Covestro's innovative polycarbonate copolymer production plant inaugurated

Covestro, one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials, has built its first polycarbonate copolymer plant at its site in Antwerp, Belgium, to produce these high-quality plastics on an industrial scale.

The company's in-house developed new platform technology is based on an innovative solvent-free melting process combined with a new reactor concept. This gives polycarbonates with tunable properties that have been developed and tested in recent years at laboratory and pilot scales. The investment amounts to tens of millions of euros and covers a pilot plant and a production plant.

In addition to reducing the complexity of the new production process, the connection to the four polycarbonate production lines of Antwerp's existing infrastructure also has a beneficial effect, as it combines global production scale with the flexibility of a stand-alone unit.

"The new production process is the first and only in the world and allows us to offer a broad portfolio of material innovations." said Sucheta Govil, chief commercial officer at Covestro, "With the new plant, we can now produce and launch new polymer materials on an industrial scale much faster than before. This is the result of many years of development work by our research and process technology teams and our long-term experience. In our solutions and specialty products area, we focus on rapid innovation of complex products, which is a key factor for success, because customer needs change quickly. The new production line is a prime example of how we are implementing this strategy and supporting our customers to the best of our ability. "

"Copolymers open up new possibilities for us to integrate more functions and properties into our materials compared to pure polycarbonate," explains Lily Wang, global head of the Engineering Plastics business unit. "These range from improved mechanical properties, higher chemical resistance and enhanced flame retardancy. In this way we can offer innovative materials that meet the high requirements of our customers in a wider range of applications. We will first focus on materials for the electrical, electronics and healthcare industries, while future innovations may focus on mobility and other trends."