4th International Rubber Conference & Exhibition in Lyon
March 22, 2006
LEVERKUSEN -- From May 16 to 18, 2006, the LANXESS chemicals group will be unveiling new products and developments at the International Rubber Conference & Exhibition in Lyon. International experts from locations such as Leverkusen, Fribourg (Switzerland) and the French rubber production sites La Wantzenau und Port Jerome will be on hand to talk in depth with visitors.
Exhibits such as tubeless automobile tires with inner liners made of halobutyl rubber and other products containing butyl rubber will be featured at Stand A2 in Hall 3. LANXESS's Butyl Rubber business unit has a prime position on the butyl rubber world market. And with its Buna® and Taktene® brands, LANXESS is also one of the top producers of polybutadiene (PBR) and solution styrene-polybutadiene rubber (SSBR). It supplies the (ultra-) high-performance tire - (U) HPT - sector with state-of-the-art products in the form of Nd-BR (neodymium catalyst system) and a range of Buna VSL grades (SSBR). LANXESS also offers Nd-BR to the polystyrene industry as an impact modifier for HIPS (high-impact polystyrene) production. All these products are manufactured at Port Jerome, for example.
The focus is also on Therban® AT C 3443 VP and Therban® AT A 3904 VP, two new grades in the Therban® AT product line. Therban® AT grades exhibit significantly lower viscosity values than standard HNBR products. Users benefit from easier, faster mixing, higher filler tolerance for the mixture, shorter cycle times in injection molding, and enhanced surface quality for extrudates. Therban® AT is therefore suitable for producing complex shapes including fine seals for the automotive and industrial sectors, parts with long flow paths such as stators for eccentric screw pumps or blowout preventers for the oil industry, calendered mixtures for belts, extrudates including profiles, hoses and cables, and extremely hard rollers for paper processing and the steel industry.
Levapren® (EVM) is ideally suited for "under-the-hood" applications, owing to its excellent combination of heat, oil and ozone resistance. This high-performance polymer offers particularly good value for money. Levapren® is the material of choice for fuel hose sheathing with its particularly strict safety requirements for flame retardance and resistance to hot air. The fuel hose produced by automotive supplier Veritas AG and fitted in Audi's flagship A8 will be one of the exhibits at the stand - an example of new under-the-hood applications for seals, shock absorbers and hoses. In addition, customized shock absorbing characteristics can be set by selecting the VA content. This property is also used, for example, for torsion vibrational dampers (TVD) and foams in various applications.
A new hard-soft bonding technique from LANXESS marks an innovative development for engine components that need to resist extremely high temperatures and contact with media. This enables a thermoplastic component with a directly integrated vulcanized elastomer seal to be produced in a single multi-component operation. The composite is based on specific grades of Durethan® (PA thermoplastic) and Therban® (HNBR elastomer). Sharply reduced vulcanization times that lie in the same range as thermoplastic cycle times make the process cost-effective. With a combination of materials, application technology know-how, and the possibilities that exist for rheological and mechanical design and simulation, LANXESS offers its customers a complete package and one-stop service.
NBR specialties such as spray-dried and ground powder from the La Wantzenau production site are vital components for the automotive supply industry. They are deployed increasingly in the new generation of brake pads. LANXESS also offers other NBR special grades from La Wantzenau with excellent oil and abrasion resistance for use in printing roll covers or spinning cots. This site is the world's largest NBR production plant, with E-SBR and feedstock for the Therban® product line also being produced here.
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by LANXESS AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
