04 2013 green mobility buch en final

Green Mobility Driving Innovation

Green Mobility ISBN-978-3-941343-31-3

Driving Innovation

Green Mobility

Driving Innovation

Sustainable mobility calls for “green” materials Whether you are in Beijing, Mumbai or Rio de Janeiro – mile-long traffic jams are part and parcel of daily life in megacities around the world. On average, each German spends two and a half days stuck in traffic jams every year.

This not only frays nerves and wastes time – it also damages the environment. Due to increasing urbanization, it is estimated that 1.4 billion people will move to cities over the next 20 years, a trend that will only exacerbate the problem further. In countries such as China, India and Brazil, cars are becoming increasingly popular, especially among the middle classes – and who can blame them?

However, with the number of drivers and volume of goods being transported by truck expected to increase further in the future, one thing is clear – the mobility of the future will have to be more sustainable and environmentally-friendly than it is today to ensure that increased traffic volumes are not accompanied by a corresponding rise in environmental pollution.

Basically, one of the most urgent tasks for the future is how to make “more” from “less” – and to decouple the necessary growth and increasing volumes of traffic from resource consump-

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tion wherever possible. After all, if the global consumption of resources continues to climb unabated, the impact on the climate and the environment around the world will be dramatic.

Mobility is still largely dependent on oil – and it is likely to be many years before we can make the full transition to sustainable forms of mobility, but we have made a good start. Almost all automakers and related sectors are now investigating the “drives of the future” or have already launched their first sustainable models or technologies.

The megatrend toward sustainable mobility is therefore not only key to protecting the environment and climate in the future, it also presents huge opportunities for industry and the economy, especially given that we are currently just at the start of what is perhaps the most radical change in the automotive industry and the mobility sector as a whole. It goes without saying that the paradigm shift to more sustainable forms of mobility presents many opportunities for innovation, exciting products and new technologies – for automakers, suppliers and many other industries that work with the automotive industry, including the chemical industry.

LANXESS is a prime example of this. We responded quickly to the mobility megatrend. Our high-tech plastics are already being used to make vehicles lighter, safer and more comfortable. One such engineering plastic is Durethan from LANXESS. This is used as a composite material with steel or aluminum. The resulting bodywork parts are extremely stable and up to 40 percent lighter and cheaper than traditional parts. Engineering plastics are also used in many other peripheral components such as the intake duct, cooling system and tank system.

As much as 20 percent of the components in cars today are made of plastic – and this figure is set to rise further still. Another example is our X-Lite product, which can be used to make high-quality leather seat covers that are much lighter. LANXESS also promotes the development of bio-based alternatives to petrochemical materials through future-focused products such as Keltan® Eco, the first ever bio-based EPDM rubber.

As the world’s largest supplier of synthetic rubbers, LANXESS is committed to green tires and lightweight design materials. Around 70 percent of the high-performance rubbers produced

by LANXESS are used to make tires with low rolling resistance.

High-performance rubbers and additives improve the safety, longevity and efficiency of modern tires, which also helps reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Our position is clear – LANXESS plans to continue to expand its leading position and help shape the future of green mobility.

With best wishes, Dr. Axel C. Heitmann

greeting

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Contents 6 History of mobility

By becoming mobile the human race has learned to survive and has conquered the world – on foot, on horseback, by car and by plane. Now, sustainable transport is the order of the day.

14 INFO ROOM

With an informative advertising campaign in daily newspapers and specialist journals, LANXESS is explaining the new E.U. regulations on tire labeling to the public.

16 Networked mobility

The electrification of car drives, mobile telecommunications and information technology along with pioneering mobility concepts are making it possible to increasingly link up public and private transport in a flexible way.

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Contents

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92 64

26 Drive concepts and strategies

All leading automotive manufacturers are working flat out to optimize consumption with their products. This is paving the way to low-emission mobility. The competition to develop the most climate-friendly systems has now begun.

38 LANXESS the innovation driver

LANXESS is a leading supplier of synthetic rubber for the tire industry, technical rubber for hoses, belts, seals and damping elements (p. 52), and of high-tech plastics and valuable additives.

64 Anti-fouling products

LANXESS products can significantly reduce attack of a ship’s outer skin by barnacles, algae and other organisms.

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78 70

38 82

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Leather chemicals

78 Prof. Horst Wildemann

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IRON OXIDE PIGMENTS

82 Tire typology

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Green tires

92 Prof. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer

High-quality car seats for a comfortable drive are usually covered with fine leather. LANXESS supplies the products and systems for environmentally compatible leather manufacture.

Warm, weather-resistant shades of red for concrete and road surfaces are usually based on LANXESS’s range of Bayferrox® iron oxide pigments.

Fuel-saving tires need to have low rolling resistance and good grip at the same time. Equally, they should be quiet and durable and, last but not least, brake reliably on both dry and wet roads.

The Professor from Munich Technical University talks about the ecological and economic effects of E.U. regulations on tire labeling.

The tire industry supplies customized tires for every model and the most diverse applications, driving situations and weather conditions.

The Professor from the University of Duisburg-Essen discusses the opportunities offered by electric cars, networked mobility and future traffic concepts.

96 PUBLISHING DETAILS | picture credits

Contents

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Ways to “green” mobility

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RUBRIK

Despite the continued rapid rise in individual transport and goods traffic, green mobility will become a reality.

Consecte dolorti nciliquam, The mobility of people and goods is a prerequisite for economic growth and prosperity. New technologies for vehicle quatue volut nulla feuisisl dolor sustrud ming et construction, drive systems and materials help protect the environment despite increased driving performance. nonsecte er si.

RUBRIK

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Milestones 1 million B.C. – 800 B.C.

1 million B.C.

Homo erectus was presumably the first hominid to cross the savannahs of east Africa in an upright position.

10,000 B.C.

The first mobility aids used by human beings were sleighs drawn by their owners or four-legged animals.

3500 B.C.

Wheels were attached under sleighs for the first time to facilitate mobility – and warfare.

800 B.C.

The chariot as a status symbol: the pharaohs used war chariots to impress people.

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mobility

A million years ago, the first primates started to walk and run in an upright position to forage for food and detect their enemies better in the tall grasses of the savannah of east Africa.

This mutation marked a quantum leap in human evolution.

By moving erect, Lucy – the nickname given by anthropologists to the female whose bones enabled them to define for the first time the development of “homo erectus” – had a better view of what was around her and could aim directly for a distant target such as food or shelter, thereby outwitting her four-legged rivals. Lucy was a truly mobilizing force.

It was this mobility on two legs that enabled her descendants just under a million years later, around 100,000 B.C., to trek right across Africa to all corners of the globe. Archaeologists estimate the bones of “homo sapiens” found in Australia to be some 60,000 years old.

The urge to become ever more mobile In Europe, homo sapiens appeared on the scene more than 30,000 years ago. “Homo neanderthalensis” had already advanced from Africa to the Rhineland in Germany and the Atlantic coast of Iberia thousands of years earlier during

Caravans linked the Orient and Occident more than 2,000 years ago.

the first wave of migration. Scientists have estimated that humankind needed some 2,000 generations to establish settlements across the globe after leaving Africa.

This desire for mobility has continued undiminished since then, with scientists developing means of circumnavigating the Earth in less than 24 hours and of flying to the moon – not to mention the many different forms of daily transport from home to the workplace. However, whereas our ancestors shed nothing more than blood, sweat and tears as a result of the physical exertion of their overland treks, modern man’s means of transport emit pollutants that are harmful to the environment. The dangers of climate change and the foreseeable depletion of natural resources are the consequence of this. If we wish to protect and sustain our environment without foregoing the freedom to be mobile, then low-emission, renewable forms of energy for driving vehicles and generating electricity will have to replace fossil sources of energy such as oil, natural gas and coal.

Mobility is no longer simply a strategy for survival, as it was in the case of prehistoric humans. Mobility now stands for quality of life and a sense of freedom – the freedom to change our

location and choose where we live, work, seek recreation, undertake learning and research or simply enjoy ourselves.

To sustain this freedom we need not just to change our behavior but above all to develop the technologies that will make green mobility possible in the future.

Means of transport on the long march Over the millennia, people have used their ingenuity to develop new and innovative modes of transport. When homo erectus set out on the long trek from east Africa over a million years ago, they had no alternative but to walk. The same applied to “homo erectus neanderthalensis” some 200,000 years ago and our direct ancestors homo sapiens 140,000 years ago. But by 10,000 B.C., our forefathers were employing other means to move their families and belongings. They domesticated and trained horses, cattle, donkeys, elephants, dogs and reindeer as beasts of burden or draught animals.

