The World of Ionomer
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which consists of the convergence of information and communication technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and smart factories, is in full swing, new challenges and related technologies are emerging one after another in the industrial world. For example, with the launch of the 5G era, the issue of static electricity in communication devices is one such challenge.
Static electricity is becoming a major issue in the automotive industry, which is adopting autonomous driving and cloud computing, and in the electronics industry, which is becoming increasingly advanced. With the rapid growth of the ICT sector, the plastics industry is also making various attempts to solve electrostatic problems. One of them is permanent antistatic technology using special ionomers.
Ionomers are functional polymers in which the carboxylic acid part of the copolymer of ethylene and acrylic acid or methacrylic acid is neutralized by reacting with metal ions. The ionic bonds in the polymer form a kind of physical cross-linking, which makes it elastic like an elastomer, and when heated, it improves fluidity and improves processability. These properties allow ionomers to be blended with thermoplastics for a variety of applications.
Ionomers were first developed and launched by the American chemical company D, which controls more than 95% of the global market.
In 2018, another multinational chemical company, Dow Chemical, acquired D’s ionomer business and continues to dominate the market.
There is a local company that has challenged the market of these ionomers. (hereinafter referred to as AM Solution) is the protagonist. Since establishing the company in 2014, AM Solution has focused on technology development for ionomer materials, building its own ‘Ionomer Technology Platform’ that is differentiated from advanced companies, and based on this, developing and commercializing various applications through material design technology and application solutions that can customize and produce products that customers need.
Growing competitiveness through ‘selection and focus’
AM Solution, which is boldly challenging the ionomer market monopolized by multinational chemical companies, is surprisingly a startup that started as a one-man company just five years ago. It may seem like a battle between David and Goliath, but Hwang Jin-taek, CEO of AMSolution, is full of confidence and assurance in his technology.
That’s why he had a lot of trouble naming the company. The name AMS, which stands for Advanced Material Solution, reflects the ideals of Hwang’s dream company. It reflects Mr. Hwang’s strong commitment to ‘technology intensive’ to provide various solutions to meet customer needs through special advanced materials based on ionomer.
First of all, the company developed its competitiveness by selecting and focusing on ionomer, which received quick feedback from the market. In 2014, the first year of the company’s existence, it won a gold medal in the technology and idea startup contest organized by the Technology Guarantee Fund and Maeil Business, confirming its potential for technology startups, and has since established a unique ionomer technology platform differentiated from leading companies through the implementation of a number of government technology development projects.
By securing ionomer’s high-order structural design technology and alloying technology with other thermoplastic elastomers, AM Solution has established an ionomer technology platform through the reactive extrusion process and secured a number of patents.
The control of carboxylic acid content (wt%), which affects the properties of ionomer, is very important, and AM Solution’s ionomer technology platform can customize the properties of special ionomers according to various needs of customers based on the know-how of the reaction process that can control the amount of carboxylic acid sugar in the reaction extrusion process. Although currently a small company, AM Solution is securing competitiveness and expanding its business area through technological differentiation.
Representative applications that AMS Solutions focuses on developing and commercializing are permanent antistatic polymers, materials for golf ball covers and mantles, and foam materials for shoe midsoles. Recently, AMS Solutions is also interested in researching barrier films for quantum dot and transparent LED modules using ionomers, water dispersion permanent antistatic coatings, solar packaging materials, and low dielectric loss composites in line with the trend of the 4th industrial revolution and 5G market.
Innovation started with a golf ball
Jintaek Hwang has been conducting research and development at a large Korean company since 1991. However, it was not easy to find rewarding work as a researcher because the tasks were far from the market reality. In particular, in the field of functional plastics, the needs of industrial sites and response time are very important factors, but it was not easy for large companies to respond, and it was difficult to see the fruits of commercialization due to many mid- to long-term-oriented studies.
Wanting to experience the field, Mr. Hwang left a large company in 2004 and gained various practical experiences as the head of a small and medium-sized research institute. As head of the research center at E, an engineering plastic material company, he was in charge of developing super engineering plastics such as LCP and PPS. As a technology-intensive item, ionomers have very high melt viscosity and melt strength, and are superior to general elastomers in terms of wear resistance and elasticity. In short, it was perfect for golf ball covers.
