About Kaneka Belgium
What does Kaneka Belgium do?
Kaneka Belgium develops, manufactures, and sells high-quality components for functional and foamed plastics. These semi-finished specialty materials are essential in the production of countless everyday products.
Kaneka Belgium operates in a specialized B2B environment, supplying high-value products to leading industrial companies across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Our primary markets include construction, automotive, medical, packaging, electronics, and sports & leisure, where we deliver tailored solutions to meet industry-specific demands.
At Kaneka Belgium in Westerlo, we offer three distinct product lines, each produced in its own dedicated production plant. Each production unit is equipped with specialized technology and expertise, ensuring our products and processes consistently meet the highest industry standards.
Modifiers | Brandname Kane Ace™
Kaneka’s powdered impact modifiers are advanced specialty additives designed to enhance the impact resistance, gloss, and weatherability of rigid, functional, and engineering plastics.
These additives help prevent plastics from breaking and increase their resistance to weather factors such as sunlight, rain, frost, and temperature fluctuations.
Kaneka offers a comprehensive portfolio of impact modifiers suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications. Our primary customers include:
- Building & construction: Manufacturers of building materials such as PVC pipes, fittings, windows, doors, cladding, and furniture film.
- Automotive: Manufacturers of car parts, including interior components, dashboard panels, and lighting.
- Electrical & electronics: Manufacturers of housings, connectors, household appliance components, and multimedia product parts.
- Medical: Companies producing medical devices and blister packaging for pharmaceuticals.
- Packaging: Companies manufacturing plastic packaging for food, cosmetics, and other consumer goods.
- Sports & leisure: Manufacturers of sports equipment, camping gear, outdoor toys, climbing walls, sports flooring, and more.
Expanded Foam Beads | Brand names Eperan™, Eperan-PP™
Eperan is a lightweight, resilient material made by expanding polypropylene or polyethylene with steam.
This process produces closed-cell foam particles with outstanding shock-absorbing properties. The beads are exceptionally light, dimensionally stable, highly impact-resistant, and 100% recyclable.
Kaneka supplies Eperan material in silo nets to companies that convert it into finished products through a process called molding. First, the foam beads are heated and compressed in a mold to form the desired shape. Once cooled and hardened, the material is removed from the mold and is ready for use.
Many automotive parts are made from Eperan, including car bumpers, door panels, headrests, sun visors, and child safety seats. Eperan is also widely used in packaging and leisure industries—for example, as protective packaging for fragile electronics, bicycle helmets, surfboards, cargo bikes, and more.
Applications in the residential and transport sectors are also expanding, such as insulated housings for HVAC systems and products requiring flame-retardant properties. A recent innovation is its use for battery housings in electric vehicles.
Eperan should not be confused with polystyrene foam. Unlike polystyrene, Eperan is much stronger and more durable. It can absorb several times its designed g-forces and retain its shape after repeated impacts, whereas polystyrene deforms and breaks more easily.
Liquid MS Polymers | Brand name Kaneka MS Polymer™
Kaneka’s liquid MS polymers belong to the family of silane-modified polymers. They serve as the primary active ingredient in high-quality sealants, adhesives, and coatings, renowned for their outstanding adhesion, flexibility, and weathering resistance.
MS polymers stand out for their ability to bond to a wide variety of surfaces—including metals, plastics, concrete, and glass—often without the need for primers. They are paintable, offer a long cartridge shelf life, deliver exceptional initial tack, and perform reliably in outdoor environments.
Another major advantage is that MS polymers contain no solvents or isocyanates, making them a more environmentally friendly alternative to many other technologies.
This combination of performance and sustainability enables their use across a broad range of applications— from building and construction to transport, marine, industrial, and DIY markets.
Green Planet™ pioneer
Kaneka is leading the way in developing bio-based, renewable materials, striving to reduce reliance on fossil resources as much as possible.
Green Planet™ represents a new era of biopolymers, offering dual sustainability benefits. Produced through natural microbial fermentation of renewable plant oils or waste cooking oils, it is 100% bio-based. At the end of its life cycle, Green Planet™ achieves complete biodegradability and compostability across diverse environments, including soil, freshwater, seawater, and both industrial and home composting systems - leaving no persistent microplastics or PFAS behind.
KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet™ is designed for responsible use, not careless disposal. As a top priority, it is always recommended to recycle or compost the product at the end of its life, following local waste management guidelines. Should items made from Green Planet™ inadvertently end up in the ocean or on land, natural microorganisms will break them down into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass, ensuring no lasting microplastics remain. In this way, Green Planet™ serves as an environmental safety net, supporting a cleaner, healthier planet.
Green Planet™ provides environmentally friendly alternatives for a wide range of applications, including coffee capsules, teabags, toys, renewable cups, packaging, and solutions for agriculture, horticulture, and textiles.
The Green Planet Europe team, operating under the Kaneka Europe Holding Company, focuses on applied research, application development, technical support, and business development for Green Planet™ polymers throughout the EMEA region.
Based at the Kaneka Belgium plant in Westerlo, Green Planet™ features a dedicated warehouse and a specialized R&D center equipped with compounding and polymer-processing facilities to ensure prompt deliveries and technical support.
For more details on our technologies, please visit our website Kaneka.be.
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