Materials maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp. is working with design firm Nottingham Spirk to develop new uses for its specialty materials.
The relationship "brings together the benefits of Sabic's proprietary specialty thermoplastic offerings and Nottingham Spirk's award-winning capabilities to design and commercialize breakthrough products across multiple industrial verticals," officials with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Sabic said in an Aug. 14 news release.
Sabic's thermoplastics portfolio "is renowned in many key industries such as automotive, aircraft and rail interiors, and electrical and electronics," said Ernesto Occhiello, Sabic specialties executive vice president in the release.
But he also said "there's tremendous opportunity for our high-performance materials … to be used in end products that can shape the future of health care, consumer goods, energy and electric vehicles, just to name a few."
Working closely with Nottingham Spirk and taking part in their proven innovation process "enables us to look at the entire value chain differently for fresh creative ideas that support our customers' growth aspirations," Occhiello added.
John Spirk, co-president of Cleveland-based Nottingham Spirk, said in the release that the more his firm learned about the capabilities of Sabic's advanced plastics portfolio, the more inspired it was to start the collaboration.
"The combination of Sabic's diverse portfolio of material solutions, along with our expertise in designing novel products that fill unmet end-user needs, create an infinite number of exciting possibilities for business innovation," he added.
Sabic's plastic materials include Noryl-brand polyphenylene ether, Ultem-brand polyetherimide and LNP-brand compounds based on a variety of engineering resins. The firm, with U.S. headquarters in Houston, employs more than 34,000 worldwide and posted sales of almost $40 billion in 2017.
Nottingham Spirk has secured more than 1,200 commercialized patents and created more than 100 world-first innovations since being founded in 1972. The firm operates a 60,000-square-foot innovation center in Cleveland.