Mr. Hwang became interested in special ionomers for high-performance golf balls around 2007, when he started developing and mass-producing 5-piece golf balls (penta TP) with a world-leading golf ball manufacturer. This experience led him to start his own business, which eventually came to fruition at AM Solution.
The material developed by AM Solution is a differentiated technology from D Chemical’s products. The company first exported its standard grade for 2-piece golf ball covers overseas in 2019 due to its price competitiveness based on its excellent properties. Currently, it has developed a product for the mantle of 3-piece golf balls, which is a high value-added product, and is under quality evaluation. If it is evaluated as a successful launch, it is expected to generate annual sales of about 10 billion won by 2023.
Finding your niche
The general-purpose and engineering plastics sectors are highly competitive in terms of price, which is leading to a sharp decline in profitability. In order to maintain the sustainability of the company, it is necessary to introduce differentiated products through the development of innovative new technologies required by the global market.
In line with this trend, AMSolution is expanding its range of high-value-added products in niche markets through customized products. Mr. Hwang has adopted a strategy of looking overseas and gaining recognition overseas first, and then increasing market share in Korea. In 2018, D Company, which was the exclusive supplier of ionomer, was acquired by D Chemical Company, which changed the existing supply chain of ionomer. With the change from D to D Chemical, customers were inconvenienced by the long lead time from product order to shipment and delivery.
AM Solution took advantage of the gap to gain a competitive edge. As a startup, it convinced companies with small quantities, short lead times, and competitive prices. But most of all, the company was confident in its technology, which could match the quality of products from leading companies.
Since its establishment in 2014, AMSolution has focused exclusively on the development of ionomers for more than five years, building an ionomer technology platform and a lineup of highly functional ionomer products based on it. In the early days of the business, sales realization was delayed due to focusing on R&D, but last year, the company made its first export to overseas, raising awareness at home and abroad, and now supplies to large domestic companies and first-tier vendors. Last year and this year, the company’s investment increased significantly, and as the business situation stabilized, it was able to actively engage in research and development. From this year, we plan to focus more on overseas marketing to expand overseas customers.
Personalized merchandising strategy
Mr. Huang’s commercialization strategy is based on market demand and feedback. The current commercialization products he is focusing on are special ionomer-based permanent antistatic polymer materials for antistatic protection of semiconductor and display components, which are mainly used for packaging of electronic components or as interlayers for shock mitigation between components. The ionomer-based permanent antistatic polymer for polyolefin is currently undergoing mass production quality evaluation and initial delivery at a major tier one vendor.
In addition, due to the increasing sensitivity of wireless cleaners and air purifiers to dust, we are also developing a permanent antistatic polymer for ABS injection with a number of compounding companies. We are targeting a share of more than 50% of the domestic antistatic polymer market in the second half of 2021, and expect to become a cash cow with annual sales of KRW 20 billion by 2022.
Foam materials for shoe midsoles are also currently centered on EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) based chemical foams, but interest in eco-friendly manufacturing processes is surging due to toxic compounds generated in the foam manufacturing process. A representative technology is the gas foaming process using supercritical CO2 developed by MIT and commercialized by Trexel. AM Solution is currently developing new materials in two ways: Trexel process and autoclave.
By mixing ionomers with thermoplastic elastomers such as TPEE to adjust the cell structure of the foam, it increases elasticity and, most importantly, becomes a highly eco-friendly product that can be recycled. It is currently being developed in cooperation with overseas shoe equipment companies and domestic and foreign shoe material companies. If the development is successful, it can be supplied to N, a global shoe manufacturer.
Recently, we have been conducting research on the manufacturing process and functionalization of ionomers that can be used to have superior price competitiveness compared to existing products by using ionomers according to the needs of the 4th industry and 5G market trends. Currently, we are working with mid-sized companies in the QLED or large LED display field on barrier films for quantum dots and sachet films for transparent LED modules. It is a low-cost, high-efficiency manufacturing method through the film co-extrusion process rather than the conventional vacuum deposition method, which is expected to revolutionize the display material field if successful.
[Source] Establishment of Ionomer technology platform – Hwang Jin-taek, CEO of AMS (AMS) | Writer Young Hwan-dosa
