Snapshot of 3M CO (MMM)

3M Co. announced that it is bringing its technology even closer to customers in Latin America with the opening of an innovative Customer Technical Center in Bogota, Colombia. The new Customer Technical Center features 17 showrooms that will showcase 3M technology, capabilities and products for the Latin American market. Customers will be able to touch and test multiple 3M technologies and learn about their various applications in the on-site teaching rooms. In addition, the center will serve as a central ideas hub for accelerating the development of new products and services locally.

3M Co. announced the installation of its Exterior Window Film product on the official residence of United States Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman during the 2011 Energy Efficiency Global Forum, part of European Union Energy Week in Brussels. The Energy Efficiency Forum is an exclusive gathering of officials from government, business and NGOs interested in pursuing and implementing energy efficiency initiatives. The retrofit project took place under the Forum's League of Green Embassies partnership, which aims to highlight energy efficiency measures through high-profile installations. The Ambassador's residence underwent a comprehensive "green renovation" to showcase products designed to increase the energy efficiency of the 230-year-old, 16,000 square foot structure. As a historic highly visible building, the residence is ideal for the Prestige Series retrofit in that it does not change the exterior appearance of the structure. The Prestige Series is based on unique nanotechnology consisting of hundreds of thin, non-metallized layers for high performance sun control and glare reduction without increasing the reflectivity of the glass. The Exterior Prestige Series is highly transparent, enabling superior heat rejection without compromising interior views or the overall building appearance. Internally, and over time, UV rays, solar heat and visible light can irreversibly fade fabric and upholstery on couches, chairs, rugs and natural wood floors. The Prestige Series also reduces the effects of solar heat and visible light on furnishings, and will block up to 99.9% of the sun's harmful UV rays -- the single largest contributor to fading.

3M Co. announced the launch of its newly formed company 3M AST Ltd., based in Cheonan, Korea, which will provide advanced sputtering and plating services, materials and manufacturing capabilities for flexible circuits for the mobile hand-held, touch-screen panel and display markets. 3M AST uses proprietary plating and sputtering techniques for the creation of flexible circuits. This gives customers improved performance of their flexible circuits and materials used in flexible electronics by providing excellent uniformity of the metalized surface and one of the highest adhesive less bond strengths between the substrate and the deposited metal forming the flexible copper clad laminate (FCCL). The 3M Electronic Solutions Division offers innovative solutions to the global electronics market, such as static control products; copper interconnect systems; cables and cable assemblies; carrier and cover tapes; flexible circuits; embedded capacitor materials, and Textool brand test and burn-in sockets.