K - The World’s No. I Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber, Stockumer KirchStr. 61, Düsseldorf (2026)

03/09/2026

The Polymers Inside Every Skyscraper 🏙️

Todays Skyscraper Day puts the towers themselves in the spotlight. The materials that make them work usually stay out of sight, and a surprising share of them are polymers.

Steel and concrete carry the load, but polymers do much of the quiet work in between. Silicone sealants and rubber gaskets keep facades tight against rain and wind, while staying elastic enough to absorb the movement that wind and temperature swings cause in a tall building. Polyurethane and polystyrene foams cut heat loss and improve sound insulation. Epoxy and resin coatings protect steel from moisture and corrosion and extend the life of the structure. Carbon- and glass-fibre-reinforced plastics can strengthen columns, walls and beams, which matters in renovation and earthquake protection. And from cable insulation to pipes and cladding, polymers add lightweight, formable parts that install quickly.

Fire safety is where this expertise really shows. On high-rise facades, material selection, fire-protection coatings and testing are held to strict standards, and the industry keeps advancing them, improving formulations, test methods and certification so that high-performance materials and safety move forward together.

The takeaway: polymers rarely carry the whole building, but for sealing, insulation, protection and modern facade design, they are close to indispensable. A good reminder of how far material choices reach, and the kind of applied know-how the global community brings together at K.

02/09/2026

Why Study Plastics Engineering? Because It's the Future ♻️

In this short video, Professor Christian Hopmann, Director of the Institute of Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen, makes the case for a career in plastics engineering.

His starting point: sustainable solutions can only come through technology, and that technology is created by plastics engineers. The materials we choose will shape whether we can fly and travel more sustainably, whether the hydrogen economy succeeds, and how far we get with a circular economy and recycling in plastics. Many of those questions are still open, and technical by nature.

Plastics are everywhere you look, which is what makes the field so diverse and demanding, with strong career prospects in everything from start-ups to global corporations.

For the plastics and rubber industry, the next generation of engineers is what turns these ambitions into reality. Supporting that talent is part of the conversation the global community brings to K.

28/08/2026

What's Really Inside a School Bag? ✏️

Every new school year, millions of pencil cases, bags and pens land in children's hands. Look closely and each item is a small lesson in material science, with plastics and rubber chosen for very specific jobs.

A ruler or set square is usually polystyrene or the higher-grade PMMA, crystal-clear and dimensionally stable so the scale stays precise. Pens rely on ABS, PP or PS for impact resistance and a comfortable grip. Erasers can be natural or synthetic rubber, or PVC-free thermoplastic elastomers, where what counts is how well the material lifts graphite off the page. School bags use tear-resistant polyester, increasingly as recycled PET, and lunch boxes and bottles use food-safe PP or Tritan.

There is history in the pencil case too. The eraser owes its use to a piece of rubber that Edward Nairne picked up by accident in 1770, and it took Charles Goodyear's vulcanisation in 1839 to turn sticky natural rubber into a durable elastomer. Later came celluloid and Bakelite, among the first plastics that replaced materials like ivory.

Today the shift is toward recyclates and bioplastics, and much of that material comes from the industry itself. Exhibitors at K such as FKuR, The Compound Company and BIOTEC develop the recycled and biobased compounds that are finding their way into everyday products.

👉 Read the full story in the K-Mag: https://bit.ly/4gDMXke

26/08/2026

Tiny Parts, Huge Quantities, Maximum Precision ⚙️

Demand for micro parts made of silicone is rising across medical technology, automotive electronics and other industries. At its headquarters in Marchtrenk, Austria, starlim, the world's largest silicone processor, runs an entire department for micro molding, complete with its own cleanroom and MicroPower injection molding machines from WITTMANN.

At starlim, anything below a part weight of ten milligrams counts as micro. One of their sample parts, a silicone O-ring measuring 0.7 by 0.4 mm, is too small to pick up with your fingers, yet it is produced in the millions. A two-component hearing aid component shows what that precision is for: a blue LSR membrane inside a robust PBT frame, held to tolerances of plus or minus two micrometers, because accurate sound reproduction depends on it.

The all-electric MicroPower brings the full process onto around two square metres of floor space, from clamping and injection to automation, temperature control and quality control. Because fully vulcanised LSR cannot be recycled, moving the injection plunger right up to the mould parting line matters: it reduces or removes the sprue and saves material. Quality control is now being built directly into the cell, with an in-line vibration test that checks the membrane inside the cavity using a sound emitter and laser measurement in the robot gripper.

"MicroPower machines cope reliably with these extreme challenges and ensure a safe process for us," says Dominik Kreuzmayr of starlim, pointing to 15 years of close cooperation with the WITTMANN Group.

Micro molding is a field where quality can often only be judged under a microscope. It is also a clear example of how machine precision, tooling and materials know-how come together in modern plastics processing, the kind of expertise the global community follows at K. 🔬

24/08/2026

MAAG Group to Acquire Cloeren Incorporated ⚙️

MAAG Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cloeren Incorporated, a specialist in extrusion dies and feedblocks based in Orange, Texas. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

Cloeren is known for its slot dies and feedblock technology, with operations in Texas, Wisconsin and Micheldorf in Austria. For MAAG, the acquisition adds complementary extrusion technologies and engineering expertise to its portfolio for the polymer and plastics industry.

"Cloeren is a strong strategic fit for MAAG and will further enhance our capabilities in extrusion applications," says Ueli Thuerig, President of MAAG. Peter Cloeren, President of Cloeren Incorporated, points to a shared commitment to combining technological excellence with a consistent focus on the customer. Cloeren's operations and customer relationships are set to continue unchanged.

Steps like this show how companies are broadening their capabilities across the extrusion value chain, and they are part of the industry dialogue that comes together at K.

