WACKER’s Podcast Center

In many countries around the globe, washing is still done by hand. People believe it ought to foam properly – because that’s supposed to be a sign of effective cleaning. Yet this foaming is a problem, since after washing, laundry has to be rinsed out many times until all of the foam disappears. This is why researchers at WACKER have developed a defoaming agent that only begins to take effect during rinsing, halving the amount of water used.

Crude oil is a finite resource. This is one of the reasons why the chemical industry is looking for new raw materials. Plastics can also be manufactured from plants, for example. However, these only become attractive when additives from WACKER’s VINNEX^® product range are added. Only then are the properties of bioplastics as good as those of crude-oil-based materials. Processing problems can also be solved thanks to these additives.

Gypsum construction elements and materials have many advantages: they are environmentally friendly to manufacture and can be rapidly and inexpensively processed. But, when used in damp locations, gypsum must be made water repellent.
In SILRES^® BS Powder S, WACKER now has an active substance which achieves this water repellency more efficiently and reliably than those previously used.

Wave power plants might be able to produce more energy than people currently consume. One of the biggest problems facing such wave parks is that they must be made of materials that can withstand huge forces during storms – and only a very few materials can do so. WACKER’s ultrathin ELASTOSIL^® silicone film is an ideal candidate here. This film is being tested in an experimental-scale plant – and offers enormous potential.

There are a billion cars on the world’s roads today, and the trend is upward. In Europe alone, traffic accounts for a fourth of carbon dioxide emissions. This is why ecological mobility strategies are becoming ever more important. Hybrid drives, which rely on numerous WACKER products, can help to reduce emissions.