They built tugs, rafts and ships for traveling on rivers, lakes and the high seas – and invented the wheel.

From archaeological excavations we can deduce that the wheel was invented on several occasions: by the Sumerians

in Mesopotamia somewhere around 3500 B.C., and then later in Spain and Scandinavia, as well as in the Italian, Swiss and Austrian Alps.

The first “wagons” built by humans were, in fact, sleighs mounted on wheels made from either tree trunks or stone.

As early as the third millennium B.C., wagon builders from Egypt and Mesopotamia had learnt how to make disc wheels from various materials and so render them more stable.

According to archaeological findings, the first wheels with spokes date back to the period around 2300 B.C.

Milestones 1400–1670 A.D.

Settling down as farmers The need to stay on the move – constantly in search of food, water and protection from the elements and enemies – did not prevent humans from wanting to settle down and establish roots. But has cultivation of the land and urbanization taken place at the expense of our mobility? Let us turn to Peter Sloterdijk, a powerful voice in the media. The philosopher regards “the anti-mobility experiment to which humankind has subjected itself over the past 10,000 years” and which we “blithely refer to as settling down” as nothing less than an “all-out attack on the physical urge to move.”

Working the soil has, according to Sloterdijk, reduced man himself to vegetable status. However, the philosopher has not quite given up hope. He claims “the underlying trend of the 20th century has been to end the age of settling down and release the kinetic potential in humans which has lain dormant for over 10,000 years.”

However, after the Stone Age, humans were was not particularly tied to the land. Early town settlements extended their sphere of influence beyond their immediate surroundings to create states. The inhabitants of these states, some settled, others wandering nomads, traded with one another and transported their wares from the countryside to the town and vice versa. In the process, they adapted means of transport to suit the merchandise and topographical conditions. They paved roads and engaged in the exchange of goods and culture with other states. They journeyed in caravans across deserts and steppes, bearing with them food, gold, silver, incense, myrrh and silk – and drove in armored chariots into battle with their neighbors and distant peoples.

But whether on foot or horseback, in an ox-drawn cart or on board a ship, man remained on the move despite the urge to settle, driven by lust for power, greed, curiosity or sheer necessity.

1420

Giovanni da Fontana “automobile” with rope traction

Around 1500

The all-round genius Leonardo da Vinci devised vehicle ideas that were incorporated in the automobile centuries later.

Early vehicle engineers Our ancestors were certainly not short of ideas when it came to ways of making mobility easier and faster. The Romans built the first hard-surfaced roads to enable their legions of armies and messengers bearing imperial orders to move more speedily from one end of their Empire to the other.

Greek engineers at the court of Demetrios I of Macedonia (336 to 283 B.C.) were the first to develop automotive vehicles – i.e., carriages that were not drawn by animals, but were fitted with a sophisticated mechanisms that enabled them to be propelled by hand from inside. The fact that they

Around 1670 A.D.

Wind-powered carriages enjoyed great popularity in the Netherlands well into the 18th century.

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Milestones 1685–1817

1685

In the second half of the 17th century, the clockmaker Stephan Farffler invented a three-wheeler for handicapped persons.

were designed to serve as mobile battering rams reflects the predilection of Demetrios for besieging enemy towns.

The fleet of vehicles belonging to the Macedonian ruler also included one with room inside for two persons, each of whom performed a different task: one operated the steering from the front, while the other was positioned behind and turned the pedals driving a kind of flywheel. This movement was transmitted to the rear wheels to create propulsion. An illustration from the year 308 B.C. documents the existence of this vehicle.

In the second century B.C., Heron of Alexandria, who was known as “the mechanic,” experimented with all kinds of self-propelling vehicles. In one case, he installed a box of sand in the interior that caused the wheels of the vehicle to move forward as the contents were emptied out. The principle behind Heron’s invention – that of counterweight motorization – was revived centuries later in the form of the mechanical clock.

Renaissance genius

Around 1750

As far back as the 18th century, people traveling alone could plan their itinerary according to scheduled stagecoach timetables.

1817

Heralding in the Modern Age: the “vélocipède,” the twowheeled running machine invented by Baron Karl von Drais

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The dream of mobility on land – unaided by animals – experienced a major revival with the advent of the Modern Age. Yet long before such names as Karl Friedrich Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Armand Peugeot and Rudolf Diesel were to become synonymous with mobility, there were other universal geniuses and inventors testing their ideas and paving the way for future progress. Guido da Vigevano, for example, an Italian physicist at the French royal court in the 14th century, is considered to be the first person to design a four-wheel-

Seafarers, conquerors, traders and natural scientists were the forerunners of globalization.

drive system. However, had the vehicle he envisioned ever been constructed, it would have taken four strong men to set it in motion with starting cranks. In 1420, his fellow countryman Giovanni da Fontana also came up with sketches for a four-wheeled vehicle that looked remarkably similar to later automobiles. In this case, the driver sat comfortably under a protective roof and could keep his eye on the route by looking out of the windows. The only thing missing was the engine. Instead of this, the driver was expected to propel the vehicle by pulling on ropes attached to rollers. These, in turn, set a cogwheel in motion that moved the front wheels.

Leonardo da Vinci, too, turned his mind to the design of automobiles, focusing in particular on his project for an armored vehicle. He envisaged this instrument of warfare being driven by a pair of crank handles and cogwheels operated by soldiers inside the vehicle. Even more visionary was Leonardo’s idea of a leaf-spring engine designed to release energy gained from muscle power. Even that long ago the vehicle featured elements of a modern car, including a frame, transmission and steering.

Wind power as a driving force In 1670, Stephan Farffler from Altdorf near Nuremberg came up with his own personal means of transport. The physically handicapped clockmaker constructed a threewheeled contraption that was set in motion by a cranking system connected to the front wheel. However, no matter how ingenious these early ideas were, the vehicles all lacked one thing: their own source of power. They all

Organized package tours

Organized group tours also gave women the chance to see the world thanks to the presence of guides.

needed muscle power – whether animal or human – to drive them forward.

The one exception to this was, of course, wind power for moving across the water. It was seafarers who were primarily responsible for “discovering” the world. They set up global trade and initiated the settlement and cultivation of overseas colonies. In their wake came scientists such as Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, who roved the world to investigate and research flora, fauna and the origins of species.

On terra firma, however, wind failed to make a breakthrough as a means of propulsion. Although wind-driven vehicles enjoyed a degree of popularity in the 17th and early 18th centuries – particularly in the Netherlands – they managed to survive only in the form of land yachts for beach sailing. Despite all the ingenious inventions – up to and including the steam engine – it was the horse and oxen, reindeer and dog, elephant and camel that remained indispensable to humans’ mobility unless they were prepared to go it alone.

However, what did change in Europe over the course of the centuries was the infrastructure and organization of travel. An increasingly dense postal network, which provided resting places for man and beast and also scheduled timetables, helped develop communications and connections. This meant that merchants and the upper classes could organize their own personal itinerary. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s two-year tour of Italy by horse-drawn carriage soon inspired poets, philosophers and artists of the Romantic period to take to the road with neither destination nor a particular purpose in mind beyond the pursuit of their own happiness.

The age of travel as the exclusive privilege of social elites came to an end towards the mid-19th century. The railroad, steamships and – last but not least – the first travel agencies led to the gradual democratization of mobility. In 1841, Thomas Cook organized the first group excursions in England – originally with the aim of saving workers from the demon drink by luring them away from public houses out to the more salubrious environment of the surrounding countryside. Soon Cook was offering cheap package tours, which included arranged travel to and from the destination, hotel accommodation, breakfast and sightseeing. And although this kind of travel arrangement was still far beyond the reach of the working classes, it did open up faraway places to the middle classes and – thanks to the presence of guides – to women traveling without a chaperone.

Such new opportunities stimulated the desire to travel to a hitherto unprecedented extent. The novelist Theodor Fontane felt the need to comment on this phenomenon in the second half of the 19th century, writing: “One of the peculiarities of our time is mass travel. The whole world is on the move. Many of these travelers spend eleven months of the year doing nothing else but preparing for the twelfth.”

Milestones 1841–1888

1841

Thomas Cook organizes the first group travel for physical recreation and moral edification.

