Internship - Foam Technology Center Site Geleen

at  SABIC Saudi Basic Industries Corp

REQUIREMENTS

• Strong in both written and verbal communication in English.
• Bachelor student chemical or mechanical engineering.
• You are curious and investigative and have hands-on mentality and work structured.
• You are able to connect easy to others and can adept well in an international environment.
• Self driven

As a student, are you willing to contribute to a relevant area of research in the field of application development for polyolefin materials? At the Global Foam Innovation Center at SABIC Geleen, we are looking for enthusiastic and dedicated young professional willing to be part of a young, dynamic and international team focusing on the development of new foam solutions to address global challenges such as growing population, global mobility and urbanization.
We offer an exciting internship project within the Application Development and Industry Solutions department in the Foam and Lightweight Technology team. You will have the opportunity to contribute to a research project focused on the production optimization, characterization and application of SABIC resins in Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) bead foam. EPP is a 3D engineering material that delivers energy absorption with structural strength at very low weight. It also offers chemical resistance as well as thermal and acoustic insulation. It is therefore widely used in automotive, high-end packaging, sports and leisure, building and construction.

This internship includes tasks such as:

• Work in a multidisciplinary setting within the SABIC Technology & Innovation organization where you will collaborate with different disciplines and use state-of-the-art equipment for foam production and characterization/testing.
• Literature study on EPP production processes and properties.
• Perform basic resin characterization (e.g. MFR, DSC…) on a selected range of PP copolymers suitable for EPP bead foam production.
• Production of micro-pellets and assessment of autoclave processing conditions (temperature, time, pressure…) for different PP materials.
• Production of EPP bead foam at different foam densities and for different base resins.
• Characterization of basic beads properties (foam density, foam morphology, thermal, size and size distribution…) using the facility in SABIC’s Global Foam Innovation Center in Geleen.
• Possibility to prepare molded parts from a selection of the produced EPP beads at an external facility and related testing (fusion, compression, shrinkage…).
• Perform data analysis and summarize the findings in a final internship report and presentation to an internal SABIC audience.