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Adhesives giant Henkel inaugurated its new global innovation and customer care center in Düsseldorf, Germany, yesterday with a multi-day event focused on innovation and sustainability in the company of customers. The €130-million, seven-story Inspiration Center Düsseldorf (ICD) on the Henkel campus boasts 47,000 square meters (56,000 square yards) of floor space, 30 laboratories, and four technology centers. More than 650 employees from Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies business unit work in the new building.

Image courtesy of Henkel

Sustainability was a guiding principle in the design of the new Inspiration Center Düsseldorf on the Henkel campus.

The ICD is the largest single investment in the company’s history. “With this state-of-the-art building, which is unique in the industry, we have created the infrastructure to take the innovation capabilities of Adhesive Technologies to the next level,” said Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel. The ICD embodies the pioneering spirit of the 100-year-old company, along with its focus on “sustainable action and long-term entrepreneurial thinking,” added Knobel.

In the new building, Adhesive Technologies presents its entire technology portfolio of adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings and collaborates with customers from more than 800 industry segments. “The ICD reinforces our commitment to further strengthen our globally leading portfolio and know-how in material science and to create value for our customers,” added Jan-Dirk Auris, Executive Vice President, Henkel Adhesive Technologies. “[It] brings our entire portfolio to life for our customers and enables close collaboration with them and with external partners on novel future-oriented solutions. Our focus is particularly on sustainable innovations that contribute, for example, to CO₂ reduction for our customers or to new solutions for a circular economy,” said Auris.

The ICD includes double-height rooms that house, among other things, pilot production lines and equipment for large-scale applications in the automotive industry, to cite one example.

The laboratories are modular and can be adapted quickly depending on the research and development task and to support collaboration between teams. New formulations are automatically prepared, tested, and verified around the clock in a modern, data-driven laboratory. This helps to accelerate product development and reduce time to market for new products by transforming data into valuable insights that lay the foundation for innovative new technologies, said Henkel. The ICD is closely connected with Adhesive Technologies’ global network of research and application centers to enable tailored solutions of global technologies for local markets, as well.

The heart of the building is a large light-flooded atrium including a coffee bar, where employees, customers, and researchers can comfortably exchange ideas. The ICD is the most sustainable building at the company’s site in Düsseldorf. It is designed to be resource-efficient and is equipped with a rainwater collection system, state-of-the-art refrigeration technology, and insulation that meets the highest requirements.

Henkel said it has also integrated a modern customer experience center into the ICD. Thanks to a flexible design, each visit can be tailored to individual needs. The area is then used to intensify the exchange and collaboration between customers and Henkel experts who can jointly develop and test new applications in the building.

Henkel Adhesive Technologies supplies more than 100,000 customers in hundreds of industry segments with custom products and technologies. It employs approximately 25,000 people, about 6,500 of whom work closely with customers around the world as technical specialists, for example to make electric cars safer, electronics more efficient, or food packaging more sustainable.