Greetings, I am Misla Lagus, Research and Development Manager in the Paper & Packaging business unit at CH-Polymers. I would like to share my experiences on work-life balance, flexibility, and professional development within our team at CH-Polymers. I started my journey at CH-Polymers back in 2016 when I joined with my master’s thesis from Åbo Akademi, focusing on the surface sizing of testliner. Since then, my role has dynamically evolved, encompassing responsibilities from Project Engineer to R&D Engineer, Project Manager and Lab Manager. Currently, I proudly serve as R&D Manager during the day, and as “mamma” by night. Returning after a fulfilling 9-month maternity leave, I have come to appreciate the unparalleled joy of parenthood. However, when this is combined with a demanding professional career, you need to balance the two. At CH-Polymers, we provide an environment where we support team members through these significant life events. A cornerstone of this support is our commitment to flexible working hours and remote work possibilities. This has allowed me to find a balance between my role as an R&D Manager and the responsibilities of parenthood. Working remotely from home a few days a week has given me the flexibility to be […]
Laboratory technician Ayan Abdirahman is naturally curious, and that trait led her to choose chemistry as her field of study. Now, as she works full-time at the CH-Polymers R&D center, she enjoys the research aspect even more. As a chemistry student at the Turku Vocational Institute, Ayan Abdirahman was looking for a place to do her internship. She searched for potential laboratories in the Turku area and came across CH-Polymers. Her application was a success, and she began her career as an intern at CH-Polymers R&D center in Raisio in early 2022. – Everyone at CH-Polymers was very welcoming and it felt easy to become part of the team. Anytime I’ve needed support, the team has been there to help me, she says. After finishing her internship, Abdirahman took on a project as a full-time laboratory technician. Her responsibilities include doing chemical syntheses and analysing and testing the results – in other words, testing whether a certain product or formula is ready for commercial production. Abdirahman appreciates the versatility of the job. – I chose to study chemistry because I find exploring and testing different hypotheses fascinating. Actually working in the field has only increased my interest in chemistry, she […]
Purpose of this project was to develop waterborne polymers that are suitable for polyethylene and polypropylene surfaces. Main research areas were polymer morphology use of specialty monomers Teemu at work in CH-Polymers’ laboratory ”I made my Master’s thesis for CH-Polymers, as part of their Adhesion project. I can certainly say that the project was interesting and it gave me and CH-Polymers additional information about morphology and adhesion.” –Teemu Piesanen, M.Sc. It is known that achieving adhesion to inert polyolefins is difficult without any surface treatment. Contact angle measurements and other adhesion analysis methods were used to characterize the performance of the polymers. As a conclusion a 40 % increase in adhesion was achieved. This is a great result in our multipurpose products. Teemu will continue his work at CHP laboratory. We are keen to know what he comes up with next! “Understanding the interactions between different materials opens brand new ideas to be applied in our product development. ” -R&D Manager Gun Lundsten