CENTER OF EXCELLENCEValuePark®

New pilot plant for high-performance rubbers

New pilot plant for the further development of environmentally friendly tyres

In 2018, Trinseo opened a new pilot plant in Schkopau for high-performance rubbers, for energy-efficient, safe and low-abrasion tyres. Since the company was founded in 2010, it has been investing especially strongly in innovative developments in the field of rubber. With the pilot plant, the factory can now produce new rubber mixtures for tyre tests, in sufficient quantities, substantially more quickly. And also react swiftly and flexibly to the requirements of the tyre manufacturers.

“This substantially accelerates the material development processes connected with prototyping”, says Sandra Hofmann, Director of Technology & Innovation for Synthetic Rubber at Trinseo. This is now a decisive factor in competition: “Because car manufacturers’ development speeds are constantly increasing”, says Hofmann. This means that tyre manufacturers face the challenge of having to develop and test tyres in shorter and shorter cycles – now possible thanks to the plant in Schkopau.

From monomer to component

Made to measure from the monomer to the component

Even big innovative ideas start off small. New materials and processes are developed and tested in the laboratory. It is then a matter of transferring them successfully to an industrial scale. The Fraunhofer Pilot Plant Centre for Polymer Synthesis and Processing PAZ in Schkopau is the ideal partner for this upscaling. Here, innovative ideas are made to measure from the monomer to the component, tailored to the requirements of the customers from the plastics industry. The centre’s expertise extends from the designing of new materials to process development for the processing of high-performance lightweight construction materials, to the computer-based simulation of component behaviour. The technological possibilities, on a pilot plant scale, and the bundling of the competences of two Fraunhofer institutes, in the field of polymer synthesis and plastics processing, make the Fraunhofer PAZ unique in the market for research and development.

Hoyer: Logistics on site

Hoyer – Logistics services for the ValuePark® and Middle Germany

HOYER is always in demand whenever sensitive and high-quality chemical products and hazardous substances have to be transported, stored and loaded with great care. For exactly this reason it is an invaluable advantage that this logistics specialist operates a bimodal combined terminal for the transshipment of container gantry cranes and swap bodies directly in the ValuePark®. The terminal KTSK is connected by regular links to the national and international rail network and is therefore a gateway to the markets in Europe, not just for the settling companies but for the whole economy in Middle Germany. Since the extension in April 2017, it has been possible to transship up to 100,000 containers a year – and this is set to increase. However, HOYER also offers a range of other services and an infrastructure entirely oriented towards the chemical industry: silo stores, a hazardous materials warehouse, 3,500 container sites, the changing of inlays in sea and box containers, and the accompanying disposal management. In addition to this, via the subsidiary company cotac, HOYER offers the cleaning, maintenance and repair of containers, and possesses depots with heating plates for tanks and IBC.