COMPANY HISTORY

Conenor history goes back to late 1980's when a Finnish inventor Kari Kirjavainen made one of his technical inventions; the conical extruder, an entirely new and different rotory extrusion technology to extend the limits of conventional screw extruders.

In 1995 he started company Conenor Ltd together with Uponor Group for managing the industrial developments of CONEX with help of Maillefer Extrusions in two parallel Tekes co-financed projects, one for pipe application and the other for cable coating, at the premises of VTT at the city of Tampere. He is nowadays retired from the company operations.

Besides of CONEX, a plastic film orientation technique and unique transverse direction stretcher (TDO) named TRIAXCELL have been invented and developed by Conenor. The company has divested this technology and focused since exclusively in extruded composites.

MILESTONES IN THE COMPANY HISTORY

1989; The Invention & 1st CONEX patent application, followed by prototyping by K. Kirjavainen at VTT and financed by Kehitysrahasto

1991-1995; R&D at VTT with industrial partners and co-financed by Tekes

1995; Conenor Ltd founded by Uponor Oyj and K. Kirjavainen, Maillefer formalized as exclusive extruder manufacturing partner

1995-1999; Industrial development of CONEX for plastic pipe (Uponor) and cable coating (NK Cables) as exclusive licensees

2001; Uponor owned Conenor shares acquired by M. Vilkki thru MBO and start-up of Conex Wood Extruder (CWE) development for WPCs

2003; Maillefer joins CONEX CWE-development with Conenor

2005; Creation of Conex Skill Center at Maillefer, Vantaa, Finland

2007; Commercialization of CONEX CWE-technique for WPCs

2013; Re-location of Conex Skill Center at Orimattila

2015; Celebration of company 20 year anniversary

2017; Development of circular composite materials from FRP-waste

COMPANY PROFILE

Conenor Ltd is a private management owned engineering company performing outsourced R&D and new business start-up activities in client service projects and public demonstration projects (EU-funded H2020) in the area of circular composites from waste: material assessment - formulation development - sampling for testing - product development & piloting

Management driven SME, found in 1995 by Uponor Oyj and inventor Kari Kirjavainen to develope and industrialize its CONEX-extruder technology

Specialized in applied development of natural fibre – plastic composite (NFC/WPC) materials, products, and extrusion processes on economy basis from utilisation of industry, forestry and consumer waste streams

Providing composite extrusion consulting and project management services

Acting on project basis globally

Composite extrusion expert in public financed European R&D projects EU/FP7 "IRCOW" and "OSIRYS" and H2020 "HISER" and "ECOBULK"

Proprietary CONEX-extrusion equipment and lines for trials, sampling and product development in single and multilayer product structures both profiles and panels

See Conenor company profile in International Business Directory for Innovative Bio-based Plastics and Composites - iBIB 2014/15