Creating Common Benefits: Open Innovation
Kordsa gathered business and academia partners to talk about open innovation at 24th Quality Convention in Istanbul and hosted “Collaborations Towards Excellence” session at the 24th Quality Convention in Istanbul. Session was moderated by national broadcaster, Şirin Payzın. Kordsa CEO Cenk Alper, Prof. Dr Hasan Mandal from Sabancı University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ersin Acar from Boğaziçi University, and DuPont Global Marketing Director Imre Horvath were present at the session. Open innovation between DuPont Protection Technologies and Kordsa, as well as value added technologies used in reinforcement products were shared as a success story.
Global partnership brings the power of two giants
The adventure began with EFQM excellence model in the 1980s and evolved into the open innovation concept and mutual collaborations. Kordsa’s and DuPont Protection Technologies’ excellence adventures intersect with the principle of open innovation in their shared ecosystem. The in-house technologies developed by two companies are amalgamated to form new technologies.
Hybrid technologies; tire reinforcement market’s new trend, is at the heart of Kordsa and DuPont’s cooperation. DuPont Protection Technologies’ reinforcement materials met with Kordsa's reinforcement materials in the best way for tire production. This helps the tire performance to improve. This hybrid reinforcement material is used in high-speed performance tires and aircraft tires.
Kordsa and DuPont are the two giants of the reinforcing materials market. They both become much more active players with synergistic efforts. These two giants offer value added products to market, especially Indian and American market, by their technological innovations. Truck tires and construction equipment tires in India, and aircraft tires, high-performance tires, and racing car tires in the US are examples of projects and solutions executed together.
Excellence towards academia and industry cooperation
Composite reinforcing is another value-added area where Kordsa innovates by collaborations. Kordsa founded the Composite Reinforcement Business Unit in 2014, and focused on growth in this area. In December 2014, the company, in collaboration with Sabancı University broke ground for Composite Technology Center of Excellence in Teknopark, Istanbul. Kordsa Composite Technology Center of Excellence will be the first in Turkey, where industry and academia meet under the same roof. 10 professors and 80 doctoral students will work at the center. Kordsa production facilities, joint R & D laboratories and Kordsa's headquarters will also work together at the same center. The center will become active in April 2016, with an initial investment of USD 30 million.
Composite materials are 10 times lighter and 3 times stronger than metals. They can be used in aviation, sports, automotive, marine and construction industries.