Covestro AG has launched an expansion to add new production lines for high-quality polycarbonate film at its manufacturing site in Dormagen, Germany.
The investment is part of the company's 100 million euro ($112 million) global capacity expansion plan announced in 2018 to meet growing demand in all regions.
Scheduled for completion by the end of 2020, the project includes new coextrusion lines for the production of multi-layer flat films, Covestro said in a May 2 news release.
The new manufacturing unit further underscores the Dormagen site's importance as a competence centre for speciality films, according to Chief Technology Officer Klaus Schäfer.
The company, he noted, is investing in "promising" technologies and applications, such as in cars, medical products and security cards.
Employing "the latest technology," the plant will enable Covestro to supply customers "faster and with higher quality," said Thorsten Dreier, global head of Covestro's film business.
The company, said Dreier, is currently working on several projects and the new manufacturing unit will help bring them to market maturity faster.
The multi-layer flat films to be manufactured at the site are increasingly used in identity documents as they can embed security features while offering protection against counterfeiting. The site also has a technical center for film processing, a showroom and research laboratories.
The company's other two German competence centres are located in Leverkusen and Bomlitz and specialize in film coating and thermoplastic elastomer films.
Covestro announced plans to expand its global film business in July last year, which were then said to include investments in Thailand, China, Germany and the U.S.
In the U.S., the company said it has already improved efficiency and expanded its film production unit in South Deerfield, Mass.
In Thailand, the company is currently building a new production facility in Map Ta Phut, with completion set for the end of the year.
The company is also progressing well with the conversion of its coextrusion line in Guangzhou, China, with first products already being delivered to customers. Covestro expects to build new films capacities in China in the second phase of the expansion plan.