Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has started up additional production lines for high-quality specialty films at its Dormagen site in Germany. The new coextrusion lines are designed to meet a rising demand worldwide. The project is part of a global program to expand film capacity with a total investment of more than 100 million euros and was completed as planned despite restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Around 30 new jobs will be created to operate the new lines.
“With this expansion in capacity, we are strengthening our Dormagen site as a production and competence center for specialty films,” says Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro. “At the same time, we are investing in future-oriented technologies and applications.”
View inside one of the new production lines for polycarbonate specialty films in Dormagen (Photo Source: Covestro)
The new lines will mainly produce multilayer flat films. These products, for example, play an important role in identity documents in order to embed security features and ensure the best possible protection against counterfeiting. They are also used in medical technology and car interiors.
Michael Friede, Global Head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment: “These high-quality products and applications represent an important future business for Covestro. With the new capacities and their integration into our film center, we are emphasizing our proximity to the customer and our service.”
“Our new production lines are equipped with state-of-the-art technology,” emphasizes Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Global Head of Covestro’s Specialty Films and Thermoplastic Polyurethanes business. “That’s why we can now supply our customers faster and with higher quality. We also want to improve our development work and bring new products to market even faster.”
The competence center in Dormagen houses production, a technical center for film processing, as well as a showroom and research laboratories. Covestro operates two other German competence centers for semi-finished products in Leverkusen and Bomlitz, as well as several competence centers worldwide.
As a further measure of the global investment program, Covestro started up a new production facility for polycarbonate films in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, last year. Previously, a coextrusion film plant in Guangzhou, China, was converted for the future and the efficiency and quality of production in South Deerfield, USA, were improved.