WCA May 2013

Engineering a university partnership

Sale is complete royal DsM, the global life sciences and company, has completed the sale of its participation in DEXPlastomers VoF, a 50/50 joint venture of DsM with an affiliate of ExxonMobil Chemical, to Borealis. DsM also sold its lldPE Compact solution technology to Borealis. the transaction was announced in November 2012. Established in 1996, DEXPlastomers is a 50/50 joint venture between DsM and Exxon Chemical Holland Ventures BV, producing C8 plastomers and linear low-density polyethylene. in the scope of the transaction are approximately 100 employees who have transferred to the new owner upon closing. DsM’s lldPE Compact solution technology was first developed in the 1960s to produce polyethylenes in a certain density range and is instrumental to the operations of DEXPlastomers. materials sciences

tHE Hamburg, Germany- based software company simufact Engineering and the Malaysian university uitM (universiti teknologi MArA) in shah Alam have started to cooperate in research and education of students and software users from the industry. the focus of the cooperation is on modern software-aided simulation methods that are employed in the production of metal-based industrial goods such as automobiles and engines. represenatives of both the university and simufact signed a cooperation paper and a certificate of incorporation for the ‘research & training Centre for Virtual Manu- facturing technology and Process’. industry represent- atives from Malaysia and indonesia also attended the signing of the contract. in terms of organisation, the newly established research & training Centre for Virtual Manufacturing technology and Process is affiliated with the Advance Manufacturing technology Excellence Center (AMtEx). AMtEx is a research and development centre at the uitM faculty of mechanical engineering, which is supposed to deepen the cooperation of research, production and industrial practice concerning the development of new manufacturing technologies. Computer-based production processes play a major role in this context. “We are pleased to be the first research and training centre in south East Asia,” said Assoc Prof Dr-ing Yupiter HP Manurung, director of AMtEx. “i am very optimistic with this cooperation since we position ourselves as a resource centre for solving industrial problems, for producing technical pub-

❍ Assoc Prof Dr-Ing Yupiter HP Manurung, left, and Dr Hendrik Schafstall shake hands on the deal

cooperation with uitM is a significant component of our ‘Scientific Initiative’, with which we promote the knowledge transfer between industry and science. “Cooperations of this kind, on the one hand, strengthen the competitiveness of comp- anies; on the other hand, they ensure the practical relevance of research and education as well as the profitable application of research results.” Simufact Engineering GmbH – Germany Website : www.simufact.com

lications and for educating engineering students as well as practitioners using this sophisticated simulation software. “simufact software is not only user-friendly which is very important for industrial applications to achieve fast and precise results; the software also provides an open structure for conducting high level research invest- igation which is very essential for academician use.” Dr Hendrik schafstall, managing director and CtO of simufact, said: “the

Steel imports down in 2012 in December 2012 south Africa’s primary carbon and steel product imports, including semi-finished steel and drawn wire, were down by 32.5 per cent compared with November. the south African iron and steel institute (sAisi) puts the figure at 58,367 metric tons. the same source reports that throughout 2012 the country’s primary carbon and alloy steel product imports totalled 839,980 metric tons, representing a decrease of 8.8 per cent compared with 2011. South African Iron and Steel Institute – South Africa Website : www.saisi.co.za

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Wire & Cable AsiA – May/June 2013