Evonik inaugurates new building for its Applied Technology for tyre and rubber in Wesseling

In so doing, the company has added applied technology to the world’s largest facility for precipitated silica production and research. Evonik says it has invested an amount in the low tens of millions of euros in the new building. The building was completed in only 13 months and 34 technicians and scientists have been working there since October 2013.

Dr. Johannes Ohmer, Head of Evonik’s Business Unit Inorganic Materials, Willy Harren, Deputy Adminisrator of the Rhein-Erft-County, Thomas Wessel, Member of the Executive Board (CHRO) of Evonik Industries, Hans-Peter Haupt, Mayor of the City of Wesseling, Dr. Gerd Wolter, Head of Evonik’s Wesseling site, and Dr. Jens Kiesewetter, Head of Evonik’s Applied Technology for Tubber and Tyre (f. l. t. r., see photo), inaugurated the new building at the company’s site in Wesseling near Cologne with a cut of a rubber band.

Dr. Johannes Ohmer said: “The unified and strengthened Wesseling team will now be able to work on qualitatively first-class production and on ideas for the future with its colleagues worldwide in an even more targeted and efficient manner. We and our customers will use these to grow our businesses throughout the globe together.”

Evonik supplies precipitated silica to the tyre industry globally from Wesseling where silica production and research were previously located. Innovative products for the rubber industry are being developed and tested in the new 2,500 m² building. Strict quality control, which is standardised worldwide, is applied to several thousand mixtures annually. The building itself is setting new standards for resource efficiency, says Evonik. It is heated using waste heat from the plant’s silica production.

To be closer to its worldwide customers and provide them with first-class products, Evonik has undertaken a robust worldwide capacity expansion. In March 2014, it opened an expanded precipitated silica facility in Thailand; in May 2013, it initiated planning for a new facility in Brazil; and it will begin operations later this year in an expanded facility in Chester, Pennsylvania, USA. Evonik’s global silica production capacity will increase by approximately 30 % over its 2010 capacity by the end of 2014.