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An Interview with Kimi Huang, Founder – Macroocean

Innovation, as you need – following its motto and leveraging from its expertise in copolyester chemistry, Macroocean is a young, energetic, innovative spirit specialty chemical enterprise offering solutions to meet evolving needs and industrial development.

By using the power of Human and Science, it is constantly exploring the field of material science and life science to provide customized sustainable solutions for its customers in several industries such as paints, inks, adhesives, coatings, engineering plastics, etc.

Recently, we interviewed Kimi Huang, Founder of Macroocean where he shares his insights on Macroocean culture, its expertise in high molecular weight modified copolyester chemistry and how they strive to meet each customer’s specific needs.

Let's hear from him...

#1 What is Macroocean's positioning in the world of Fine Chemicals?

KH: Macroocean Materials is a start-up company, still very young in the industry, since its establishment in 2010. At Macroocean, we focus on the development and production of high-performance solid type copolyester serving a couple of industries at the moment, such as coatings, adhesives, flexible packaging, inks, etc.

As the only manufacturer in China and only a few in the world that produces and develops solid high molecular weight copolyester, Macroocean aims to provide better solutions for the industry. So far, we have gained a lot of experience in the fields of can internal/external coatings, coil steel/ aluminum coatings, food packaging adhesives, screen printing inks, etc. We have also established a branch office & a subsidiary in Europe offering a wide range of products and services to serve our customers all over the world.

The company is indeed developing rapidly, which is inseparable from the efforts of all young Macrooceaners. Despite the fact that our products were first launched in 2016, they were quickly accepted by customers worldwide. We have established a highly automated production base of advanced polymer materials in Changshu and an independent R&D center in Suzhou Nano City. We serve customers in Asia, Europe and America, and provide products and solutions based on modified co-polyester for markets such as home appliances, transportation, construction, electrical and electronics, packaging, textiles, industrial adhesives, photovoltaic solar energy, etc. As Macroocean people always say: Innovation, as you need.

#2 How is Macroocean unique and why is this relevant?

KH: History, Innovation, tailored made solutions, concept and customers benefits...

First of all, we are very focused. Today, there are now hundreds of product grades, but they all revolve around copolyester chemistry. We always focus on copolyester, which makes us very efficient in new resin development as well as application development. Copolyester is a very attractive product, almost every day we find new applications, face new projects, new challenges, which is particularly interesting.

Currently, there are less than ten companies in the world producing this high molecular weight solid copolyester, and they are all chemical giants. Such as us, a startup in this field, according to our customers said, "very rare". At present, we are the only company in China that can provide such products. If you look at the world, you can count them on your ten fingers.

In addition, the age structure of Macroocean is very young, and young people are naturally hungry for new things, so we are very enthusiastic about exploring, which makes us appear to our customers to be "efficient and serviceable", sometimes even appearing to be more anxious than our customers to solve their problems. Usually, we do not just provide the resin and let the customer test it on their own, we often work with them in-depth to complete certain projects. For example, the URETHAX™ products are heat sealants which we have designed for PVC-free, cold form aluminum for pharmaceutical blister that we launched in ChinaPlas2021.

	URETHAX™ AE906-30		URETHAX™ AE906-50
Component	URETHAX™ AE906-30	DESMODUR® L 75[1]	URETHAX™ AE906-50	DESMODUR® L 75[1]
Solid content	30 ± 2%	75 ± 2%	50 ± 2%	75 ± 2%
Solvent	Ethyl acetate	Ethyl acetate	Ethyl acetate	Ethyl acetate
Viscosity	200 ~ 320	1800 ± 500	2700 ~ 4500	1800 ± 500
Mixed ratio	100	9	100	15
Processing conditions: Dry coating weight: 4.5 - 5.5 g/m2 Drying conditions: 80°C-100°C/30s-45s Lamination conditions: 80°C-100°C/0.5MPa Aging conditions: 55°C-65°C/5-7days
Note: [1] Covestro Product

Pharmaceutical Blister Packaging & Formulation Example for Laminated Adhesive for Cold Forming Coil


These products are solutions that are deeply bound to our customers and are developed through deep cooperation in projects. We usually conduct parallel tests with our customers to recommend the best resin combination and solution for them. In this sense, we are not just a traditional manufacturer of resins, we are a solution provider. After all, the 30 or 40 young people in R&D need something new to "feed" every day.