20/08/2026

LOTTE Chemical Wins Two Red Dot Design Awards 2026 🔬

LOTTE Chemical has received two Red Dot Design Award 2026 Winner titles in the Materials and Surfaces category. It brings the company to 28 awards across the three leading international design competitions since 2015.

Both concepts show how material development and design are moving closer together. Soft Robotics combines scratch-resistant plastic with lighting effects to shape how robots and humans interact through surfaces. Beat Plus is a paint-free material that works recycled particles from aircraft components into plastic, with a natural stone texture. Both are PFAS-free and meet current environmental requirements.

What connects them is the use of design-specialised AI agents through the development process, applied to the function, appearance and feel of the material.

For the plastics and rubber industry, this points to materials becoming a design discipline in their own right, where sustainability, aesthetics and engineering meet. Developments like this are part of the wider conversation the global community brings to K.

19/08/2026

Arburg Expands Into Large-Tonnage and Packaging Machines ⚙️

Arburg has signed an agreement to acquire Stork IMM (Stork Plastics Machinery B.V.) in Hengelo, the Netherlands, from Stibbe Participaties B.V. The purchase agreement was signed on 29 July 2026, with completion expected in around two months.

The move adds Stork's large, high-speed machines for thin-wall packaging to the Arburg portfolio, including clamping forces above 5,000 kN. For Arburg, it is a step into segments that complement its existing Allrounder range rather than overlap with it.

The context matters. The injection moulding market is shifting, with more volatile demand, lower volumes and stronger international competition making scale increasingly important. Bringing two long-established brands together is one answer to that pressure.

"By purchasing Stork IMM, we are investing strategically in the future with a focused and long-term view," says Dr. Volker Nilles, CEO of Arburg. Eric Pans, CEO of Stork IMM, adds that the step will strengthen Stork through wider sales and service capacities, a broader product range and synergies in purchasing and supply chain.

Consolidation like this shapes how the plastics and rubber industry positions itself for the years ahead, and it is exactly the kind of development the global community follows at K.

14/08/2026

A quiet materials breakthrough that could mean a little less radiation every time you get an X-ray. 🔬

Toray Industries has developed a new carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) component that cuts X-ray radiation doses by 8%, while keeping image quality equal to or better than what's currently used. They're now looking at applications in mammography breast supports and X-ray cassettes.

The problem this solves is more interesting than it sounds. CFRP has been the go-to material in X-ray detectors for a while now - it's light and lets X-rays pass through easily. But pushing that radiolucency further usually means switching to a sandwich structure: CFRP on the outside, a porous core in the middle. The catch is that porous cores don't stay uniform, and those density variations show up as noise in the diagnostic image. So you'd gain on dose reduction but lose on image clarity - not exactly a trade doctors want to make.

Toray got around this with a proprietary carbon fiber-reinforced foam, built into a sandwich structure that stays low-density and rigid while keeping density consistent no matter the shape of the component.

Associate Professor Toru Negishi from Tokyo Metropolitan University put it through clinical testing and found a 6% improvement in detective quantum efficiency over standard CFRP. In practice, that means the same - or better - image clarity at 8% less radiation exposure.

It's the kind of innovation that never makes headlines but quietly makes a hospital visit a bit safer. ⚙️

12/08/2026

Today, packaging rules in Europe move to a new legal basis. 📋

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40, becomes generally applicable across all EU Member States today, 12 August 2026. It replaces most of the Packaging Directive that has been in place since 1994. Because it is a regulation, its new provisions apply directly to economic operators, with no national transposition needed first.

So what actually changes today?

Food-contact packaging with PFAS concentrations above the specified thresholds can no longer be placed on the market. A set of new legal definitions also becomes binding, the kind of detail that sounds dry until you are the one checking whether your packaging still counts as compliant. New rules on manufacturer and producer responsibilities take effect as well, with particular relevance for retailers' own brands. In Germany, the national implementation act enters into force on the same day.

Extended producer responsibility itself is not new. It carries over from the old Directive, but it now sits inside a regulation that applies directly.

For the plastics and rubber industry, this is the point where preparation meets practice. From today, material choices for food-contact packaging are a live compliance question, not a future one.

👉 Find more Infos about the AI-based PPWR Compliance Compass and how it can support manufacturers in our K-Mag: https://bit.ly/4bCsKcV

This is one of the developments shaping the industry conversation at K. 🌍

07/08/2026

Sometimes the clearest proof that circular economy works shows up in something as small as a chocolate wrapper.🍫

LyondellBasell, Mondelez, Amcor and Taghleef Industries have teamed up on a new flexible packaging solution for Marabou chocolate bars - and it's a genuinely nice example of what happens when an entire value chain commits to the same goal.

Using LYB's CirculenRevive polymers, produced via an ISCC PLUS-certified mass balance approach, Mondelez can now offer Marabou packaging sourced from 75% recycled content. The plastic behind it comes from hard-to-recycle, mixed post-consumer waste - exactly the material stream that has been the toughest to deal with until now.

No single company pulled this off alone. LYB supplied the circular polymers, Taghleef Industries developed the base film, Amcor converted it into finished packaging, and Mondelez put it on shelves. Four companies, one supply chain, one shared result.

Looking ahead, LYB plans to route future polymer supply through MoReTec-1, its first commercial-scale chemical recycling plant currently under construction in Wesseling, Germany - designed to process 50,000 metric tons of feedstock a year.

As Mondelez's Richard Akkermans put it: this shows what's possible when brand owners, recyclers, material producers and converters actually work together instead of each solving their piece in isolation.

A small wrapper, a much bigger signal for where flexible packaging is heading. 🌍

K - The World’s No. I Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber

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