Rhein Chemie named supplier of the year at Tire Technology Expo

qiangzi

Rhein Chemie named supplier of the year at Tire Technology Expo

0 n2 o! j, g" AFriday, February 17, 2012
) o2 Q8 O, @0 c9 K
Mannheim, Germany - In its Awards for Innovation and Excellence competition, Tire Technology Expo, a leading global event for tire technologies, named Rhein Chemie Supplier of the Year to the Tire Industry on February 15. The panel of judges comprising international experts from the tire, automotive and academic sectors was impressed by Rhein Chemie’s latest developments in expanding its position in the rubber industry. The judges praised Rhein Chemie’s innovative expansion of its product portfolio, achieved last year through the successful completion of three acquisitions. Rhein Chemie, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lanxess, took over the Argentinian release agent and tire bladder manufacturer Darmex, thus marking its entry into the curing bladder business. By additionally acquiring Wacker Chemie’s tire release agent business, Rhein Chemie expanded its range of eco-friendly release agents, particularly in the growing market segment for semipermanent release agents and bladder coatings. Rhein Chemie today is the only global player offering release agents and bladders for tire manufacturing from a single source. The company took yet another expansion step by acquiring two product lines from Flexsys: Vocol and Santoweb. Vocol specialty accelerators can replace other accelerator systems that pose potential health risks. Furthermore, they generate very stable network bridges between the rubber molecules and are characterized by very high solubility in non-polar types of rubber such as EPDM. This property makes them perfectly suited, for example, for the manufacture of thick-walled rubber articles, such as solid tires and for products based on unpolar EPDM rubber such as profiles and hoses. The Santoweb predispersed cellulose fibers are an ideal addition to the Rhenogran aramid fiber product line.