Swede in Beijing

I have just returned back to Sweden after a year plus in Casco Adhesives’ Beijing office. Here is an introduction to my Chinese work place.

CEL is short for Casco Evaluation Laboratory. The name gives a hint of the original purpose of the lab, when it first opened its doors around four years ago. Casco Adhesives business in China was growing, and with that the demand for a competent lab in the region that was close to the customer and could provide processing of lab tests. Not only are the results of the lab tests delivered considerably faster when the lab is in the same country, it is also a great advantage to be able to evaluate adhesives aimed for the Chinese market in local conditions and on local wood species. A third benefit with having a lab close to the market is that important information about our customers’ production parameters is easily accessible for lab technicians, a condition for making accurate lab evaluations.

In the beginning, samples came in to CEL mainly for routine tests of bonding properties for customers, as a result of trials or for testing after abnormal situations had occurred in factory. Glue-ups were performed to test whether a glue was suitable for a specific customer or not, or to adjust the system to customer needs, perhaps prior to a factory trial. There was also some demand for quality control of products delivered to Casco Beijing’s warehouse, as well as from the small scale production we had at that time. Three employees could handle the tasks well.

But that was four years ago! CEL Beijing is now a full grown laboratory with eight full time employees and capability to handle a variety of tasks. Not only does the original objective to be an evaluation lab close to the customers remain, but there has also been a number of new items added to the list as CEL Beijing has continued to grow and develop. One very common task is to evaluate newly developed glue systems that arrive to CEL Beijing from our R&D units. All products are developed as result of a need on the market, existing or expected, so there are a selection of customers whose production parameters, product’s performance, etc can be improved. The CEL technicians function as a link between R&D and the field; their job is to take in information from the market and find out which customer is most suitable for testing the new product. After that the lab evaluation begins, in which the factory conditions are copied as much as possible. Many rounds of trial are normally required before the parameters are fine tuned to perfection, and the system can be tested at a customer. To be able to perform lab trials with parameters that resemble factory conditions is a key factor for successful factory trials.

Fortunately, CEL is one very well-equipped laboratory. Among the inventories you can find different presses, hot and cold and the wood storage with two separate rooms for two different moisture contents in the wood. In addition you had a saw and a planner – of high standard. The lab is also equipped with several testing rooms and is capable of doing the majority of relevant tests on glued wood samples that are required by our customers, including formaldehyde emission tests. We are of course also required to test the quality of he different glues that are supplied within China, as well as all products produced in our production plant. The most valuable resources in the lab is of course the staff with their never ending curiosity and ambitious attitude to learn more and constantly develop and do a good job. CEL Beijing will continue to grow with the organization and develop as a response to the growing market needs thanks to them!

Now I am back in Sweden and my ordinary job as an RnD engineer in Nacka. I can look back on a happy year in China that will always stay in my memory!