Cologne – The High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit of the specialty chemicals company LANXESS believes that its Durethan polyamides and Pocan polybutylene terephthalates offer exciting growth potential in the construction, furniture, sports and leisure industries as well as in technical parts for mechanical engineering. This is why it has set up a new Industrials sales segment focusing on the European market. “We have bundled our skills within this segment to meet the needs of these industries and are seeking long-term partnerships with customers,” says Tim Albert, who heads the new segment. “The aim is to create added value for our partners that will secure them a competitive advantage thanks to tailor-made, customer- and application-specific products and technical services.” The new segment is also looking to enter into partnerships to identify industry trends early on and develop corresponding products and customer solutions.

Enormous potential in metal substitution

Using Durethan and Pocan, long-lasting, functionally integrated and durable components can be produced at significantly lower part weight. These materials also offer tremendous design freedom when it comes to color, shape and surface texture. “We see enormous potential for our materials as substitutes for metal to reduce weight and save costs. Our highly reinforced, injection-molded materials and the plastic-metal composite technology developed by LANXESS – also known as hybrid technology – are ideal for this,” says Albert. The Tepex thermoplastic fiber-reinforced composites also offer tremendous potential in metal substitution and lightweight construction. They are manufactured and marketed by Bond-Laminates GmbH, a subsidiary of LANXESS, and are well established in the automotive industry and for the mass production of sports and electronic articles.

Wide range of applications

Potential applications for Durethan, Pocan and Tepex include fastening systems in the construction industry, locking systems, hinges and office chair components in the furniture industry as well as gear wheels, rollers, bearings and moving structural components in mechanical engineering.

HiAnt services reduce development times

Using its comprehensive service package HiAnt, the new sales segment supports its customers with industry-specific services – from the initial concept, material selection, component design and tool manufacture through to testing of the finished part and the start of series production. The product and application development team and the part testing and processing technology team, which HPM has also based in Dormagen, play a key role here. Albert: “We want to help our customers to reduce the development time of their products so that they can bring their innovations more quickly to the market.”