Speaker interview: Matthew Miklos, Americhem
In this interview, we spoke to Matthew Miklos, Vice President, Global Technology and Innovation for Americhem.
As VP of Technology and Innovation with Americhem, Matthew guides a talented team in Masterbatch and Performance Compound design and development. This includes working alongside the commercial team to fully understand critical-to-quality attributes of materials to enable their performance in certain end use applications. This may include custom tailoring of color, functional additives, and physical properties to meet customer specifications while also designing and piloting the manufacturing process to enable effective commercial scale-up.
They align teams by Strategic Business Units with specialty skills and knowledge in Synthetic Fibers, Automotive & Recreational vehicle products, Building and Construction, Engineering Resins, Medical and Packaging. A key focus area currently is managing
our business through this inflationary period while still building our New Business Opportunity pipelines for growth
even during the possibility of recession or stagnation.
How do you see the industry developing and growing in the next three-to-five years?
We expect a growing focus on innovation and sustainable solutions. This will include more durable, longer lasting products, a focus on light weighting in vehicles, renewable and bio-derived fillers in masterbatch and compounds and functional additives for smart textiles. We also expect the supply chains will be re-built and that Americhem and other companies will leverage multi-sourcing work done during pandemic and the supply chain crisis.
What do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment?
Uncertainty surrounding a possible pending recession. The entire value chain is keeping close eye on working capital and inventories, with orders largely still being very strong. Also, continuous management of Supply Chain disruptions (resins, pigments, additives), continued inflation, along with labor attraction and retention at the factory, manufacturing level.4.
In your view, what has been the most exciting development in the industry in the last couple of years? And why?
Three key Americhem innovations come to mind. The first one is Smart Textile, performance additives such as Americhem’s mBrace™ masterbatch enabling non-woven fiber applications, such as diapers and hygiene articles to have the smooth and soft feel of a natural material like cotton. The next is ePVC or Enhanced Weathering PVC used in our eCap™ pre-colored compounds and its sister product, ValuPak masterbatch which provides decking, cladding, fencing and window manufactures with the ability to reach darker color spaces while extending the life of their products. Then finally, High-Flow, low-odor Sevrene® TPE compounds enabling larger part, thinner wall components customed tailored for end-use specifications.
Matthew will be talking on the panel on 'Discussing the future of the concentrates industry' at the Compounding World Expo Conference 2022.