Cycling into the countryside At this point, though, the real revolution in mobility in the form of individual means of transport was yet to happen.

The foundations for this were laid somewhat later by pioneers such as Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, Armand Peugeot – and, most notably, Henry Ford.

But before motorized vehicles fueled by gas or diesel were to conquer the world and make mobility commonplace, it was the bicycle that enabled broad sections of the population to enjoy the individual freedom of moving about as they wished. The two-wheeler was developed from the running machine created by Baron Karl von Drais in 1817. It is thought that the pedal crank – which was given the name “vélocipède” – originally came from the Parisian mechanics Pierre Lallement and Pierre Michaux.

However, it was not until John Kemp Starley invented a low-seater version (1884/1885) and – following further technological progress – Dr. John Boyd Dunlop came up with air-filled tires made from fabric and rubber (1888) that the bicycle really took off as the first means of transport to mobilize the masses.

What’s more, for the very first time women were able to benefit from advances in individual mobility. Thanks to “appropriate” apparel designed specifically for riding a bicycle, they could now set off with husband

1886

Karl Friedrich von Benz presents his first functional three-wheeled automobile.

1888

Gottlieb Daimler’s motor carriage with a one-cylinder four-stroke engine.

mobility

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Milestones 1895–1908

1895

One of the first series-production motorbikes made

by Hildebrand & Wolfmüller

and children on a family trip that previously would only have been possible by train or coach.

The individual mobility granted by the bicycle had an influence on where and how people lived. Blue- and white-collar workers could choose to move away from the immediate vicinity of their workplace and set up home anywhere within a 30-odd minute bike ride, making them the first commuters.

Even before the end of the 19th century, the bicycle was to receive its first engine. As early as 1885, production at the Munich-based firm of Hildebrand & Wolfmüller was turning out some 200 motorcycles a year. The tubular steel framework developed at the turn of the century represented a major breakthrough for the motorized version of the bicycle.

Motorized Benz tricycle

1908

Henry Ford’s Model T “mobilized” North America thanks to cheap assemblyline production.

Consecte dolorti nciliquam, quatue volut nulla feuisisl dolor sustrud ming et nonsecte er si.

The Volkswagen became a synonym for mass mobility in the 1950s.

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RUBRIK

The bicycle also provided the basis for developing the automobile. Karl Benz commissioned Heinrich Kleyer, founder of Adlerwerke in Frankfurt am Main, to make a tricycle for the engine he had devised. This “motor vehicle,” which was granted a patent on September 12, 1888, completed a successful maiden journey on July 3, 1886 with Benz in the driving seat. Just a few months later, Gottlieb Daimler presented to the world his motorized carriage driven by a 0.8-horse-powered, four-cylinder engine.

The first automobile as we know it was the Mercedes, built in 1901. It was available to only a tiny minority since in those days two-cylinder motorcars cost at least 8,500 German Marks and

four-cylinder ones as much as 12,000 Marks or more.

Automobiles that were affordable to a broader public did not begin to materialize until Henry Ford launched his Model T in 1908 and, more particularly, when he introduced assemblyline production at the end of 1913. Just one year later, in 1914, Ford was turning out some 308,162 Model Ts, and in the 1920s the figure rose to over a million a year. Ford had identified his own factory workers as potential buyers – which is why he paid them wages that were 15 percent above the average. And he also lowered the prices of his motorcars. With the most simple Model T costing a mere 290 dollars in 1924, a Ford worker on a monthly salary of 130 dollars needed to work for only three months to afford his own car.

It is no surprise, then, that the motorization of the masses came about much earlier in the United States than in Europe. A further reason was the fact that, outside the major conurbations, the New World was sparsely populated, and so there was a far greater need for individual mobility as early as the beginning of the 20th century.

In Europe, the most popular form of early motorization for the individual was the motorcycle. Automobiles were simply far too expensive for the average person. A qualified factory worker had to save up approximately 13 months’ wages in the mid-1920s to afford even the most basic motorcar, whereas he needed only four months to pay for a motorcycle. As a result, in 1932, Germany led the world with the

Equatum delit

largest number of motorbikes on the road. And as early as 1928, DKW ranked as the biggest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.

Mobile in mini-format Lack of money was not the only reason why the automobile did not take off sooner in Europe in the first three decades of the 20th century. Political developments in the 1930s, culminating in the outbreak of World War II, also played their part in delaying the advance of the motorcar. But in the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, mobility fever did finally grip Europe. Germany’s VW Beetle took countries by storm and became the best-selling automobile in the world in the space of just 25 years. Motorcars at that time tended to be small and modest. The most successful models in Western Europe were the Citroën 2 CV and 4 CV and the Renault R 4 from France, the Fiat 500 from Italy and the English Mini, which came on the scene in the late 1950s. The small-car market also featured a number of curiosities, such as the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller and BMW’s Isetta (popularly known as the “bubble car”) and – last but not least – the Goggomobil and Borgward’s Lloyd (nicknamed the “band-aid bomber”).

Even though they were small and narrow, these European motorcars of the post-war years increasingly shaped people’s lifestyles, allowing them to live in the countryside, commute between home and work within a 20-kilometer radius, and take holiday trips to the Alps, Lake Garda, the Riviera, Adriatic, Atlantic or North Sea. The record level of sales and exports achieved by the automobile industry played a significant part in the boom period of the “economic miracle.”

Horsepower for billions of people And so we come to the present day. In Germany alone, the number of registered motorcars has now reached 46 million. Add to these 14 million motorbikes, trucks and trailers and you arrive at a figure of some 60.5 million vehicles on German roads – not to mention all the additional foreign cars and trucks passing through the country. These days, motorists no longer want Bonsai motorcars. They prefer high horse-power automobiles that are fast, comfortable and spacious – and, wherever possible, vehicles with four-wheel drive or prestigious cars full of electronic gadgetry.

Worldwide, more than a billion motorized vehicles – 600 million of them cars – are used to transport people and goods.

Each year, the automotive industry adds a further 60 million automobiles and trucks to this figure.

Travel and transport is not only a phenomenon on land and water. Nowadays it is hard to imagine life without the airplane, even for middle-distance journeys. And were it not for the network of long-distance connections around the world, it would have been practically impossible for globalization to develop the way it has.

Shuttle en route to orbiting space station.

United States and Europe? The pace of motorization in the major emerging economies indicates that there, too, people are unwilling to forego the comfort of their own car. According to current projections, there will be well over two billion motorcars on the world’s roads by 2030.

Or will energy problems and environmental issues bring mass mobility to an abrupt end? Will climate change force a complete reversal of current trends? At present, road transport is responsible for 18 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Environmentalist lobbies with their apocalyptic scenarios are already calling for a general halt to this trend as the only way to save the world. But then, as the physicist Niels Bohr once remarked, forecasts are notoriously unreliable when it comes to predicting the future. There are alternatives to de-mobilization: climate-friendly technologies and renewable fuels, green electricity from solar energy and wind power for clean electro-mobility, biofuels from plant residues and specially cultivated algae, fuel cells and hydrogen from renewable – and thus climate-neutral – sources. There are also lightweight components for vehicles made of highperformance plastics, plastics made from renewable raw materials and, last but not least, high-tech tires with low rolling resistance and low fuel requirements. They are all paving the way for an era of green mobility. Added to this, electronic installations, not only in cars but also as a means of directing traffic, ensure more efficient energy consumption, improved road safety and smoother traffic flow.

There is every prospect that people will remain mobile thanks to our inventiveness in promoting sources of energy, fuels and drive systems that are climate-neutral. So the wheels will keep on turning – on black tires that can rightfully claim to be “green.”

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Milestones 2003–202x

2003

In Formula 1 racing it’s the tires that determine who wins and who loses.

2005

Hybrid engines, a combination of combustion and electric engines, are more environmentally friendly.

202x

Hydrogen and fuel cells are seen as the zero-emission drive system of the future.

Moving on to green mobility But will mobility develop as dynamically in the future as it has in the past? What will the world look like if the motorization trend in India and China follows a similar pattern to the

mobility

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IMPRESSIVE TECHNOLOGY: Green mobility™ How innovations from LANXESS enable sustainable mobility

Plastic COMPOSITES Plastic composites have been established in the aviation industry for many years now, but they are also a nextgeneration alternative material for the automotive industry thanks to their low weight and high load capacity. For example, thanks to optimized mass production processes, lightweight fiberglass-strengthened polyamide composite sheets are becoming increasingly cost-effective.

Battery Covers Special thermoplastics can be made conductive and flame retardant through electroplating or additivation. Thus, they are ideal material for use in batteries in electric and hybrid vehicles. The high-tech plastics are also playing an increasingly important role in the fabrication of electronic drive trains.

Bio-Based Rubber Fuel TANKs Technical rubber made from organic ethylene is mostly used for door seals in the automotive industry, but is also a key component in plastic modification and in the additivation of mineral materials. Its properties include very low density, good resistance to heat and other media, and good electrical insulation properties.

Polyamide is a particularly impermeable high-tech plastic that effectively suppresses permeation in fuel tanks, thus helping to prevent significant air pollution. Permeation is the undesired seepage of hydrocarbons through the walls of a fuel tank.

GREEN TIRES

REINFORCEMENT

STEEL SUBSTITUTES

Around 70 % of the high performance rubber produced by LANXESS is used for the manufacture of low-rolling resistance tires. If all the vehicles in Europe were fitted with these energyefficient tires, billions of liters of fuel could be saved each year.

Injection-molded structural reinforcements can be built into auto bodies to absorb the impact force of an accident. As a result, vehicles are significantly more resistant to deformation, thus providing passengers with additional protection.

A set of pedals strengthened with a ribbed polyamide structure not only has a greater load-bearing capacity than a full steel pedal set but is also 40 % lighter. In addition, elements such as the foot plate, brake light trigger and pedal axis fixture are all integrated.

FROM LANXESS EXPANDING Cities An increasing number of the world’s 7 billion people live in cities. Thus, there is a significant need for an advanced infrastructure capable of enabling increased mobility.

1975

37,2 %

2005

48,7 %

2030

59,9 %

Vehicle Tires Tires must not only guarantee control over the vehicle regardless of the temperature but are also expected to be highly stable, durable and have a good load capacity. For this reason, prominent tire manufacturers use LANXESS’ high-performance synthetic rubbers, which have an optimal balance in terms of their physical properties.

In 2030, almost two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities

Focus On Transport Traffic jams cost time and money and pollute our environment through high CO2 emissions. Assistance in the form of intelligent traffic controls can warn drivers of traffic jams and offer alternative routes.

The average person in Germany spends 90 minutes of their day on the go

Mobility mIX Engine Components

20 % of all CO2 emissions in Germany result from transport. Through the optimal use of different modes of transport, mobility can be structured in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way.

Pseudoplastic polyamides are used in blow-molded components for engine ventilation systems. Pipes made from these materials are resistant to ex­ treme temperatures, impact and wear.

They are also resistant to oxygen and ozone.

The average person in Germany spends 90 minutes of their day on the go

Sustainable Travel

LIGHTER LEATHER

HIGH-TECH PLASTICS

The special X-Lite® Leather for complex vehicle seating covers provides weight savings of around 1.5 kg per vehicle. Despite its lightness, there is no difference between it and normal leather in terms of appearance, texture or wear resistance.

High-tech plastics and rubbers have paved the way for energysaving vehicles. Despite their low weight, they are extremely stable and possess excellent mechanical properties. That is why they are perfect for the construction of particularly lightweight auto bodies for low-emission vehicles.

In Germany, the vast majority of all travel is done via roads and is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels.

Electromobility powered by renewable energy will bring us closer to our climate targets.

8 % Wind

5 % Bio

3 % Water

3 % Sun

1 % Other

In 2011, 20 % of all power in Germany was generated from alternative energy sources

INFO-ROOM

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Networked, flexible, clean Successful model

The Daimler car2go car sharing system is now up and running in 10 cities in Europe and North America.

In San Diego, California and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Smart operates exclusively electric vehicles.

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When asked about his vision of networked mobility, Dr. Weert Canzler of the Berlin Center for Social Research (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB) and co-author of the book “Einfach aufladen: Mit Elektromobilität in eine saubere Zukunft” (“Simply charge: electromobility for a clean future”) presents the following scenario: just like buses and trains, electric cars will be available to almost everyone, provided they have a valid driver’s license. The vehicles will be stationed in free-access parking lots at all nodal points of public transport. Car sharing technology will enable simple access by means of a cell phone or a card; the cars can be used immediately without prior booking and then left at any free parking lot.

If the battery voltage drops to a critical level, the vehicle will be blocked. The maximum booking time is in any case limited. This will ensure wide availability.

Canzler is not alone in envisaging such a future.

Various recent developments have opened up realistic prospects of inter-modal transport, in which the electric car plays an important part in a wide network: the automotive industry has been investing heavily in developing and launching hybrid and electric vehicles; leading vehicle manufacturers have been implementing their own car sharing concepts; smart phones with mobile applications and navigation systems have been providing easier access to rental vehicles. And, last but not least, car makers, public transport companies, and the IT and electricity industries have all been collaborating on networked transport systems.

With both academia and industry engaged in intensive

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efforts to develop the transport of the future, there’s the sense of a new dawn – one prompted by climate change, scarcity of raw materials, problems of space in major conurbations and stricter statutory limits on health-damaging and climate-changing emissions.

Political impetus Even though some ideas may seem utopian, the networked automotive future has already begun – triggered by statutory requirements for environmentally friendlier drive systems: in 2007, Brussels introduced a proposal to limit the CO2 emissions of motorcars in Europe. From 2012 onwards, the average level of CO2 emissions from all new passenger cars in a manufacturer’s range will not be allowed to exceed 120 grams per kilometer. Improved engine technology will reduce the amount to 130 grams, and the remaining 10 grams will come from other technological advances such as low-rolling-resistance tires. If the average level of an automaker’s product range exceeds this limit, they can expect to pay hefty fines from 2015 onwards. Every gram above the limit will cost a “premium” of EUR 95, multiplied by the total number of vehicles the automaker has produced.

The regulations of the Brussels Commission on the emission of greenhouse gases stipulate that all measures to reduce the 1990 levels of CO2 emissions in Europe by 20 percent are to be met by 2020. And the “Roadmap for Moving to a Competitive Low Carbon Economy in 2050”, envisages reducing 1990 levels of carbon dioxide emissions by 60 to 90 percent.

New areas of business are opening up for automobile manufacturers through networked and flexible car sharing schemes.

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Climate protection

The limit values on the C02 emissions of cars imposed by the European Commission are boosting the development and construction of electric vehicles.

Electric cars powered by electricity from renewable sources such as solar energy or wind power are practically emission-free.

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Competing for the leading role The German government has set itself the ambitious target of positioning Germany at the forefront of climate protection and becoming the “leading market for/and provider of” electromobility. By funding a series of pilot projects and research and development in the field of electric and hybrid technology, the government is aiming to get one million electric cars on the roads in Germany by 2020, and as many as six million by 2030.

By the year 2050, urban transport is to be fueled largely with energy from renewable sources such as wind, sun and water or with hydrogen fuel cells.

However, Germany is not the only country to have such ambitious goals. France, too, would like to be a pioneer and market leader in electromobility, which is why it subsidizes the purchase of e-cars. China’s government is granting buyers of electric cars up to 60,000 yuan (approximately 8,800 dollars) – no other industrial nation pays such high premiums for e-mobility. The aim is to make the People’s Republic the world’s leading producer of electric vehicles. And these generous subsidies are just the beginning. In addition to these premiums,

the press reports that the Chinese government intends to set up an investment program worth 100 billion yuan (11.7 billion Euros) to promote the research and development of electric cars.

Yet despite all the announcements, programs and financial incentives, electric mobility is still very much in its infancy. Before electric cars can command a significant share of passenger transport they will have to overcome a number of hurdles. The batteries are very expensive; there is still no comprehensive battery-charging network and their range leaves much to be desired when compared with gas and diesel vehicles. This is why they have so far failed to gain broad acceptance. Admittedly there is still a severe shortage of electric vehicles ready for series production to match Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV; nevertheless, the lack of demand in Germany shows how restrained the response of potential customers in Europe’s largest market continues to be. Despite the growing number of regional test fleets, car expert Professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen (see p. 92) has calculated there were no more than 1,808

When the batteries of an e-car like the Mitsubishi iMiEV are recharged overnight, they can also act as a storage facility in the smart grid.

electric cars registered in Germany in the first eleven months of 2011. The majority of these registrations were accounted for by car dealers’ show-vehicles, environmental organizations or electricity providers for demonstration purposes, and regional test fleets. Only 101 electric cars were actually purchased by private individuals.

Conurbations: the market of the future For the foreseeable future it will not be private customers who make up the bulk of the business. Of this most experts are convinced. Vehicles that run exclusively on electrically charged batteries are still only suitable for driving in major cities and conurbations, due to their limited range and lengthy charging times. This means that for some time to come, electric vehicles will amount to little more than a trendy second car in private households.

It is rather in the field of commercial and public fleet transport – such as postal vans, customer-service vehicles and car sharing – that automakers and experts like Canzler see promising economic potential for electric vehicles.

This is why automobile manufacturers such as Daimler and BMW have recently taken up the not-so-new idea of car sharing and developed it into an interesting business model by combining it with modern communications technology. German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) are also integrating the short-term rental of cars from their subsidiary Flinkster into their regional mobility program.

The new car sharing models are spreading rapidly from individual urban centers across borders and continents.

Daimler’s subsidiary car2go, which launched its first fleet

of 50 Smart cars on the roads of Ulm in 2008, will soon be operating in Washington D.C. The American capital will become the third operating area in the United States alongside Austin, Texas and San Diego, California, added to which there is Vancouver in Canada. In Europe, car2go is now operating far beyond Ulm, and is now established in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, Lyon and Vienna.

In Amsterdam and San Diego, car2go deploys only elec­ tric-drive Smart cars – currently 300 in each city. They are powered exclusively by electricity obtained from renewable sources at numerous charging stations. Since 2012, about 1,200 charging stations are running.

In Amsterdam, a network of 300 charging stations was up and running at the end of 2011. This figure already reached 1,000 in 2012 and provides a sufficiently dense network of stations In Germany, Stuttgart is to lead the way in showing that car2go can function there, too, on a purely electric-drive basis. Daimler has joined forces with a number of partners to put 500 battery-driven “spontaneous” rental cars on the road. For this e-car sharing program they have put together an integrated package that is linked to local transport, specially designated parking spaces in the city and some 500 charging stations supplying exclusively eco-electricity.

User-friendliness as a success factor

Networked mobility

Anyone looking for the nearest DriveNow vehicle can pinpoint its location by means of an app.

After entering your personal PIN for BMW DriveNow the networked rental car is ready to go.

Renting an e-vehicle is extremely simple. After registration, the driver receives a chip on his license. Via a scanner located behind the windscreen, this opens a Smart car parked on the roadside and, once the PIN number

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Questions on user-friendliness and AcceptAnce The integrated mobility of the future builds on new drive systems, new means of transport, new user concepts and a better combination of transport options. New opportunities and concepts can markedly change our mobility behavior. Electric mobility involves not only driving with an alternative engine, but also getting used to unfamiliar indicators such as the charging level of the battery, and new habits like charging the vehicle overnight.

User acceptance of these changes is key to the success of the technologies, vehicles and offerings on the market.

“User acceptance” refers to the willingness of the user to respond positively to an idea, a form of behavior or a product.

Acceptance is influenced by a number of factors. They

Quicar

Volkswagen has also launched its own “Quicar” car sharing program in Hanover .

Charging station

The Siemens Charge CP500A charging station can supply two electric vehicles with electricity at the same time.

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flexible means of transport?

How do I feel about new technologies?), the perceived usefulness (Can I satisfy my mobility needs with an e-vehicle / vehicle?) and the basic framework and means of funding (What are the financial incentives? Are there attractive offers and concepts that I can test without committing myself?).

New technologies are accepted when they provide convincing benefits. include attitude (What do I and others think of ?), social norms (Are electrically mobile persons seen as innovative and forward-thinking?), personal values (Do I want to protect the environment and contribute to sustainability by changing my mobility?), personal experience (Have I always owned a car or used

Networking with local public transport

Source: Fraunhofer ISI

has been entered, it releases the vehicle for use. A special smart phone app shows where the car is parked.

The used minutes are billed monthly or weekly.

An additional factor that makes car2go interesting is permission to “park at all public parking lots in the local business area.” Even paying parking lots can be used – and the car rental company picks up the tab.

At present car2go users still have to register separately in every city in which they want to use the service. However, this is about to change as part of networked mobility: In the near future, the final fiscal, insurance-related and accounting hurdles to international roaming have to be removed. This means that a user from Düsseldorf can use his or her chip just as easily in San Diego as in Germany and drive to the beach in an e-Smart without the bother of red tape.

BMW has formed an alliance with Sixt car rentals and set up a joint car sharing scheme called Drive Now, which operates in the cities of Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf using BMW 1, X1, Mini and Mini Clubman models.

In November 2011, Volkswagen started its own shortterm car rental and is testing its market potential in Hanover with “Quicar.” The program currently provides 200 Golf BlueMotion cars at 50 locations throughout the city and is scheduled for rapid expansion. Volkswagen is also testing longer-term rentals of at least ten hours (“Quicar Plus”) with a wide range of vehicles – from small cars to transporter vans. Volkswagen sees car sharing as a “pacemaker” for the subsequent deployment of electric cars, whose sales are likely to remain limited for some time to come because of the high costs involved.

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Like Daimler, both BMW and VW use the chip-card for registering customers, for tracking purposes and for making reservations via smart phones and apps. Volkswagen has also integrated social networks and tourist information into its interactive communications.

Overall, the utilization of modern car sharing programs is twice that of conventional , which requires the car to be returned to the place from which it was hired and also for the end of the rental period to be specified in advance. “Clearly,” concludes transport expert Weert Canzler, “open-access, open-end and one-way options are making car sharing much more attractive.“

However, car sharing can only be one of many building blocks in truly networked mobility. To counteract the proliferation of private transport in conurbations and megacities, to reduce noise levels and emissions harmful to health and the environment, and to generally improve our quality of life, experts recognize that transport systems must be closely linked and tailored to people’s different needs. The transport network needs to be comprehensive while, at the same time, providing individual flexibility. As a consequence, forms of transport, particularly local ones, will have to be much more differentiated than they are now, while simultaneously interconnecting more closely so as to ensure a smooth transfer from one form to another.

Numerous initiatives and projects To develop such complex systems and firmly establish them in the public consciousness, a number of initiatives have recently been set largely state-funded and promoted by public and private transport providers, government authorities, the automotive industry and research institutions.

In Paris, the success of the Vélib system, whereby 20,000 bicycles were made available at 1,500 innercity stations to help relieve the burden of private cars on the metropolis, persuaded the city council to set up “Autolib”. This program provides small electric vehicles that passengers on local public transport can use in addition to the bicycles. It is an effective way of interconnecting local public transport, car sharing, e-mobility and bike rental. In the case of electric cars, the city administration benefits from the fact that in France electric mobility is an industrial project championed by the government and thus correspondingly funded.

At the beginning of 2009, the Germany Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Planning allocated funds of 130 million Euros for its program “Model Regions of Electromobility.” This clustered 220 different projects into eight model regions. One of these is “BeMobility – Berlin elektroMobil” in Potsdam, which develops integrative mobility concepts by making electric mobility an integral part of its public transport package. The results of user surveys on this multi-modal offering show

that the combination of public transport and car sharing using electric vehicles is welcomed as a positive way of organizing urban mobility flexibly, in an environmentally friendly manner and at affordable prices. Practically a third of test users have changed their mobility behavior as a result – at least partially. Daily use of private cars has dropped from 15 percent to five percent, while car sharing (several times a month) has more than trebled with a rise from twelve to 42 percent.

The concluding report of the BeMobility project found that “during the project the electric and hybrid vehicles in the Flinkster fleet traveled just under 200,000 kilometers and were booked almost 3,000 times...

Their limited range, which is frequently assumed to be a disincentive, was not a problem thanks to the integration of bus, rail and bike rental facilities.”

Standardized interfaces This finding has been confirmed by a representative survey of 100 persons eligible to drive, which the market research institute Infas conducted on behalf of automotive supplier Continental. It showed that some 90 percent of vehicles in private households in Germany cover less than 100 kilometers a day, with almost 28 percent traveling between no more than ten and 25 kilometers daily. Yet at the same time, 72 percent of the people surveyed in Germany were unhappy about having to recharge an e-car after 150 kilometers, even though there would be plenty of time to do so. For according to the above-mentioned study, German cars stand idle most of the time: on average some three hours at home (40 percent) or seven at the workplace (14 percent). Given the appropriate infrastructure, therefore, there would be plenty of time to recharge the battery of an e-vehicle.

