Video: HF's Limper receives 2016 Herzlich Medal

AKRON—Andreas Limper's career in the rubber industry has come full circle.

Limper, a managing director and member of HF Mixing Group GmbH's management board, got his start in the rubber industry when a vice president from Goodyear visited his school, Aachen University, and offered him a chance to study at the firm's headquarters in Akron. The trip in turn inspired him to make rubber his career.

“He offered me to come with three colleagues to Goodyear and to visit their R&D center,” he said. “I was the most beloved colleague in our unit at this moment because everybody wanted to accompany me to the U.S.”

“At that time a trip to America was fabulous,” Limper added later. “Every Ph.D. student was allowed to do it once in his university time. I had in total I believe four or five trips. I think the rubber industry at the time was far more international than the plastics people. They had 50 more years of experience, and the big companies had arrived. Today the world is getting more colored.”

On Sept. 14, Limper returned to Akron to accept the 2016 Harold Herzlich Distinguished Technology Medal at a breakfast ceremony during the International Tire Exhibition & Conference.

“Our meetings here at ITEC feel like family meetings,” he said during his acceptance speech. “I feel very well and I am very honored.”

“I found rubber to be very attractive because everything comes together,” he added after his speech. “There are chemical experts, engineering, automation and a very big difference to the plastics industry is that the compounds are made by the processors. Many, many people are running their own compounds, so they are forced to do chemical developments.”

He received the award for his longstanding contributions to the tire and rubber industry. Limper has about 35 patents on rubber and processing to his name, and his work has been published in about 180 publications. He also is the author and editor of several books and is a past recipient of the Erich Conrad Medal of the German Rubber Association.

Limper has served as a longtime professor at Aachen University, where he specializes in tire production, rubber mixing, rubber extrusion and thermoplastics.

Bob McNabb, HF's North America sales manager, nominated Limper for the Herzlich award.

“I've worked for HF now for over 12 years. I've known Dr. Limper for a couple years even before that as a competitor,” he said. “I've never known anyone who is as driven in what he's doing. He's always reaching, looking three years from now, five years from now in terms of technology. I think he was an excellent choice.

“He's really seen us through incredible growth, not just in size and volume, but we have a complete new technical center that's second to none in the world. There's no comparison to the one we have as a group, and that was his baby. He asked what this place would look like five, 10 years from now because we don't want to build one every other year. We want to have the latest technology available.”

Limper was quick to share the award with his colleagues.

“Thank you for the honor, but whatever I've earned this prize for it's been a team effort. I did not play solo,” he said. “I have to transfer this honor to the co-workers of our companies in the HF Group. My colleagues have always supported me and we have very engaged co-workers.”

The Harold Herzlich Distinguished Technology Achievement Award recognizes a person whose contribution of pioneering research in tire construction, tread design and manufacturing, coupled with engineering and materials innovations, has contributed significantly to the betterment of society, safety of transportation and global tire technology. It was first awarded in 2008 and eventually renamed for Herzlich, who has served as ITEC conference chairman since the event was first held in 1994.

Challenges in mixing

Limper also spoke about a number of challenges facing the mixing industry as his acceptance speech transitioned to the breakfast's keynote address. For the last 20 years, the number of mixer models has nearly doubled, to 415 in 2015 from 227 in 1995.

While he doesn't anticipate as many new polymers entering the market like in the 1980s and "90s, he does anticipate the trend of existing polymers becoming more tailored to their specific functions to continue.

“It means there are very different requirements and different demands,” Limper said. “We have smaller lot sizes for the tire producers, smaller lot sizes for the producers of technical rubber goods. Electric cars will also gain market share, and they will have totally new requirements for the tire industry.”

His presentation touched on a number of challenges and opportunities the future holds for rubber mixing, including: Increased optimization of mixer performance through better process control, with more models being integrated into process control;

• The more versatile machines will gain bigger market share;
• Customers are asking for system concepts, asking for a design of a complete mixing line;
• Automation has to cover all components in the mixing room, testing can be minimized;
• The need for seamless documentation for data collection will continue to grow;
• Energy consumption can be reduced heavily. Limper sees potential for 20 to 40 percent in relation to the mixers of today;
• Education and training of personnel on both the mixing processes and automation of the mixing process will continue to be a challenge; and
• Rubber mixing will stay a batch mixing process, adding that he believes continuous mixing will stay a niche technology.

“Technically it's not a problem to compound rubber continuously, but economically I think it's still questionable because rubber does not flow freely,” he said. “You have to granulate it, you have to powder it, and this can be more expensive than the mixing process we have today. I don't believe we will see a broad application of continuous mixing, but batch mixing will become more or less a continuous flow.”