One year after its spin-off from Bayer, Covestro will showcase new developments, strategies, and projects. With the completion of the new industrial production plant for CO2-based polyurethane foam, an advanced and sustainable research project has been commercialized. The company plans to move further in this direction. At the K fair, it will present a new concept vehicle with wraparound polycarbonate glazing. 

Covestro Makes its Premiere and Commits itself to Sustainability 

Polycarbonat

Schaumstoffe und Vorprodukte

Polyurethan

Verbände, Institutionen, Messen

Familiar Face with a New Look 

Covestro AG, Leverkusen, Germany, goes public with an additive-made demonstrator for a shock absorber. The special feature of this shock absorber, in addition to its high functionality, is the production of the individual parts from three different products and with the aid of three different manufacturing processes. The outer spring of the 40 x 7 cm part is made of powdered thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). It was shaped layer by layer using selective laser sintering and is notable for its elasticity and high abrasion resistance. 

Demonstrator Made of Three Materials by Three Processes 

Additive Fertigung

3D-Printed Shock Absorber  

The colorful logo and the name Covestro are already well known. New to the team since summer is Dr. Markus Steilemann who heads the manufacturer of polycarbonates, polyurethanes and specialty chemicals. In our interview he talks about the transformation of the former Bayer division into an independent plastics producer, the pitfalls of large-scale chemistry and what sets him apart from his predecessor other than the consuption of Cola light and coffee. 

Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann Emancipates the Group, Makes it Digital and  Globally Agile 

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Kunden-Lieferanten-Verhältnis

Unternehmenskultur

The Decathletes 

Leonhard Kurz’s “Iconic Space Grille”, does not only illustrates modern vehicle design but was also produced in a new production process.

The Iconic Space Grill can be adapted to the design of electric vehicles. With different lighting, it enables communication with other road users and an individual design according to the request of the user

16:9

Award-Winning Front Panel Combines Exciting Design with an Efficient  Manufacturing Process

Automotive

Elektronik

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Thermoplaste

An Eye-Catching Addition  to Electric Vehicles

For a long time, chemical recycling was considered an unfinished addition to established material processes. In the meantime, however, some technologies are making the leap into large-scale industrial use: an overview of the various processes and providers.

Overview of the Various Processes and Suppliers

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Polypropylen

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

What Is Happening in Chemical Recycling?

The process chain of the direct coating process has now been optimized. Self-healing, fast-curing PU casting coatings and polycarbonate compounds are now available for this manufacturing process.

The DC process makes it easier and faster to produce sophisticated-looking components with integrated sensors and light elements

Direct Coating with Polyurethane Coatings Creates Opportunities in Design and Functionality

Oberflächentechnik

Short Cycle Times and High Productivity for Smart Components

It’s a long journey from polymer granules to automotive parts. It’s an even longer one for those whose job it is to envisage where plastics will be used in the cars of the future and which market trends providers of raw materials should follow. This is precisely the task of Bayer Polymers’ Creative Center, which has just launched its latest development for the cars of the future, called smart surface technology. 

Planning Future Scenarios: Automotive Applications in the Distant Future 

Halogen-free, flameproofed alloys of non-Newtonian polycarbonate and ABS are suitable for extruded profiles and thermoformable panels as well as for blow-moulded hollow articles. Products of such materials find application in electrical and telecommunications installations and in the construction and automotive sectors. 

Styrol-Copolymerisate

Additive

Halogen-free, Flameproofed PC/ABS Alloys for Extrusion: Safety Standard Increased 

The use of extruded polycarbonate panels for the encapsulation of solar cells is opening up new areas of application for photovoltaics. These innovative modules are light in weight, can be readily machined and shaped with curved contours using the cold forming process. 

Extrusion

Solar Modules of Polycarbonate Open up the Third Dimension: Designed for the Sun 

The consumption of polycarbonate has enjoyed continuous, above-average growth since the “invention” of this material nearly 50 years ago, attributable in no small part to the discovery of an ever-increasing number of applications for it. This development will continue, so that, after a brief period of stagnation due to the sluggish economy, demand is likely to pick up again in 2002. 

