Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) engages in a number of external research collaborations with universities and independent institutes. Some of these collaborations are focused; others are broad and general. In sum, these programs allow the Company to enhance its potential impact on the rapidly changing materials industries it serves, and to gain a technical perspective on the future of materials as a whole.
In the paper industry, our Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) division has been a long-time supporter of key industry research institutions such as the Empire State Paper Research Association (ESPRA), the Pulp and Paper research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN), McMaster University, Western Michigan University, University of Maine, University of Washington. Collaborations at these institutions include direct and indirect support of focused projects of SMI interest, such as the effective use of PCC and other fillers or papermaking additives. Programs in supercalendered paper optimization and paper-surface science are other focused interests of the Company. In Europe, SMI's Kaarina research center supports the Swedish Pulp and Paper Institute (STFI) and the Swedish Surface Science Institute (YKI), both located in Stockholm; the Finnish Pulp and Paper Institute (KCL) in Espoo, Finland; and the paper Technical Foundation (PTS) in Munich. The SMI research group in Kaarina also supports many specific paper-related projects through the TEKES national research fund of Finland. TEKES projects are carried out at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), Åbo Akademi, and Jyväskylä University. Through TEKES we study such fundamental topics as coating structure, highly filled paper, and new forming techniques, in cooperation with world-class paper-technology institutes and universities.
SMI’s involvement in external research is not limited to paper. To support our Performance Minerals business, the Company is involved in a research consortium at the Polymer Technology Center at Texas A & M University, a leading center for the study and development of thermoplastic composites. SMI also sponsors programs in new-materials development at the University of Florida, Rutgers University, Lehigh University, Georgia Tech, the University of Illinois and Penn State University. Our technologists belong to the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council, which manages a portfolio of glass-related fundamental research projects funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology.
Technologies and innovations that affect the industries MTI serves, and ultimately become industry-standard practices, can spring from ideas well outside the focused programs mentioned here. To ensure up-to-date awareness of potential world-changing developments, MTI actively participates in the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world’s foremost technical universities. The ILP arranges briefings with top scientists, engineers, and economists at MIT and with the Sloan School of Management faculties. These interactions help alert MTI technologists to potential “mega-trends” that could become new business opportunities.
Great minds, great thoughts, and great technologies can be developed anywhere, by anyone, at any time. At MTI, we support outside development with our dollars and our collaboration and cooperation. We like to invent technologies. We like it when others help us do that, too.
Learn More:
