How SOFTENOL® helps fighting the pandemic

18. March 2021

The corona pandemic continues to grip the world. We didn’t intend to talk about this ever-present topic again, but our SOFTENOL® helps fight the pandemic – a good reason to take another look at this subject.

Corona developed into a pandemic with incredible force and brought the world to a standstill. It soon became clear that hygiene measures alone are not enough to combat the virus. The current hope is to vaccinate comprehensively so that the virus does not have a chance to mutate. Some promising vaccines have already been released and are currently on their way to the vaccination stations.

But transporting the vaccines is a logistical challenge! A constant temperature of -70° C must be guaranteed without electricity. The company Schaumaplast Reilingen GmbH recognized this early on and researched to develop a suitable Styrofoam box. The result is a product that meets the requirements using dry ice.
To achieve this top performance, the Styrofoam box must withstand extreme demands. With transport routes of up to five days, all factors have to fit together perfectly. In addition, repeated drops of the box from a height of several metres must not cause any damage. Even the smallest cracks in the material affect the cooling performance and thus the effectiveness of the vaccine.

The raw material for the cool boxes is a granulate that is processed into moulded parts. The properties of the finished product, such as stability, density or absorption capacity, can be influenced by coating the granulate. This is where our SOFTENOL® product range comes into action. Mixing different SOFTENOL® components creates so-called blends that are applied to the granulate and give the final product the desired properties.

We are proud that our raw materials are used for this technically well-thought-out product. We did not invent the vaccine, but with our high-quality products we contribute to the safe and unscathed transport and thus combatting the pandemic.

You can find the broadcast of the RNF and the SWR under the following links. If you want to know more about our SOFTENOL® contact us – we look forward to hearing from you!

Feature story from RNF

Feature story from SWR

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Dr. Andreas Wintzer

Dr. Andreas Wintzer is Technical Product Manager in the Technical Applications Business Unit at IOI Oleo GmbH. He studied Chemistry at TU Dortmund University with an emphasis on technical chemistry, particularly in the area of renewable raw materials. The extensive knowledge he acquired during his studies is the perfect basis for his work at IOI. Before joining IOI Oleo GmbH, Andreas completed a trainee programme at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, then gained production experience as a technologist at Papierfabrik Hagen, which at the time belonged to the Stora Enso group. He enjoys sports, regularly rides to work by bike and preferably spends his leisure time with his family or friends.