However, in the Berlin/Brandenburg region it emerged that the infrastructure of a comprehensive mobility system needs standardized interfaces. And this requires closer collaboration between energy suppliers, automakers, parking lot operators, local public transport services, the federal states and municipalities in order to offer solutions that are both convenient and cost-effective.

Meanwhile, six companies from the automotive industry have teamed up with energy suppliers to create a uniform billing system for charging electric car batteries. Similarly, BMW, Bosch, Daimler, Siemens and the utilities companies EnBW and RWE have formed a joint venture. To date, providers of public charging stations have been operating different authentication and payment systems that are not compatible with one another.

These partnerships have announced that, as well as supporting a variety of billing systems, the new platform will concentrate on networking access, charging and servicing processes, and also extending the product/ services package of electromobility. The aim is to set up a software-based, open platform that other providers can use.

Integration into the smart grid The networking of mobility also opens up the prospect of integrating the electric car into the “intelligent” smart grids of the future. This will contribute significantly to the efficient use of regenerative electricity from wind power and solar energy. On nights when electricity consumption is low and the wind strong enough to generate surplus electricity, this can be stored in the batteries of electric vehicles and later extracted when consumption rises.

But it’s not only on the required infrastructure that ­automobile manufacturers and the electricity industry are collaborating.

The German company Siemens has amalgamated all its activities in the field of electromobility into one entity and started trials on its own fleet. These trials will a­ ssess the day-to-day use of electric cars by 100 employees.

The aim is to optimize the interaction of car and grid, and ­better exploit the potential of renewable energy. ­Siemens also wants to cluster its many existing components intended for the electrically mobile future into a single portfolio, covering everything from the smart grid, infrastructure and recharging to components for the ­electric car and com­ prehensive, mutually compatible software packages.

Setting an example

Paris provides both bikes and electric cars for use in the city.

The French car industry aims to be the pioneer of emobility. (Shown here is the Citroën C-Zero).

In addition to Flinkster cars, German Railways also offer bicycles for hire through the Call-a-Bike scheme.

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Quick service

Renault-Nissan’s e-customers can swap batteries quickly in “Better Place” centers.

Renault rents out the batteries of its e-vehicles to make it easier for users to obtain one.

Electric vehicles such as the Renault Kangoo Z.E. have been developed especially for short-distance deliveries.

Complex system In a battery-powered electric car the drive is usually composed of an electric motor, a converter, a battery and a charging device. The electric motor needs an alternating current, which the converter supplies by transforming the direct current of the battery into an alternating one. This also regulates the speed by allowing a stronger flow of electricity. So as soon as the driver steps on the accelerator this increases the number of engine revolutions. But first the battery has to be charged. And for that, electric mobility necessitates a closely knit network of “electricity filling stations,” which must, above all, provide swift charging if e-cars are to achieve broad acceptance.

Where cars are parked for only a short period, quickcharging stations have real advantages. A driver can do his or her shopping or visit a restaurant while the vehicle’s batteries are being charged. For operators of short-term parking lots, quick-charging systems are just as much the number one choice as for companies with service vehicles. An alternative to quick charging is to exchange flat batteries for charged ones at “swapping stations.“ As all the electrical elements are contained within a single process or system, the swap can be car-

ried out safely, swiftly and conveniently, thus facilitating long-range travel without long waiting times. Renault, for instance, offers buyers of e-vehicles an inexpensive hire battery that can be swapped for a freshly charged one at special stations.

For domestic charging – for instance, at home overnight – Siemens has come up with the Wall Box. It is spacesaving, simple and can be installed quickly. The Wall Box offers the option of communication modules that can be integrated into the extended service provided through the smart grid.

By means of inductive charging, it is even possible to supply electricity to e-vehicles without the need for charging cables or recharging stations. A coil embedded in the ground – the primary coil – provides the connection to the public energy grid. When the driver activates the charging process, electricity starts to run through this primary coil. This builds up a magnetic field that induces an electric current in a secondary coil inside the vehicle. This induced current charges the vehicle’s battery. The charging stations can be integrated almost invisibly into any environment. This contactless charging process involves no wear and tear, is safe from vandalism and provides a convenient alternative for fleets of e-vehicles (for example taxis) and the home environment. A field test conducted by Siemens and BMW in Berlin is currently examining the performance of the systems under real-life conditions in order to establish their suitability for integration into series-produced vehicles and identify any modifications that may be necessary. The project is being funded by the German Ministry of the Environment.

The vision of “cooperative systems” According to the transport experts at Siemens, the integration of hitherto separate subsystems in vehicles, road infrastructure and traffic control centers could soon become reality. Given the growing interconnectivity of communications technology and the infrastructure of electromobility, intelligent electric car software can extend what is known as Car2X communication. This enables cars to communicate with other vehicles (Car2Car) or with the traffic infrastructure (Car2Infrastructure). Car2X turns cars into mobile sensors for traffic control by allowing the system to detect the build-up of traffic jams and their length from the location and speed of the networked cars. This exchange of data on traffic density, road conditions and traffic signal phases provides for better recommendations of alternative routes and safer, smoother traffic flow.

In Texas, the mobility experts at Siemens have implemented an intelligent system for controlling traffic lights.

It recognizes how many vehicles are approaching an intersection, and at what speeds, and regulates the phases of the traffic lights in such a way that the road with the denser traffic is given the longer green phase.

This new technology is seen as a means of not only 22

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Cable-free

In the future, parking lots in shopping centers, for example, will provide induction charging facilities for drivers of e-cars.

improving traffic flow, but also helping buses to keep to their timetables. The infrastructure can tell whether a bus is behind schedule and, where necessary, arrange for more green lights and an unhindered run to make up for lost time.

In this way, “intelligent” hardware and software and their networking with mobile systems of information, traffic management and safety are able to make a significant contribution to reducing fuel consumption, noise levels and pollutant emissions.

Huge investment requirements However, climate protection, in which green and networked mobility ultimately have a part to play, comes at a high price.

According to the calculations of the European Commission,­ Europe alone will need to invest 270 ­billion E ­ uros annually to reach its target of lowering CO2 emissions to only 20 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2050. Taken over a ­period of 40 years, that amounts to a staggering 10.8 trillion Euros. This money would have to be spent on modifications to industry, the renovation of buildings and massive investment in climate-friendly vehicles. The rate of investment of companies in the E ­ uropean Union would therefore have to rise from the current 19 percent to 20.5 percent.

According to the European Commission, the calculated investment requirements correspond to approximately 1.5 percent of the annual economic output of the E.U. member states.

However, against this expenditure, the experts in Brussels see a number of positive effects, too. In addition to a marked reduction in air pollution and 1.5 million new jobs, the European Commission also cites the examples of fuel cost savings of 175 to 320 billion Euros annually and lower medical costs for the treatment of respiratory diseases.

With induction coils like this one from Siemens, the batteries of electric vehicles can be recharged without the need for a cable.

Advertiser

The utility company RWE hits the road with a veteran Heinkel bubble car converted to electric drive.

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Sports car with the fuel consumption values of a compact car: the BMW i8 Concept is the next stage in the evolution of the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept.

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SOMMERREIFEN

Strategies for the transportation of the future The combination of rising crude oil prices, diminishing supplies of finite oil and natural gas, concerns about the effects of impending climate change, the dynamic increase in both passenger travel and freight transportation by truck due to the rapid development of large emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico and, last but not least, the rise of megacities with well over ten million inhabitants is necessitating the generation of new mobility concepts by automakers and their suppliers. In developing these concepts, manufacturers have to take into account the different needs of their heterogeneous customer bases, reduce hazardous emissions to negligible levels by improving their engine technologies and create new drive concepts for new energy sources without losing sight of the brand-specific features of their vehicles.

In reality, the challenges faced by manufacturers are even greater because ambitious competitors in the new growth markets are growing stronger and stronger. What is more, governments and authorities are imposing ever stricter laws and regulations to reduce the environmental and health impact of transportation – whether this is caused

by CO2 emissions, soot particles, fine dust, sulfur, nitrogen oxides or noise.

The automotive industry is facing these challenges head-on – and is using them to its advantage to generate innovations and derive competitive advantages. Some of the technical innovations of recent decades would not have been realized until much later, or indeed not at all, had there been no “pressure from above.” An early example of this is the three-way catalytic converter for exhaust gas cleaning in gasoline engines. This initially met with heavy resistance from automakers when it was first introduced in the second half of the 1980s, but ultimately overcame all opposition.

