Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal inaugurates polymer research lab

Montreal, QC – Robert Papineau, Ecole Polytechnique de Montral’s Director General, together with Professor Pierre Carreau, Director of the school’s Centre de recherche en plasturgie et composites (Research Centre on Polymers and Polymer Matrix Composites – CREPEC), have officially opened the Polynov Laboratory, located in Anjou Industrial Park.

The new laboratory represents the first commercial-scale unit of the CREPEC, a group formed in 2004 to bring together Qubec’s foremost university and industry researchers in the field of polymers. The Polynov Laboratory’s sheet coextrusion line brings the lab up to the standard of any multinational corporate R&D centre.

The lab will provide companies in the plastics industry with the equipment and expertise needed to conduct preliminary trials on new products or processes. Target markets for the lab include construction materials (vapour barriers), specialized paper products (decorative papers/packaging), the automobile industry (polymer panels), sanitary products (diapers, sanitary towels), synthetic papers (banknotes), and food packaging.

With a budget totalling more than $10 million, the project was largely funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Qubec education ministry, each of which invested $3.75 million. Private-sector partners, in turn, included Crompton Davis- Standard (Pawcatuck, CT), the Polynov’s main equipment supplier; and the Lavergne Group (Anjou), which donated the space housing the lab.