109

Overview of ALTANA Locations 

At present, the ALTANA Group has 42 production facilities and 48 service and research laboratories worldwide. 

110 Success in Figures

Sales company 

Production company 

Annual Report 2011 

Success in Figures 111


Abelstrasse 43 

46483 Wesel 

Germany 

Tel +49 281 670 - 10 201 

Fax +49 281 670 - 60 200 

innovation@altana.com 

www.altana.com

"Keep your - Altana AG

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