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Cascades’ research and development centre celebrates 30 years

July 22 marks the 30th anniversary of Cascades Inc.’s Research and Development Centre. The company says its facility is Canada’s largest private research centre in the pulp and paper industry, with a team of 45 seasoned scientists, composed of chemists, microbiologists, engineers and technicians. The Research and Development Centre works in close collaboration with the company’s Environment Department, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

“We are very proud of the expertise acquired over the past 30 years and the high quality of the services we offer today. We now propose our services externally to other companies and have broadened our fields of activity to the materials sectors, such as paper and cardboard, plastics, composites, rubber, textiles and metals,” points out Jean Morin, director of the Research and Development Centre (RDC). 

“The Cascades Research and Development Centre was born 30 years ago, thanks to the contribution of several “Cascaders” and the Lemaire brothers’ innovative vision. Closely linked to our success of the past few decades, it also embodies the future in that, more than ever, we must offer our customers innovative products to continue to stand out from the competition,” states Mario Plourde, president and CEO of Cascades.

The RDC has nine specialized laboratories, a plant emergency team, and access to an international group of experts. It specializes in characterization of finished products, development of products and analysis methods, technical support and customer service, contaminant measurement and characterization, and optical and electronic microscopy. 

These services proposed by the RDC complete Cascades’ offer of specialized engineering and project management services, made available to companies through Cascades CIP, as well as expertise in reducing energy costs and increasing energy efficiency thanks to Cascades GIE.               

Cascades produces, converts and markets packaging and tissue products that are composed mainly of recycled fibres.