How is a GSC Product Born
GSC Group invests every year in research and development of cutting-edge sustainable chemical solutions. The making of new products is driven by technical needs such as the improvement of specific leather performances, or new market specifications. For this reason, the R&D team is in constant communication with sales and customer assistance departments from which they also receive monthly reports about customers’ requests. Then, our researchers “give space to creativity”, designing the most suitable synthetic route for the production of the new auxiliaries. When developing a product, a relationship between a chemical structure and the performance on the leather is researched, that meaning to relate a technical characteristic, which derives from the feedback of our technicians, to a chemical characteristic.
In this process, a first important aspect to consider is sustainability. In particular, the carbon footprint of the product is considered, providing a 360-degree view of the raw materials origin and the cycle of its entire production process. The researchers pay great attention in defining the organic fractions to be included in the production cycles with the ultimate aim of implementing the bio-based concept for all products in the GSC range.
Another factor to take into account is the economic aspect. The laboratory continuously questions and approve alternative raw materials: at a time when the availability of raw materials is limited and the market is very unstable, it is important to have timely, flexible and coordinated procedures in order to be able to validate available alternatives that guarantee the same product performance.
As a direct producer of many articles, it is essential for GSC to monitor the compliance with European and international regulations in case of export. For example, when a new substance is synthesised, its REACh compliance is checked and the commercial-economic aspect of making a registration is assessed.
What are the steps for the final approval of a product?
As explained above, depending on various requirements and according to specific application formulations, the laboratory lends itself to testing new raw materials and solutions by preparing samples of a few kilos; these are then applied and tested according to the product type. The tests carried out are both physical and chemical. This first phase allows us to characterise the product and to know the correlations between its properties and its chemical structure. GSC is aware of the importance of homogeneity, which must come through a scaling-up of the products design, where their stability and application are intensively tested. In fact, chemicals not only need to be stable and provide a solid performance, but they must also be easily processable and above all reproducible. The scaling-up is effectively implemented by means of preliminary and intermediate productions from half a kilo, one kilo, three kilograms up to testing in a pilot plant. The pilot plant is designed for a production of 100 to 300 kg/batch, unlike our normal plants that have a capacity of 3,000 to 5,000 up to 30,000 kg/batch, and it is therefore very flexible and suitable for many types of processes, such as polymerisation, esterification and addition reactions.
To establish a quality standard, the laboratory defines a set of technical specifications to be in compliance with each production cycle. Based on the type of product, market requirements or a particular specification, R&D defines physical and chemical tests to comply with during the scaling-up phase or possibly for each production batch. The methodology and process of this quality control have been certified in accordance with UNI EN ISO 9001 since 2002. Finally, analytical reports are processed and coded, and product samples are carefully stored with their test results to ensure maximum traceability.
Source: MPASTYLE
https://mpastyle.it/en/come-nasce-un-prodotto-gsc/