Who am I
I’m Kim Helwegen and I was born and raised in Limburg the Netherlands. I studied Applied Sciences in Eindhoven with a major in Molecular science and Engineering and a minor in Smart materials, new technologies. I always liked to work in the lab but I was also drawn to develop a new product, develop something you can hold in your hands. I love to see all the steps of developing a product from the research in the lab, to the pilot scale and finally the scale up in production. When I got the opportunity from Trespa to carry out my Bachelor graduation thesis in their R&D department and develop a new resin for the core of the panel I was very excited.
This gave me the chance to develop a resin in the lab and follow up all the stages and finally see the resin come alive in a panel. After my graduation I got a job offer from Trespa to join the team which is responsible for R&D core of the panel, which is in charge of resins and cellulosic composites.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot with respect to project management, new materials and existing and new processes. It is amazing to see how the R&D has grown over the years. In the beginning it was just Trespa and Arpa, and now also Formica, Westag, Homapal and DOS have joined.
It’s fun to have a variety of companies to work for, definitely since every company has its own strengths and typical character. Nowadays I’m working at Nemho on panels which consist of resins based on non – fossil based raw materials, so called bio building blocks.
Although this is challenging it is cool to change and improve the conventional resins used for the core which have been around for more than 100 years. By being part of a team that focusses on bio-based solutions, I get the opportunity to actively be part of helping the environment and try to make it more sustainable.
In my spare time I like to play football, cook (being a chemist in the kitchen) or spend time with my family and friends.
Career
Trainee 2010 – 2011;
Trespa R&D 2011 – 2019;
Nemho 2019 – today.In total already 12 years now.