HV-Anwendungen / Hybridisierung / Elektrifizierung

Polycarbonate (PC) 

Developments in optical storage media are continuing unhindered. Polycarbonate holds an undisputed position as the material for the substrates of all the systems marketed to date. 

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

The State of the Art and Future of Optical Storage Media: Reading by Laser 

Blends based on polycarbonate (PC) and acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylic ester (ASA) are noted for their good weatherability and processing stability. A new product with improved flowability and toughness has been developed for the field of automotive body panels. 

Polyimid

(PC+ASA) Blends for Automotive Body Panels: Dimensional Stability and Impact Strength 

The dynamic development of the manufacturing trade and the automotive and building industry in China is generating a sharp rise in demand for polymer products. To be better able to meet this demand in future, Bayer is building up its production capacity there. It is currently erecting a new polycarbonate production facility on its 1.5-km2 premises in the “Shanghai Chemical Industry Park”. 

Major Investment: Bayer Further Expands Production in China 

When looking for a suitable material for renovating the transom windows of a sports hall in the Rhine-Main area of Germany, the local plastics processor opted for new, 6-ply, multiwall panels made of translucent polycarbonate. The main reason for the decision was the panels’ outstanding thermal insulation in addition to their high stability. 

Polycarbonate Multiwall Panels: Transparency Coupled With Good Thermal Insulation 

Since its invention in the year 1953 Makrolon, the polycarbonate made by Bayer, has been the quality guarantor and jack of all trades among chemical materials. The plastic was previously known mainly to industry connoisseurs or plastics processors. Now Bayer wants to build up the Makrolon brand and make it popular with a broad public. 

A Raw Material Supplier’s Marketing Strategy: From Plastic to Branded Article 

Covestro Supports Circular Material Solutions for Smartphones

Covestro is collaborating with Fairphone, a Dutch social enterprise building a market for ethical smartphones, on the use of circular material solutions for its smartphones.

Fully and partly recycled thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) are used in the protective case of the Fairphone 3 and its successor, the Fairphone 4, and partly recycled polycarbonates are additionally used in the newer device.

Products from Covestro‘s post-consumer recycled (PCR) polycarbonate portfolio are used in the Fairphone 4‘s rear device cover, middle frame and wireless charger. With a PCR content of 30 to 50 percent, this Makrolon portfolio has physical properties comparable to virgin material and offers good impact strength, balanced flow behavior, and high stiffness and flame retardancy to ensure a long service life while reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent compared to virgin material.

Covestro has also developed a new range of recycled and partially recycled TPUs of the Desmopan brand, which are now used in the protective cover of the Fairphone 4 and are certified according to RCS (Recycled Claim Standard), an international standard for the traceability of recycled raw materials within supply chains.

This includes the product Desmopan 3095AU RC100, which was developed after identifying several streams of post-industrial recycled plastics. The fully recycled material exhibits the typical advantages of TPU, for example, high chemical and abrasion resistance, but easier processability because it melts at lower temperatures and flows better than virgin material. The product has proven itself when used in the protective case of the Fairphone 3 and is now being used in the Fairphone 4. It is available in three color variants: gray, green and pink.

Modular design favors better repairability

Fairphone devices are known for their modular design, which favors better repairability. Such a design requires materials with robust mechanical properties to enable repeated disassembly and repair. The glass-fiber-reinforced grade of the Makrolon PCR portfolio offers a good solution for the heavily stressed center frame of the Fairphone 4. The increased stiffness and impact resistance are in line with Fairphone‘s modular design approach. Covestro thus also supports a mono-material approach in each case for the use of polycarbonates in the housing and TPU plastics in the protective cover to facilitate recycling of the smartphones at the end of their useful life.

Covestro AG  

https://www.covestro.com

With partially recycled polycarbonates and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), Covestro is helping smartphone manufacturer Fairphone achieve its sustainability goals.

2022-03-17 Covestro

Kreislaufwirtschaft

issue 03/2022

issue 02/2022

issue 01/2022

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