Plastics makes careers

Polymer materials are quite simply unrivalled when it comes to innovative power. But although the material might be the central focus of this development, the successes are made by the people who know how to get the best out of plastics and rubber.

The plastics and rubber industry is booming – fuelled not least by the trend to lightweight construction in the automotive and aerospace industries, the demand for highperformance functional polymers for the most diverse application areas, and the increasing substitution of classic materials like metals, wood and glass with plastics. Polymer materials are quite simply unrivalled when it comes to innovative power. But although the material might be the central focus of this development, the successes are made by the people who know how to get the best out of plastics and rubber.

Unlike other materials, plastics can be composed and tailored individually for the intended application. This is the reason why polymer materials are in such widespread use – for packaging food, sealing motors and engines, storing blood for transfusion, and producing ultrathin photovoltaic elements. No two applications are alike, and each one demands a special kind of know-how in handling the respective polymer. With a material this versatile, it is no wonder how broadly diversified a field the plastics and rubber industry works in.

The development and production of polymers as well as their downstream processing, manufacturing and recovery all require a huge range of different skills and competences: lab technicians, industrial mechanics, mechatronics technicians, plastics technicians, engineers, machine designers, plant electronics specialists, materials experts, chemists, IT and software specialists, product designers, researchers, developers, equipment designers, and many more.