Over 28 years’ experience in technical fields in various industries and market segments.
Experienced application engineer in the field of silicone chemistry.
With a rich background in research, development, and production.
My expertise encompasses various aspects of silicone technology, including formulation design, process optimization, and quality control. Throughout my career at DOW, I developed a passion for innovation, constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with silicone materials. I loved to knowledge-sharing within the industry.
François DE BUYL received his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from University of Brussels, Belgium (1991) and an MSc in Advanced Material Sciences from University of Surrey, UK (2003). He joined Dow Corning Europe in 1991 and worked on various silicone based materials development and applications, such as, e.g., silicone sealant & adhesives, organosilanes, thermoplastics and (silicone) rubbers reinforcements, and coatings, before joining the Dow Silicones Belgium Silicone Elastomers TS&D team back in 2011, helping for instance lighting and optical companies (Tier 1 and OEMs) using silicone in their LED lamps and luminaires designs, with products such as, e.g., optical moldable silicones, optical encapsulants, thermal interface materials, adhesives and coatings for lighting fixtures protection and assembly.
Kurt Manigatter is CEO of ELMET GmbH, a worldwide well known LSR Mold-and Molding- specialist also known as supplier for LSR dosing systems. Kurt holds a Master of Engineering degree and is graduate of Technical High School, Austria. He started his carrier as designer in a shipyard and was responsible for development of automation of technical processes, to build ships as automatically as possible. After 9 years empirical knowledge he changed to the mechanical industry to develop drive concepts. After additional 5 years he changed into his passion, the mold making and automation branch. 3 years he was employed at the market leader for LSR molds. Then he quit his job and founded ELMET GmbH. He is known as an expert for LSR solutions and frequent lecturer and part of advisory boards.
Stefan works for Aptiv Services Deutschland GmbH, located in Wuppertal. He started at Kabelwerke Reinshagen as a tool maker in 1981. He holds a degree in Machinery Engineering from University Wuppertal and a Degree in Since and Economics of University Dortmund.
He held various positions at Reinshagen and later at Delphi Automotive System in Tool & Process Engineering and Operations.
He was 7 Years Plant manager of Delphi Wuppertal Plant and since 2013 he is responsible for Global manufacturing Engineering for LSR. He was 7 Years Plant manager of Delphi Wuppertal Plant and since 2013 he is responsible for Global manufacturing Engineering for LSR
Dr. Ralf-Urs Giesen studied Mechanical Engineering specialized in polymer process engineering at University of Paderborn/Germany, after that he made his PhD at the University of Kassel/Germany. In 2009 he took up employment as scientific assistant in the Institute for Materials Technology, Department Polymer Technology at University of Kassel/Germany. Currently Mr. Giesen is the managing director of the Polymer Application Center (called UNIpace) of the University of Kassel and also the head of the division UNIpace in the department of Polymer Technology.
Oliver studied Mechanical Engineering and Plastics Technology at RWTH Aachen / IKV in Germany and received his diploma in 1990. He started his professional career at Dätwyler / Switzerland as a project leader for rubber precision parts for the Automotive Industry. In 1996, Oliver joined DuPont-Dow Elastomers as Market Development Manager for Automotive. Between 2001 and 2003 he was the commercial director at Omnexus in Europe. In 2004 he joined Momentive Performance Materials in Automotive Marketing for Elastomers and became the Global Marketing Leader of this segment. Since 2020 he supports Sigma Engineering in Strategic Marketing.