Both now and in the future, automakers face the challenge of complying with the increasingly stringent CO2 values enforced by leading industrialized countries. The primary goal is to initially reduce emissions of CO2 greenhouse gases to 120 grams per liter of fuel consumed. As this is an average value calculated across the entire range of vehicles offered by a car manufacturer, manufacturers of premium vehicles with powerful engines must ensure that they also offer vehicles with CO2 emissions well below this level in order to balance things out.

While the individual companies employ different strategies in a bid to stand out from the competition, the range of basic technologies available to them to do so is limited in scope.

They can: • develop economical internal combustion engines • convert their engines to run on biofuels • use hybrid technologies to reduce fuel consumption by utilizing electricity • offer all-electric vehicles – especially for urban transportation – and higher-performance battery technology • invest in the future of hydrogen and fuel cells for zeroemission electric propulsion Impressive progress has been made in all these areas in recent years and the first successful models are already on our roads. The range of green vehicles available is set to rise considerably in the near future. French automaker Renault, for example, announced that it plans to focus on developing all-electric vehicles and intends to launch the first electric models – initially for tradesmen and delivery services in urban areas – from the end of 2012. To make these vehicles more financially appealing, the expensive batteries are to be rented to vehicle owners for a monthly sum of less than EUR 100. The Japanese market leader in

Award

Toyota Motor Europe won the Green Manufacturing Award at the 5th Annual Strategic Manufacturing Awards 2011.

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

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High speed

hybrid vehicles, Toyota, is rapidly expanding its range of full hybrids. The German premium manufacturer Daimler, with its Mercedes-Benz and smart brands, is positioning itself as a diversified provider of all types of drive. For European market leader VW and its subsidiary Audi, efficient internal combustion engines and their further potential for optimization are top priority. However, both continue to work on hybrid, electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology, too.

All in all, sustainable mobility is a top priority at all leading automakers.

The BMW four-cylinder diesel engine with TwinPower Turbo consumes just 5.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers.

BMW – EfficientDynamics

The BMW i3 is an all-electric vehicle designed for urban environments.

German premium manufacturer BMW Group has consistently embedded sustainable mobility in its overall strategy.

“The BMW Group considers itself to be a responsible member of society and has therefore anchored sustainable practices across its entire value-added chain, including in the underlying processes” (BMW).

In doing so, the BMW Group takes into account three dimensions – economy, environment and society. Based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach, sustainable practices have been a firmly established group-wide objective since 2009, enabling detailed objectives to be derived for the individual departments.

The importance of sustainability at the BMW Group is also reflected in the way sustainability is organized. The highest authority in the group is the Sustainability Board, which comprises all the Management Board members and defines the group’s strategic alignment.

To protect the environment and resources, the BMW Group is investing in the reduction of environmental pollution

through low-emission products and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. For BMW, sustainable product stewardship begins in the development phase and does not end until the raw materials used have been recycled. The BMW Group’s involvement in society at and beyond its plant locations is part of the comprehensive social responsibility policy that the company is committed to.

By implementing a package of measures known as EfficientDynamics, the group is gradually reducing the fuel consumption and therefore the harmful CO2 emissions of all its vehicles. To this end, it is driving forward the development of a wide range of technologies for sustainable mobility with a view to lowering the consumption of fossil fuels and reducing vehicle emissions to negligible levels in the long run. Its strategy focuses on continuously improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines, further developing hybrid technology (BMW ActiveHybrid), innovative concepts for electric mobility (BMW i) and the longterm use of hydrogen from renewable sources as an energy carrier. It also aims to boost efficiency through lightweight construction and the optimization of aerodynamic properties and electronic systems.

The BMW Group is currently developing a new family of internal combustion engines of six, four and three cylinders with significantly lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Based on a standardized design principle, these new engines will use a significantly higher number of shared components for both gasoline and diesel engines. The new modular engine system is based on the BMW TwinPower Turbo technology package that is already used for fourcylinder gasoline and six-cylinder diesel engines. The new drive assemblies in the BMW X1 xDrive 28i (four-cylinder gasoline engine) and the BMW 530d xDrive (six-cylinder diesel) each consume around 1.5 liters or 16 percent less fuel than the earlier models – i.e. an average of 7.9 liters of Super or 5.7 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers in the EU test cycle. When it comes to reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the new BMW 116d EfficientDynamics Edition, in particular, achieves top marks. With its 1.6-liter four-cylinder diesel engine with TwinPower Turbo technology and 100 kW/116 hp, this model – available from March 2012 – consumes an average of 3.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers in the EU test cycle and generates 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

The BMW Group also uses electronic systems to minimize consumption – for example, the start-stop function, ECO PRO mode for consumption-optimized driving and an efficient energy management system for air vent control and seat and exterior mirror heating. It also focuses on weight minimization through design optimization and the use of lightweight materials such as aluminum and carbon fiberreinforced plastic (CFRP).

New BMW i sub-brand In addition to improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines, the BMW Group is seeking to accelerate the electrification process by enhancing electric drives and hybrid technology. In 2011, the 26

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Hydrogen for zero emissions The Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) aims to ensure clean mobility for the future – with low noise and low emissions.

Some 15 partners are testing the feasibility of hydrogen as an everyday fuel. The scope of testing includes not only the continuous operation of highperformance hydrogen vehicles and the fast and safe refueling of these vehicles. The CEP is also committed to the clean and sustainable production of hydrogen and the transportation and storage of H2 in liquid and gas form.

Hydrogen as an energy carrier can make the biggest contribution to climate protection if it

Munich-based company consolidated its activities in the field of electric mobility and sustainable vehicles under a new sub-brand – BMW i.

This brand initially comprised two vehicles. The BMW i3 Concept, a series-produced vehicle with all-electric drive, is purpose-built to meet the future demands of sustainable mobility in urban areas. With four seats, wide-opening opposing “coach” doors and a trunk capacity of around 200 liters, the BMW i3 is neatly equipped for the demands of everyday use.

The second vehicle, the BMW i8 Concept, is designed to be a sports car and, as a plug-in hybrid, is powered by a combination of internal combustion engine and electric drive. At the front axle, the electric motor is adopted from the BMW i3 Concept and modified for use in the BMW i8, while a 164 kW/223 hp turbocharged three-cylinder gasoline engine drives the rear axle. According to manufacturer data, the vehicle consumes less than three liters of fuel per 100 kilometers based on the European test cycle.

The lithium-ion batteries can be charged in around just two hours.

Another special feature is the vehicle’s high-voltage generator attached to the internal combustion engine that is used to generate energy via the engine in order to charge the storage unit and increase the vehicle’s range. Series-produced BMW i3 and BMW i8 cars will be available on the market from the end of 2013.

The BMW Group has one of the largest test fleets of electric cars in the world, comprising more than 600 MINI E vehicles since 2008. This will be complemented by more than 1,000 BMW ActiveE cars from the end of 2011. The aim of these trials is to drive forward the development of the necessary infrastructure in conjunction with partners such as energy producers, universities and government offices and gain experience of customer behavior and the suitability of components for everyday use.

is produced sustainably. The CEP is clearly committed to the increasing use of renewable energy sources to produce hydrogen.

Born from the Transport Energy Strategy (TES), the CEP was established in December 2002 as a joint initiative between politicians and industry under the leadership of the German Federal Ministry of Transport.

The CEP is the largest demonstration project for hydrogen mobility in Europe and a lighthouse project in the field of transportation for the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Program (NIP). The NIP is implemented

Research and cooperation

by NOW GmbH (National Organization for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology).

Members of the CEP include technology, mineral oil and energy concerns, most major automakers and two leading public transportation operators. The German federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia are also associate partners.

Clear information

A key factor for the success of electric mobility is the continuous further development of batteries. In addition to existing structures, the BMW Group and Toyota therefore agreed at the beginning of December to work closely to investigate battery technology with a view to accelerating development and making it more cost-efficient. Both companies are particularly keen to combine their knowledge and strengths when it comes to lithium-ion technology, a key technology for electric mobility. The batteries are a crucial component of both all-electric drives and the combination of internal combustion engines and electric motors used in hybrid vehicles.

As part of this partnership, the BMW Group will also supply Toyota with economical diesel engines.

