Most read: Lanxess opens €18m eco-saving polychloroprene line

ERJ staff report (PR)

Dormagen, Germany – Lanxess has officially started up a new polychloroprene production line, marking the completion of an €18-million investment at its Dormagen site, the company announced 18 June.

The project has increased solid rubber production capacity at the site by around 10 percent to 63 kilotonnes per annum, said Lanxess. The existing production lines, it added, will remain in operation to meet customer demand for ‘traditional’ Baypren polychloroprene grades.

The new line features a specially developed ‘dry-finishing’ technology, which is designed to reduce emissions and the levels of energy and water used in the production of polychloroprene.

Resource efficiencies are achieved, in part, by dehydrating the rubber in a ‘special’ extrusion device. This, said Lanxess, uses much less water and generates less wastewater than conventional processes, while eliminating the consumption of natural gas to dry the rubber.

“By expanding our Baypren plant, we are providing the market with new impetus,” said Lanxess board member Werner Breuers. “The new production line also once again highlights our staff’s … innovative skills and inventive spirit.”

Lanxess is also adding two new grades – one offering enhanced crosslinking, the other improved flow behaviour - to its Baypren polychloroprene product portfolio at the Dormagen site. Both are manufactured using the new dry-finishing technology.

Commenting on the new grade offerings, Jan Paul de Vries, head of Lanxess’ high performance elastomers business unit, said: "These properties help increase the speed of the injection moulding process for technical mouldings and reduce energy consumption.”