The history of TOPAS Advanced Polymers begins with a revolution in catalyst chemistry. In the late 1980's, a new way of making plastics was launched: metallocene catalysis. The visionaries at Hoechst Celanese, the world's largest chemical company at the time, adapted this new technology to create valuable but formerly difficult-to-produce cyclic olefin copolymers on a much larger scale than previously possible. This led to the creation of the TOPAS business and product line within Hoechst Celanese in the late 1990's. By the year 2000, the business had advanced beyond pilot scale and a manufacturing plant was operating in Germany. During the same era, Hoechst Celanese went through a 'demerger' which left the TOPAS venture in the possession of the Ticona unit of Celanese AG. As part of a corporate transition, Celanese sold the TOPAS business to Daicel Corporation and Polyplastics Co., Ltd., two leading Japan-based chemicals and plastics firms, and the TOPAS Advanced Polymers business was launched in 2006. As of 2018, TOPAS® COC has been added to the Polyplastics portfolio of high performance plastic resins. With the strong business and technical support of Polyplastics and its owner Daicel, TOPAS® COC sales are growing worldwide as this unique material helps our ever-increasing roster of customers reach their goals.
Today, TOPAS COC is manufactured by TOPAS Advanced Polymers GmbH, which also markets TOPAS COC in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the Asia/Pacific region, TOPAS resins are sold by Polyplastics. Sales of TOPAS polymers in the Americas is the responsibility of Polyplastics USA.