Secondly, Macroocean is not just a company that provides “Me-Too” products, we have our own specialty in low glass transition temperature Tg (-40°C~20°C) copolyester. This provides new solutions for new topics such as food can internal coatings, food heat sealers (e.g., milk powder lids, yogurt lids, chocolate heat sealers, etc.), and inks. There are some applications that require low Tg resins. The use of traditional solid high molecular weight copolyesters can cause caking problems, and the use of anti-caking agents can affect solubility and bonding performance. Therefore, our soft resins are a good solution to overcome these problems.

Although Macroocean is relatively young, it has accumulated strong technology through years of hard work, which makes the future of Macroocean not limited to providing resins for the inks and coatings industry. For example, we have launched BioMotive™ series of bio-based polyester polyols and IsorBio bio-based PC/PMMA engineering plastics to meet the pain points and needs of the industry to make customized products fulfilling the current trend of environmental protection and de-plasticization.

#3 What are the most critical challenges customers are facing nowadays and how your innovative solutions are helping them?

KH: There is no greater challenge than de-plasticization and environmental issues. The prevailing bio-based or biodegradable solutions have never been mature enough to match the performance of traditional petroleum-based copolyester due to the limited raw materials range. Cost is also another important consideration. And it remains to be seen if many of the technology routes in the industry are truly biodegradable. But we have been working hard on research and development in this area.

On the other hand, water-based VOC-free or low VOC copolyester solutions have also been an important direction for our research and development. Usually, the solid content of water-based copolyester is difficult to reach the level of universal use, it can meet the requirements only in a limited number of industries. Now we have been able to achieve 45% solids content through the water emulsification technique, which can greatly broaden the use of water-based copolyesters in a wide range of industries.

Even if we go back to traditional petroleum-based copolyester, our customers are facing an increasingly complex and competitive market when it comes to food contact materials. Globally the food contact regulatory system is constantly improving and tightening, so we have to help them to improve performance, reduce costs, but also to comply with the regulations. Many of our customers, especially in Europe, have narrowed their choice of solvent systems due to environmental issues and have limited choice, so we also help them test our resins accordingly to find the best solution.

#4 What are the current and future market trends / shifts and how Macroocean is leading them?

KH: There are two aspects, one is that the food contact regulations in our familiar industries such as coatings, adhesives and inks are constantly improving. Each country is introducing and improving its food contact regulations and chemical registration system, which makes it more difficult for customers to choose suppliers around the world. But on the other hand, it will become more reassuring. We need to improve our system to meet customers as well as regulatory needs. At the same time, under the increasingly stringent environmental requirements, we are increasing the research and development of green and sustainable products to follow the market changes and provide the products that customers need in the first time.

Secondly, we are increasingly getting involved in industries, such as engineering plastics industry. With our technology reserves, we will continue to make efforts in the field of bio-based and food contact engineering plastics. Some of the key solutions already offered by Macroocean that we launched at ChinaPlas 2021 include the new:

• BioMotive™: bio-based polyester polyol
• IsorBio: bio-based PC/PMMA modified polycarbonate, and
• ExceZen™: high-temperature resistant BPA-NI co-polyester engineering plastics

Macroocean's Product Range

Explore all the URETHAX™ products supplied by Macroocean Materials used for a wide range of applications, analyze technical data of each product, get technical assistance or request samples.




About Kimi Huang

Kimi Huang graduated from the top university in China, the University of Science and Technology of China. He is the founder of Macroocean from 2010 until now. He deeply cultivates the copolyester industry.