Job title:  Rubber Process Engineer

ANDRITZ is a globally leading supplier of plants, equipment, and services for hydropower stations, the pulp and paper industry, the metalworking and steel industries, and for solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors as well as for animal feed and biomass pelleting. Other important business segments include automation and service business. The publicly listed technology Group is headquartered in Graz, Austria, and has a staff of approximately 30.000 employees. ANDRITZ operates more than 280 locations in over 40 countries. 

ANDRITZ Fabrics and Rolls S.p.A. operates two manufacturing sites in the Varese area: Cardano al Campo and Gallarate, both specializing in roll technologies for the paper and industrial sectors. The Cardano al Campo plant focuses on the production of rubber roll covers, metric spreader rolls, and roll service activities such as regrinding and mechanical servicing. The Gallarate facility is a key hub for rubber technology, manufacturing new rubber roll covers, rubber sleeves, and performing roll services for a wide range of industrial applications. Most importantly, it hosts the company’s rubber compound production, able to generate about 750 tons/year of compounds used internally across European AFR plants.

Areas of tasks, responsibility, and goals in the organizational aera R&D Materials

• Comprehensive knowledge in rubber compound formulation and development with focus on application properties of compounds
• Continuous process engineering development and technical adaptation of production processes (compound processing, extrusion, curing cycles), including writing SOPs with focus on ensuring and maintaining production quality stability
• Roll Cover Process technological development and scale up of new and further developed rubber compounds with focus on compound mixing, processing and curing
• Active support in the new and further development or modification of rubber compounds for pulp & paper and other industrial applications with focus on large scale producibility and processability
• Mixing and testing of new and further developed rubber compounds
• Comprehensive laboratory work in the frame of production quality control and rubber roll cover product / formulation development
• Analysis of customer roll cover & rubber complaints
• Cooperation and collaboration with development and process engineers in the mentioned organizational unit Lectures or presentations at internal and external events
• Collaborate on and create your own new patents
• Handling and coordination rubber related projects
• Coordination of rubber products items for SAP configurations on site (EMEA Team)
• Communication with Andritz sites globally for hands on/best practice

Important individual orders/significant powers:

• Represent a link between R&D and production as team player
• Acting as a contact person between European production sites
• Responsible and independent process engineering development of production processes
• Implementation, compliance, control, and documentation of quality control
• Direct collaboration with the European development and process engineers in Düren (DE), Gallarate (IT) and Kerava (FI) as well as with external institutes within the framework of agreed projects
• Compliance with project-specific quality, time, and cost specifications
• Support global product management in specific customer projects from the product idea to implementation in production
• Support global R&D projects as agreed and communicate/align activities with global R&D Material responsible

Education /job experience:

• University degree in Process Engineering or Chemical Engineering
• Relevant experience in the field of 3-5 years (R&D or Rubber manufacturing)

Collaboration with other entities:

Product management, sales, development and specialist departments in the organizational unit, quality assurance, production and production planning, management functions of the European ANDRITZ Fabrics and Rolls organization

Expectation / requirements of the job holder:

• High customer orientation (internal and external)
• Proactive and socially competent personality
• High self-motivation, frustration tolerance and results orientation
• Affinity for planning and optimization of production processes
• Analytical and conceptual thinking as well as a structured approach
• Willingness to travel
• Feeling for the material and its industrial application

Required competences / additional knowledge:

• Language skills: Fluent in spoken and written Italian and English

Working hours / remarks

• Working hours and possible home office times in accordance with the latest valid works agreement and regulations of the superior unit
• All-in regulation according to the employment contract