Company History
Inventor Kari Kirjavainen
Conenor history goes back to late 1980's when a Finnish inventor Kari Kirjavainen made one of his technical inventions; the conical extruder, an entirely new and different rotory extrusion technology to extend the limits of conventional screw extruders.
In 1995 he started company Conenor Ltd together with Uponor Group for managing the industrial developments of CONEX with help of Maillefer Extrusions in two parallel Tekes co-financed projects, one for pipe application and the other for cable coating, at the premises of VTT at the city of Tampere. He is nowadays retired from the company operations.
Besides of CONEX, a plastic film orientation technique and unique transverse direction stretcher (TDO) named TRIAXCELL have been invented and developed by Conenor. The company has divested this technology and focused since exclusively in extruded composites.
milestones in the company history
Images of first prototypes....
...second version from early 1990'
1989; The Invention & 1st CONEX patent application, followed by prototyping by K. Kirjavainen at VTT and financed by Kehitysrahasto
1991-1995; R&D at VTT with industrial partners and co-financed by Tekes
1995; Conenor Ltd founded by Uponor Oyj and K. Kirjavainen, Maillefer formalized as exclusive extruder manufacturing partner
1995-1999; Industrial development of CONEX for plastic pipe (Uponor) and cable coating (NK Cables) as exclusive licensees
2001; Uponor owned Conenor shares acquired by M. Vilkki thru MBO and start-up of Conex Wood Extruder (CWE) development for WPCs
2003; Maillefer joins CONEX CWE-development with Conenor
2005; Creation of Conex Skill Center at Maillefer, Vantaa, Finland
2007; Commercialization of CONEX CWE-technique for WPCs
2013; Re-location of Conex Skill Center at Orimattila
2015; Celebration of company 20 year anniversary
2017; Development of circular composite thermoplastic materials reinforced with thermoset FRP-waste
2021; Grant of international patents for recycling thermoset FRP-waste with thermoplastics
2022; New strategy focusing in licensing its patented GFRP-waste recycling technology and sell of the very first license (UK)
Extruded sample products with GFRP-waste with recycled PE/PP from EoL wind blades the material again proving circularity
and boating and GFRP-product manufacturing - And “Re-Ma” shredding and extruding
Photo by Cynthia Lou