Who doesn’t know such situations: many time-intensive small-volume products that reduce production capacity? Or a product portfolio that has become too large over the years and thus difficult to organize? Stockpiling of raw materials that are rarely used? Necessary rework to correct production fluctuations? Excessive forklift traffic in production and warehouses, or declining margins in traditional processes?

Often, product portfolios have grown over very many years. They were developed by researchers who focused exclusively on the benefits for their customers. Despite this, or precisely because of it, companies are now coming up against capacity and complexity limits. They face the problem of having to make their production and logistics processes more efficient. Only in this way further growth is possible.

This week I had the chance to meet a former colleague who has also made a move from corporate life to the midmarket. A lot reminded me of the time exactly five years ago; it was icy water I was swimming in. And I am probably one of the few who congratulated him on this decision.

As of 2/1/2022, the TMC has now been in existence for five years. After a challenging start, the focus on recipe analysis, raw material consolidation, and the development of modular concepts quickly followed. Today, the entire process chain of modularization is offered.

Cordial invitation to our online seminar on September 30th, 2021 at 3 p.m. via Teams. To register, please send an email to Thomas Claßen (thomas.classen [at] igrf.de).

TMC GmbH is a company specialized in recipe consolidation and the resulting raw material simplification. Various computational analysis methods are used for this purpose. One example is the solubility parameters according to Hansen, which are available for many raw materials.

Solubility parameters are ideal key figures in recipe optimization and for replacing individual raw materials, such as solvent replacement or the selection of flow additives. Also, binder compatibility and the resulting transparency of coatings such as automotive base & clear coats can be greatly simplified by determining Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSP). Solvent and resin selection is calculated by TMC GmbH using HSP values and then used in recipe and raw material consolidation. Due to the current raw material situation and when replacing newly classified raw materials, it is necessary to know the same solubility properties as in the existing formulation.

The TMC team has expanded further with the addition of Artur Töws to be able to provide focused support to printing ink customers regarding raw material and formulation analysis. Artur Töws brings with him many years of international experience in solvent-based and water-based inks and raw materials. This will also improve the targeted advice to printing ink manufacturers on modularization through the corresponding application experience.

To support the recipe analysis and the necessary feasibility, TMC invests in its own pilot plant in addition to the laboratory. The new dispersing unit based on a modern rotor-stator system enables the rapid transfer of dissolver recipes to batch sizes from 10 to 500l. Projects can thus be implemented quickly and easily.

Our goal is to provide our customers with the best possible service and at the same time to make our employees’ work easier. That is why a new piece of equipment has moved into our laboratory! We could visit the company Getzmann during the acquisition and were impressed by the strong innovative growth and the support to serve us as a “smaller” customer in such way.

We talked to “Farbe und Lack” about the modularization of manufacturing processes in the coatings industry. We discussed the changes in the industry over the last 20 years and presented our vision of the future. We see great potential in process optimization through modularization and continuous processes. Our goal is to produce as much as possible as quickly as possible with as little effort as possible. In this context, quality control plays a key role, which is shifting further into the upstream area of production.

Happy Easter! We are glad that you found our new website. We will post here about TMC now and then. Stay tuned!