Lehigh opens development center (update)

ERJ staff report (TB)

By Miles Moore, Senior Washington Reporter

Tucker, georgia -- Lehigh Technologies Inc., manufacturer of micronised, engineered powders from recycled scrap tyres and other polymers, has opened a 10,000-sq.-ft. Applications & Development Center (ADC) adjacent to its plant in Tucker.

The new center has capabilities in three core areas, according to Lehigh. These areas are rubber compounding, curried, compression moulding and testing; plastics compounding, injection moulding and testing; and coatings formulation and testing.

“This is clearly unique in the industry,” said Alan Barton, Lehigh CEO. “No one else has this.”

The purpose of the ADC is twofold, according to Tom Rosenmeyer, Lehigh vice president-technology: to develop a fundamental understanding of the technical performance of Lehigh's sustainable powders in complex composites, and as a result to assist Lehigh's customers in developing commercial applications that meet their cost, performance and sustainability targets.

“It gives us the ability to understand how our material is complementary to our customers' materials, and how to integrate the two,” Mr. Rosenmeyer told Tire Business. Because of the ADC, Lehigh now can study various properties of micronised powders in depth, including morphology and surface characteristics, he said.

Lehigh has already received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the properties of micronised rubber powders, Mr. Rosenmeyer said. The ADC gives the company the ability to fabricate powders made from nitrile and natural rubber as well as its traditional SBR.

Lehigh also plans to publish technical papers on various aspects of micronised powders during the course of next year, he said.

Messers. Barton and Rosenmeyer praised the four-man team in charge of the ADC, including:

• William Schreiber, technical director-plastics, with Lehigh since 2007 and in the plastics industry for more than 35 years;
• Frank Papp, technical manager-tyre and industrial rubber, who has extensive rubber compounding experience in passenger, light truck, radial truck and off-the road tyres;
• Ravi Ayyer, technical manager-plastics, an expert on polymer structure who was the lead investigator in Lehigh's plastics/PolyDyne composites research funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation; and
• Ardhyang Pandit, technical manager-coatings, asphalt & construction materials, with 20 years of experience in developing water- and solvent-based coatings and vinyl plastisols.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)

Press release from Lehigh