Bayer puts coating on Beijing Bird's Nest
Bayer MaterialScience AG coating systems will be used on another high-profile Olympic games venue in Beijing - on the immense tangle of steel known as the ``Bird's Nest.''
This is the second of BMS' Beijing Olympics contracts, and part of the Leverkusen, Germany-based company's countrywide push to boost sales of its waterborne coatings. In addition to the Bird's Nest, BMS also has taken on Beijing's ``Water Cube,'' a large, opaque building near the city center that is covered in copolymer ethylene tetrafluoroethylene film.
The coating systems rely on water as a solvent to disperse the coating resin. China's heightened focus on environmental products, and its desire to hold a ``green'' Olympics in August, has increased demand for such materials, which release fewer volatile organic chemicals leading to the formation of greenhouse gases.
``Emissions reduction and energy efficiency are two important objectives of the Chinese government,'' said Michael König, President of Bayer Group Greater China and of Bayer MaterialScience China.
At China's National Aquatics Center, Bayer is providing 7,233 square feet of coating in the ``Bubble Bar'' area. The coating systems use materials that include Bayer's Desmodur and Desmophen, which provide cushioning, sound absorption, cracking bridging and abrasion and impact resistance, according to the company.
Bayer is expanding capacity for such materials at its Shanghai site to accommodate the projects and other markets in China. Bayer also contributed coating to Shanghai's Lupu Bridge.
BMS' coatings, adhesives and sealants unit is also ramping up production capabilities with an integrated plant in Shanghai. The new facility will have capacity of 44 million pounds a year and is scheduled to come on stream in the second quarter.
``China is one of the key markets for Bayer MaterialScience,'' said Volker Mirgel, BMS senior vice president of the coatings, adhesives and sealants business for the Asia-Pacific region. ``The expansions of our production capacity will enable Bayer MaterialScience to offer reliable and long-term supply to its customers in the region and to keep pace with local market growth.''
Tel. 49-214-30-1, fax 49-214-30-96-38810, e-mail [email protected] bms.com.
PSG's Kostrate resin is licensed in China
Plastic Selection Group Inc. has signed a licensing deal with PolyOne Corp. to allow PolyOne to make PSG's Kostrate-brand terpolymer at a plant in Shenzhen, China.
The deal was signed in late 2007, with production beginning shortly after, said Amanda Coulter, sales and marketing coordinator for Columbus, Ohio-based PSG. PolyOne - based in Avon Lake, Ohio - has been the exclusive North American distributor of Kostrate since 2006.
Kostrate is a clear, tough, rigid resin based on butadiene, styrene and methylmethacrylate feedstocks. The material has been competing with polycarbonate - especially since safety concerns arose regarding use of bisphenol-A feedstock in PC production, Coulter said. PSG now is doing ``a lot of development work'' to replace PC in sports water bottles, she added.
In this area, PSG also is competing with Tritan, a new specialty plastic recently commercialized by Eastman Chemical Co.
Other recent applications for Kostrate include point-of-purchase displays, paper and soap dispensers, housewares and office products. PSG also is developing two new grades of Kostrate for specialty blow molding applications.
The material is ``filling the gap'' between ``brittle clears'' such as acrylic, styrene acrylonitrile and general-purpose polystyrene and ``engineered clears'' such as polycarbonate and glycol-modified PET, PSG officials said.
Privately held PSG doesn't release sales or production data. The five-employee firm was founded in 1991 by Bill Dickinson, a chemicals industry veteran who had worked with Borg Warner Co. and Ashland Inc. Kostrate is produced on a toll basis by SDR Plastics Inc. in Ravenswood, W.Va.
Most of PSG's work had been in polymer application and development before Kostrate was first formulated in 2003. Recently, PSG worked on a number of projects with several U.S.-based customers that have molding facilities in China. Kostrate also likely will be available through PolyOne in Europe by the end of 2008.
Tel. 614-464-2008, fax 614-464-1585.