What's new at Bayer? Wow. Glad you asked
Gordon Graff -- Purchasing, 7/15/2004 2:00:00 AM
The two corporate components of Bayer Corp.'s newly separated and reorganized chemical and polymers businesses recently gave an early look at the technological advances they will be showcasing at K 2004, the huge international plastics trade show to be held Oct. 20-27 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Speaking to a New York City press conference, executives from both firms—Bayer MaterialScience, and Lanxess—described novel materials, fabricated components and additives.
While focused on innovations, the June 17 session also familiarized attendees with the identities and structures of the two new companies. Bayer MaterialScience, a new unit of Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany, has businesses grouped into polyurethanes, polycarbonates, coating raw materials, and two subsidiaries—H.C. Starck, a producer of metal and ceramic powders; and Wolff Walsrode, which specializes in cellulose-based materials. Lanxess consists of Bayer's chemical intermediates, performance chemicals, engineering plastics and performance rubber businesses. Bayer says Lanxess will be listed independently on international stock exchanges by early 2005, either via an initial public offering (IPO), or by a spin-off of Lanxess shares to Bayer stockholders.
Among the advances Bayer MaterialScience will highlight at the K 2004 session, said Robert Kumpf, the company's VP for future business in the NAFTA region, are "smart surfaces." These are electroluminescent films of light-emitting, polycarbonate-based sandwich structures containing multilayer electrodes powered by a small battery. Moldable into any desired shape, the smart surfaces might be used in the future, he said, to light up auto interiors or the insides of women's handbags or large freezer compartments.
Bayer MaterialScience will also feature a wide range of nanotechnology applications, Kumpf said, including new types of polyurethane automotive topcoats containing nanoparticles that make the coatings scratch resistant. Polyurethane-based sound panels that could replace conventional loudspeakers are another innovation Bayer MaterialScience will highlight. The panels, which contain small, vibrating coils affixed to their backs, would allow sound from home entertainment systems to emanate from the walls of a room.
Kumpf said Bayer MaterialScience will also stress esthetic products at K, such as a half-dozen new color and special effects additives for plastics. Among the new tints will be metallic silver, red and gray, a white marble, a glossy black with metal flakes that give it a 3-D effect, and a metallic color that shifts between green and black.
New ABS liner. Meanwhile, two Lanxess executives—Ulrich Koemm, who heads the new company's polymer operations; and Hubert Fink, who is responsible for its semi-crystalline products—said their company's K exhibit would stress new applications for "mature" materials such as styrenics and polyamides. For example, they cited a new refrigerator liner made from a Lanxess ABS grade. The liner is said to be four times more effective than the standard liner material, HIPS (high-impact polystyrene), in preventing escape of carbon dioxide from a refrigerator's interior polyurethane insulating foam layer. (Loss of CO2 degrades the foam's thermal insulating ability.)
The Lanxess executives also said their ABS/polyamide hybrid resins, sold under the name Triax, are penetrating markets outside the traditional automotive area. Among the new applications they cited for these materials, which combine dimensional stability with chemical resistance and toughness, are heavy-duty electric plugs and distributors. They also described what they said was one of the first applications of plastic/metal hybrid technology in automotive bodywork. (The hybrids are already established in front ends.) In this case, the hybrid is used in a roof rail for an Audi vehicle, and consists of a metal support encapsulated with a glass-reinforced Lanxess polyamide 6. The assembly is reportedly 30% lighter than the previous all-steel roof rail.
Plastics additives will also be well represented at the K show, Koemm and Fink told the session. Among the new entries on exhibit, they said, will be a group of PVC film plasticizers that are much more resistant to extraction and migration than standard PVC plasticizers. Prime markets for the new additives, which are adipic acid polyesters, will be food contact applications, along with hoses, cables and conveyer belts used in the food industry.
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