International. Lanxess is expanding its use of artificial intelligence (AI) in product development. The specialty chemicals company has launched a project aimed at expanding its range of prepolymers.
The aim is to offer customers bespoke polyurethane systems with even shorter lead times, even for completely new applications with different requirements. The Urethane Systems business unit is using the potential of AI and has brought materials company Citrine Informatics as a project partner.
In an initial phase of the project, Lanxess expanded its database of prepolymer-based formulations. Lanxess data specialists and process experts used the Citrine Platform for Artificial Intelligence to add more data points to the company's formulation database. This involved linking existing empirical measurement data with the knowledge of process experts and a chemical algorithm to calculate additional measurement values. This meant that only a few real-life measurements were needed to verify the figures determined with AI.
In a next step, Lanxess' data and process experts will check the reliability of optimal predictions with the help of AI to meet customer-specific requirements for product features. "If the following tests are successful, we will be able to meet customer requests even more quickly and effectively. Our current knowledge of formulations will be reinforced by AI-assisted formulation design; in other words, systems that are not yet part of our portfolio but for which artificial intelligence will allow us to instantly know if and how we can manufacture them," said Markus Eckert, head of the Urethane Systems business unit at Lanxess.
