Synthomer has recently launched its “Asia Innovation Centre” located at iPark near Senai Airport, Johor Bahru.

The Asia Innovation Centre has an area of over 6,000 square meter and is ready to provide leadership in research and development for both Performance Elastomers and Functional Solutions business units which cover a wide range of industries including healthcare and protection, foam, carpet, paper, automotive, coating, construction, adhesive, and textile.

“Synthomer’s business has been growing robustly with continual increase in demand from our customers over the past few decades. In view of that, we strongly believe that there is a need to further invest in research, development and applications support. As such, a RM35 million has been invested in a state-of-the-art Asian Innovation Centre at the iPark, close to Johor Bahru, with sufficient expansion capacity to meet the future anticipated needs of the business," said Gan Boon Teck, Vice President & General Manager of Performance Elastomers Division in Asia at Synthomer.

"This flagship facility will provide leadership in novel nitrile innovation and will ensure Synthomer continues to stay at the forefront of Nitrile Latex product development and applications know-how. It will also create the right environment to attract and retain the best talent in the industry,” added Gan Boon Teck.

“This is the first phase of what we expect to be an ongoing investment in innovation in Asia, supporting all divisions of the company. Clearly a major focus is on our NBR business, and in addition to expanding our pilot DIDO lab reactor capacity, we are also investing in a new robotic dipping arm to more effectively mimic our customers' processes and accurately predict the behaviour of our polymers. We are working on a range of new product innovations and our team of chemists are tremendously excited about that and working in the new laboratory environment,” commented Dr. Zhenli Wei, Vice President of Innovation for the Performance Elastomers Division at Synthomer.