Lanxess: 40 years of production of EPDM rubber in Marl

Lanxess Buna GmbH at the Marl Chemical Park, a wholly owned subsidiary of specialty chemicals company Lanxess, can look back on 40 successful years of production at its ethylene-propylene facility. On Saturday, June 2, the company invited its 126 employees and their families to a ceremony at the chemical park´s information center to celebrate the production facility´s long growth story. Lanxess, the world´s leading supplier of synthetic rubber, manufactures high-quality EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene) synthetic rubber in Marl. The temperature-, water- and weather-resistant products manufactured under the Keltan trade name are used in areas such as the automotive, aerospace, construction, electrical and electronics industries.

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40 years of growth - milestones in the history of the ethylene-propylene facility in Marl
The Lanxess Buna GmbH ethylene-propylene facility, constructed in 1972, today covers an area of 4,500 square meters at the Marl Chemical Park. It has been continually expanded over the years, as the following chronicle of key milestones shows:

1972: Production starts at the ethylene-propylene facility in Marl with one compounding line and one polymerization line, annual capacity: 18,000 metric tons of EPDM rubber
1979: The second compounding line is launched, annual capacity: 27,000 metric tons of EPDM rubber
1985: The second polymerization line is launched, annual capacity: 45,000 metric tons of EPDM rubber
2005: Completion of a new extruder, annual capacity: 60,000 metric tons of EPDM rubber
2009: Launch of the pelleting plant, expansion of product portfolio to include easy-to-process EPDM pellets, total annual capacity of plant: 70,000 metric tons of EPDM rubber

Flexible properties, numerous areas of application
Keltan EPDM rubbers are used in numerous products – Marl rubber plays a key role in automotive engineering, whether in body seals, windshield wiper blades and glove compartments or under the engine hood in brake hoses, drive belts and tubing. In the construction industry, ethylene-propylene rubbers are frequently used as roof sheeting instead of conventional asphalt materials and in sealants, expansion joints, sound-insulating wall panels and bridge bearings.

Lanxess Buna GmbH is part of Lanxess’ Technical Rubber Products (TRP) business unit which, as well as in Marl, also operates EPDM facilities in Geleen, the Netherlands; Orange, United States; and Triunfo, Brazil. TRP is part of the Lanxess Performance Polymers segment, which achieved sales of EUR 5.05 billion in fiscal 2011.

More information: lanxess.com

Lanxess AG, Leverkusen, Germany

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