Wacker brand celebrates diamond jubilee

One of the best-known and most successful brands of Munich-based chemicals group WACKER is turned 60. The company sought trademark protection from the German Patent Office for the name ELASTOSIL®. Since then the number of different products bearing the registered trademark has grown to nearly 3,000. ELASTOSIL® silicones are used in virtually all branches of industry, from automotive to aerospace. WACKER is celebrating this milestone with a website (www.wacker.com/elastosil60) dedicated to telling the brand’s remarkable success story.

“ELASTOSIL® silicones have become an essential, integral part of many applications due to their versatility and unique property profile. Whether for airbags, keyboards, safety and fire-resistive cables, mold-making, sealing and medical technology – silicone elastomers provide key benefits to manufacturers and end customers alike. The brand is also renowned for the role it plays in technical innovations that lead to new products and open up new opportunities for fabricators. One such example is ELASTOSIL® Film, the latest member of the brand family. This ultrathin high-precision film of silicone rubber is used in the production of novel sensors, actuators and generators. “Our high-precision silicone film, which is available as roll stock, opens up totally new application possibilities for the industry. We have only just scratched the surface,” says Summo. “Many products nowadays tend to come and go quickly. But not ELASTOSIL®. This is a brand you can rely on.”

The brand name ELASTOSIL®, which is a contraction of “elastomer” and “silicone”, encompasses numerous silicone elastomers from the WACKER product range. Unlike silicone fluids or silicone resins, they are by nature elastic and rubber-like. While silicone rubbers constitute the largest group numerically, the brand portfolio includes other silicone grades, such as silicone rubber dispersions, silicone sealants and additives.

The brains behind WACKER silicones and the man behind the ELASTOSIL® brand was the chemist Dr Siegfried Nitzsche, who commenced his pioneering research into silicones and silicones at WACKER’s initial production site in Burghausen, Germany, in 1947.