Degussa finishes H12MDI plant on time

By Liz White, UT staffHerne, Germany- Degussa AG's Coatings & Colorants business has completed its new plant producing Vestanat H12MDI-dicyclohexylmethane diisocyanate. We're happy that-thanks to the ambitious commitment of a large number of employees-we've been able to start up the plant successfully. The first quantities of began flowing into the tank now," said project manager Dr Stephan Kohlstruk. With the opening of this plant, Degussa has added an important building block to its range of aliphatic isocyanates. The Coatings & Colorants Business Unit currently produces the high-grade aliphatic diisocyanates IPDI (isophorone diisocyanate) and TMDI (trimethylhexamethylene diisocyanate), with Degussa claiming to be "world market leader in IPDI and its derivatives."Cycloaliphatic H12MDI is "an important building block for light- and weather-resistant polyurethanes with outstanding mechanical properties," according to Degussa. And the manufacturer says its Vestanat H12MDI is "especially suitable for the production of elastomers, polyurethane dispersions (PUD), thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) and radiation-curing urethane acrylates." As well as having good mechanical properties, products based on the isocyanate have show good resistance to hydrolysis and chemicals, Degussa adds. The picture shows production manager Dr Udo Kowalczik, business president Thomas Hermann, executive VP Dr Carl Voigt and Dr Wilfried Schmidt, head of the crosslinkers business , starting the plant on 14 Dec 2005. "