Is there such a thing as a new lab smell? It probably has notes of anticipation, excitement and collaboration—as all of those were detected inside Wacker Chemie AG’s new Silicones R&D Center in Ann Arbor, MI.


The German chemical company has opened up the new center just outside its Adrian, MI site. The 10,000 sq. ft. lab facility can be found inside a co-work campus of the Michigan Innovation Headquarters (MI-HQ), where Wacker is the largest of the 20 tenants. Dedicated to support Wacker’s overall business and product development in North America,
the space incudes labs for R&D and analytics and offers an environment for the development of new products dedicated to customers in the Americas. Investments for equipment and interior construction were in the seven-figure range, according to the company and officials on site at the official opening of the space on last month.


At a special opening event for media, David Wilhoit, Wacker Chemical Corporation president and CEO, and Axel Schmidt, Wacker Chemical Corporation vice president – division silicones, provided insight into the new facility as well as Wacker Group’s E4.63 billion business. Last year, its silicones unit marked a milestone with sales topping 2.0 billion euros for the first time, representing approximately 43% of group revenues.


Wacker Group has made several moves to strengthen US-based operations.  For instance, the company in early June broke ground on a new facility at its polysilicon manufacturing site in Chattanooga, TN. The new R&D center in Ann Arbor is considered a “strong step to help us prepare for the growth that is expected,” said Willhoit.


That growth is expected to be driven in part by Wacker’s silicones efforts to find new solutions for growing markets that included wound care and resource savings (such as silicone antifoam agents for laundry care that would help reduce water consumption in markets where hand wash is still popular, such as in Latin America.)


According to Wacker, the team at the Silicones R&D Center—currently 10 scientists with backgrounds in materials science, organic and inorganic chemistry, polymer science and bioorganic chemical engineering—will be focused on growth fields that are relevant to its Americas’ customer base and will also screen new technologies too.


The Ann Arbor R&D Center “will be focused on developing advanced and forward-looking solutions in concert with regional trends that can be quickly brought to market.  And importantly, our team of highly specialized R&D experts in the field of silicone and polymer chemistry will be offering customers long term technical assistance in support of Wacker’s future business growth,” Schmidt said.


Ann Arbor is located close to Wacker’s Adrian, MI site, which is currently home to approximately 600 employees and marked Wacker’s foray into the US market via a joint venture with Stauffer Chemicals in 1969. The company took complete control of that business in 1984.


The new Ann Arbor R&D hub currently has two open R&D posts and ultimately it can house a team of 25 scientists, according to Dr. Christoph Briehn, director, R&DInnovation Silicones, who was involved in the new space design.  During a tour of the site, he pointed to the design benefits of the open workspace environment—think increased collaboration and thought-sharing among the researcher team—as well as flexibility within the lab area that will allow the company to re-configure equipment for optimal use of the space. (The company also put a stamp on the shared location; Wacker’s ingredients can be found in some of the materials that were used to finish out the space such as the floor tiles.)


Wacker, which currently invests 3% of its revenues into R&D, currently holds about 5300 patents. Plus, there’s another 2000 or so pending, said officials.


Look for those numbers to rise as Wacker’s dedicated R&D team in Ann Arbor explores new ways for silicone technologies to benefit formulators of household and personal care, and other key end markets, in the Americas and beyond.