Romans-sur-Isère, France – Plastics business Courbis Group aims to expand its foothold in the eco-plastics market segment with the launch of a new environmentally friendly – and MOCA-free – PU range called CourbhaPure. The launch follows the recent announcement that the company plans to “onshore” some of its manufacturing capacities from China to France.
“This innovation is part of a larger project which guides all of our developments in line with a responsible industrial logic,” said Hervé Courbis, chief executive of Courbis Group, in an interview with L’Usine Nouvelle.
A company statement said: “Our latest innovation CourbhaPure, a MOCA-free standard polyurethane brand, is combining state of the art durability and a green footprint. Our process is very flexible, ideally suited to unique parts and medium size series.”
The company claims that, because CourbhaPure’s has a quick polymerisation time, the projection process offers an elastomeric material which can be processed quickly on any part geometry.
The French company, a family business, was established in 1964 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Courbis Group has been involved in PU casting since 1974, and describes itself as a “pioneer of polyurethane casting in France”.
The company has approximately 200 employees, and posted revenues of close to €32m in 2021. That same year, Courbis Group made a decision to relocate its China-based manufacturing capacities back to the French market, and the manufacturer invested some €1.5m to build a new facility in Romans-sur-Isère and create new jobs.
Explaining the return of production to France from China, Hervé Courbis said: “The geopolitical, economic and environmental context has changed. Today, to produce in China for the French and European markets no longer makes sense,”
Courbis maintains a manufacturing presence in Slovakia, where it opened a subsidiary in 2005, and also in Brazil, where it opened an offshoot in 2017.
