Technical Service

End-to-end expert support from concept to commercialization

What defines technical service at NOVA Chemicals? Like every other area of our business, it’s a relentless focus on helping our customers succeed in their businesses. When our customers strategize around new market needs, production challenges or validating product performance, we always want to be the first call they make.

Our technical service team has diverse expertise and hundreds of years of combined industry experience. They come together and serve as a collaborative, expert resource to help solve the technical challenges that lead to creative solutions and breakthrough innovations.

What I love most about being a part of the PE tech service team is our passion and teamwork. We’re a family, and every day we come together to help our customers with their most pressing challenges and opportunities.”

Carmine D’Agostino

TECHNICAL SERVICE SPECIALIST

Innovation in Action

Day-to-day support services for our customers’ more technical needs:

• Product recommendations for specific applications
• Coordination of customer film and part testing
• Troubleshooting processing and end-use performance issues
• Complaint investigation and resolution
• Customer training on our polyethylene resins, testing methodologies, film structures and more
• Support for regulatory requests like FDA or REACH compliance documentation
• Existing application improvement

New Application Development

We’re leading the industry in helping to create new applications for polyethylene. Our projects can be customer-specific, or driven by broader industry and market demands.

All our projects start with discovery, where we work to develop key insights based on underlying needs and the specific solutions that will best meet them. Actionable projects then progress through our “design, produce, test” development process, with close collaboration throughout with our customers and others in the value chain who can help ensure commercial potential. 

To support this work, we bring a range of capabilities:

• Our world-class Centre for Performance Applications with film production, conversion, molding, and test equipment that replicate customer processes
• Exclusive modeling capabilities for films, closures, and rotomolding 
• Film structure design expertise
• Proprietary testing equipment and methodologies
• Advanced SCLAIRTECH™ technology pilot plant
• An extensive network of collaborators throughout the value chain
• Protection of customer IP through NDAs & JDAs

CASE STUDY

Engineering for Downgauged Barrier & Impact Performance

We work with converters who develop and produce packaging for some of the biggest consumer brands in the world. When our technical service experts are approached by customers facing a challenge, we put our capabilities to work. 

One recent project required a two-step solution. A NOVA Chemicals customer wanted to help a brand owner reduce their plastic consumption through a downgauged film structure for crackers. We helped the converter develop a new film recipe with the required barrier performance, but the initial testing on the packaging line revealed a new problem: pinholes created by sharp cracker corners as they were dropped into the cracker sleeve form. We worked closely with the converter to recreate the issue at our Centre for Performance Applications. Performing multiple drop tests, we identified the root cause: not enough “flex” in the structure design. A revised structure design solved this problem while also keeping the structure thinner than the original. The brand owner was thrilled with the improvements, and has since increased their business with the converter.