SIPOL is a chemical company that has recently joined the Tecnogi group, specialized in the production of high performance polymers for hot melt adhesives, engineering plastics
and biodegradable polymers.
Headquartered in the Vigevano area, one of the most prominent Italian footwear districts, SIPOL is a chemical company that has recently joined the Tecnogi group, specialized in the production of highperformance polymers for hot melt adhesives, engineering plastics and biodegradable polymers. Top-notch quality and innovation are the key values lying at the core of the philosophy fostered by the firm. Its distinctive trait, when it comes to the footwear industry (and to other fields as well) – a sector with which it has established a special bond -, lies in the development and launch of some wholly eco-friendly polyesters and of polyamides featuring a high sustainability rate: environmental sustainability is a topical issue for Massimo Cattaneo, Sipol’s managing director, as well as a key asset for both the present and the future of the firm.
You are the only company in the sector that supplies green polyesters and polyamides: have you invested in sustainability? Have market demands influenced this choice?
Actually, market demands have played a key role only to an extent, given that Sipol can boast a long-standing tradition concerning attention to sustainability. For instance, Technipol Bio 707, a product normally used in the footwear sector, are intrinsecally biodegradable, featuring a 60% share of natural material.
Our commitment to sustainability ranges from the use of renewable electricity – a deliberate choice – to the employment of monomers derived from renewable sources, up to the development of a range of biodegradable polymers: one among these is OK Compost Industrial certified (TECHNIPOL Bio 1160), while others are being tested in order to obtain the due certifications.
What are the main features of these polymers? What kind of benefits do they entail for the footwear industry?
It is necessary to separate biodegradable products from nonbiodegradable solutions yet featuring a percentage of renewable resources, because they belong to two different categories. As for the footwear sector, all the polyamides used for pulling-over and lasting processes contain renewable resources, more specifically dimer acid derived from the dimerization of ricinoleic acid, the latter the result of vegetable oils (colza) hydrolysis. Hot-melt polyamides feature up to 70-80% of monomers derived from renewable resources; the same goes for the other Technipol PA solutions.
Technipol Bio 707 is a co-polyester bio-based product, specifically conceived for the footwear sector – used, for instance, for toecaps. Its biodegradability rate ranges from a minimum percentage of raw materials coming from renewable resources amounting to 65% (Technipol Bio 707), up to 100%, Technipol Bio 709. The other products can also be produced with a certain percentage of renewable resource content.
“True” sustainability and footwear industry: is it a feasible combination? Aside from the usual marketing claims…
As far as biodegradability is concerned, polyester-wise, we developed the aforementioned TECHNIPOL Bio 707, meant for our historical branch, that of footwear. Theoretically, there is the chance to fully switch to BIOBASED articles in the footwear sector, to use consistently eco-friendly components, yet there are also cost-related issues that, right now, make the whole operation unfeasible.
Production versatility has helped the firm increase its knowhow and focus on other sectors. What are your main end-use markets?
We deal with several sectors, given that the scope of action of our products is quite vast: footwear, automotive, packaging, sportswear, and much more. Foreign customers still account for three quarters of our sales, a trend that has not been affected by the Covid outbreak.
In the last months, you strived to stand up to difficulties. Did the strategy pay off?
We chose to swim against the tide, by refusing to resort to guarantee funds: employees were tasked with maintenance operations, both ordinary and extraordinary. Besides that, we seized the opportunity to focus on future prospects: the R&D division was committed to the search for new solutions concerning hot-melt polyamides and biodegradable polymers, a sector in which we have been investing significant resources.
One of your distinctive traits, but certainly not the only one…
The feature that helps us stand out lies in our status as an integrated company: we directly produce the polymer and later we take care of its extrusion. Several competitors buy the polymers on the market and then carry out the extrusion: the fact that we act as manufacturers as well, allows us to fully manage the whole process, unlike other enterprises. This gives us the chance to promote, with good reason, the excellence, innovation and quality of our products.
Massimo Cattaneo Ceo Sipol SpA
FOOTWEAR ADHESIVES
Technipol PA 167 and Technipol PA/G are polyamide-based, thermoplastic adhesives, produced by Sipol and conceived specifically for the footwear sector. Technipol PA/G (grades) is used by automatic thermofolding machines during folding operations and it features top-notch standards when it comes to fast-setting time, wettability, and perfect adhesion to leather, synthetic and regenerated materials. Technipol PA 167, on the other hand, is extruded into rod shape, employed by the automatic lasting machines in the footwear industry; it boasts the same first-rate properties as PA/G.
