International. Evonik Industries announced the opening of another production line for special polyamide 12 powders (PA 12) of its Vestosint brand at its largest production plant in the world located in Marl Chemical Park. The new facility mainly produces high-performance powders for the 3-D printing market, which is expanding strongly with double-digit growth rates.
"Polyamide 12 is part of our strategic Smart Materials growth engine that involves optimizing product performance and efficiency with improved materials. We significantly expanded our polyamide 12 powder plant in Marl to support the development of future-oriented technologies such as 3-D printing with innovative solutions," said Harald Schwager, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik Industries.
The investment volume for the new Vestosint plant is in the mid-double digit range in millions of euros. With the new plant, Evonik is increasing its existing annual capacities for PA 12 powders by 50 percent. The chemical company manufactures its high-performance powders from PA 12 granulate in a patented process in its integrated production network for polyamide 12 products.
"The new production capabilities will allow us to take on an even more prominent role in the global growth of attractive markets such as the coatings industry or 3-D printing," explains Claus Rettig, Chairman of the Board of Management of Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH. "In addition, we can develop new custom polymer powders even more quickly and flexibly to support the strong growth of our customers and, therefore, our polyamide 12 powder business."
Evonik markets high-performance polymeric polyamide 12 as a powder under the Vestosint brand, for example, for the coating of metals in household items, dishwasher baskets, in the automotive industry or in medical technology. In addition, Evonik has been engaged for many years in the development of special polymer powders that enable the industrial production of high-tech components based on three-dimensional printing.