The BMW Group considers hydrogen to be a longterm alternative for zero-emission driving. Its research in this area focuses on unresolved storage issues. However, it is also working on fuel cells. The fuel cell in the Hydrogen 7, a BMW with a hydrogen internal combustion engine, powers the onboard electrical network. A fuel cell of similar dimensions, combined with an electric motor and a four-cylinder internal combustion engine, is installed in a modified test vehicle based on the BMW 1 Series. The gasoline engine is mainly used for long-distance high-speed driving while the fuel cell is best suited to urban driving at low speeds.

The internal combustion engine drives the front wheels while the electric motor powers the back wheels. With this concept, the space otherwise needed for the cardan shaft is used to house the batteries. The fuel cell used has a service life of 5,000 hours, which corresponds to roughly 150,000 kilometers at an average speed of 30 km/h in urban areas. Usability in winter has also been significantly improved. The low-temperature PEM fuel cell can be started even after it has been left standing for extended periods at sub-zero temperatures.

The display of the Toyota FCHV-adv provides drivers with real-time information on the status of the fuel cell drive.

Test vehicle In Berlin, Toyota is contributing five FCHV-adv fuel cell hybrids to the CEP.

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

27

The Lexus CT 200h was Toyota’s first full hybrid in the premium compact class.

Charge status

A special display in the Lexus CT 200h shows the charge status of the battery.

In 2012, the Toyota TS030 Hybrid will be the first hybrid vehicle from Toyota to compete at Le Mans.

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Toyota – fast off the mark Toyota’s current strategy is based on three pillars – Technology, Manufacturing, Social Contribution. This model, launched in 2008, is based on Toyota’s longterm vision “Zeronize & Maximize.” “Zeronize” stands for the minimization of the negative impact of vehicles on the environment and “Maximize” symbolizes positive aspects such as benefits, comfort and pleasure.

The development of environmentally friendly vehicles (Technology in the three-pillar model) resulted in the first series-produced full hybrid car, the Prius, in 1997. The Japanese automaker now offers this drive system for vehicles in various segments and performance classes.

The different types of drive include front-wheel-drive, ­rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles with system output of 100 kW (136 hp) in the case of the Prius and up to 327 kW (445 hp) in the case of the Lexus LS 600h.

Following the addition of the compact Auris Hybrid in 2010, Toyota further expanded its model portfolio with the compact Yaris Hybrid, the seven-seater Prius+ hybrid van and a plug-in version of the Prius. Lexus launched the first full hybrid in the compact premium segment – the CT 200h – in spring 2011. It complements Lexus’s port­folio of full-hybrid vehicles, which also includes the ­Limousine LS 600h, the Gran Turismo GS 450h and the SUV RX 450h.

Toyota already uses 600 Prius plug-in hybrids in leasing programs around the world with the aim of testing these

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

vehicles under everyday conditions to determine whether they are suitable for large-scale series production. At the same time, Toyota is further developing the fuel cell drive with a view to creating a “zero-emission vehicle.” Through the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP), the network of hydro­ gen filling stations is to grow in coming years to ensure that fuel-cell vehicles throughout Germany have a ready supply of the fuel of the future. Toyota plans to launch its first fuel cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) in 2015. Toyota has been operating five FCHV-adv fuel cell hybrid vehicles in Berlin as part of the CEP since March 2010 to gain insights for further development and raise acceptance of hydrogen as a fuel.

The FT-EV II concept study based on the hybrid systems involves an all-electric-drive vehicle. This compact allelectric-drive commuter car has a top speed of 100 km/h and a range of more than 90 kilometers.

Daimler opts for broad-based approach Given the dramatic changes afoot in the mobility sector, Daimler AG, the owner of the Mercedes-Benz and smart passenger car brands and the world’s largest provider of commercial vehicles, is committed to the principles of sustainability. These principles cover the economy, innovation, environmental protection, safety, employees, customers and society. For product development, this means making cars as environmentally friendly and safe as possible – without neglecting driving pleasure and, in the case of

commercial vehicles, cost-effectiveness. However, experts at Daimler believe that the future will not be dominated by just one technology, as has been the case with the internal combustion engine for the last 100 years or so. Instead, solutions tailored to the needs of individual customers and all traffic requirements will be harmonized with the requirements of sustainable mobility. This applies to both individual mobility by car, public or private regional and long-distance travel by bus, freight transportation by van or truck and special vehicles for public services, municipalities and industry.

As part of Daimler’s “Road to Emission-Free Driving” and “Shaping, Future and Transportation” initiatives, the company is focusing on three key areas of development: • optimizing vehicles with state-of-the-art internal combustion engines • further increasing efficiency through made-to-measure hybridization • local zero-emission driving with electric vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells Daimler’s BlueEFFICIENCY packages, which have been available for more than 100 Mercedes-Benz models since the end of 2011, include the company’s full range of fuel conservation measures for gasoline and diesel passenger cars. Depending on the vehicle series, these made-to-

Thanks to BlueTEC, the Daimler-Benz Fuso 6R10 complies with the stringent JP09 emissions standards in Japan.

measure packages cover a variety of engine enhancements and a combination of various technologies aimed at reducing the weight of the car’s bodywork. The BlueEFFICIENCY package also includes low-rolling-resistance tires, aerodynamic optimizations and the start-stop function as a precursor to hybridization.

BlueTEC is a clean diesel technology developed by Daimler for commercial vehicles and passenger cars. Thanks to BlueTEC, fuel consumption can be reduced by between two and five percent – for trucks, this means a diesel saving of up to 2,000 liters per year. BlueTEC exhaust technology has been used to great effect in MercedesBenz commercial vehicles for several years to significantly reduce nitrogen oxide, particle and CO2 emissions. The latest diesel passenger cars have also been made much more efficient thanks to cutting-edge technologies. The most economical model in the C-Class, the C 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY with six-speed manual transmission and ECO start-stop function as standard, consumes an average of just 4.4 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers – 0.4 liters less than in the past. This corresponds to 117 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer. Mercedes-Benz has also reduced the fuel consumption of its luxury-class vehicles considerably. The S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY consumes just 5.7 liters per 100 kilometers.

Enhanced shelf life

The antioxidant concentrate Baynox® can be used without reservation to enhance the shelf life of pure biodiesel and the bio-diesel that is added to mineral diesel as required by law. The product was awarded the “no harm” certificate by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitätsmanagement Biodiesel e.V. (AGQM). Its active ingredient BHT (butylhydroxytoluene) does not contain sulfur or nitrogen and combusts completely without leaving residues.

1 2 3 4

5

6

F-CELL drive The B-Class F-CELL was the first series-produced ­electric vehicle from ­Mercedes-Benz to be ­powered by a fuel cell.

1. Lithium-ion battery 2. Hydrogen tank 3. Fuel cell stack 4. Hydrogen module 5. Electric motor 6. Air module

Hybrid drives

In the Mercedes-Benz S 400 HYBRID, the disc-shaped electric motor is located between the engine and the seven-speed automatic transmission to save space.

The new CDI four-cylinder in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class delivers 150 kW/204 hp but consumes only 5.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers. Compared with its predecessor, this represents a 20 percent increase in power and a 24 percent decrease in CO2 emissions.

Even the smallest Daimler benefits from CDI technology.

The latest smart fortwo cdi consumes just 3.3 liters of diesel (combined) over 100 kilometers, which corresponds to 86 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer.

In the gasoline segment, Daimler offers the new BlueDIRECT generation of engines with six or eight cylinders.

These have been gradually incorporated into several series since 2010. These engines reduce fuel consumption by up to one quarter – with more power and higher torque.

In terms of efficiency, the latest direct injection engines are therefore closing the gap on diesel engines.

Daimler also considers natural gas technology (NGT) to be an ecologically and economically suitable alternative to traditional drive concepts. Compared with conventional gasoline or diesel fuels, natural gas contains little carbon and produces few emissions when burned. Furthermore, the natural gas engine is extremely quiet and generates fewer CO2 emissions than diesel engines. With this in mind, Mercedes-Benz has incorporated natural gas passenger cars such as the E 200 NGT and, in the future, will also include a natural gas version of the new B-Class into its portfolio.

Daimler also offers eco-friendly natural-gas-drives in, for example, Citaro CNG buses and Econic NGT trucks.

Made-to-measure hybridization

In Japan and the United States, thousands of commercial vehicles are already on the road with hybrid technology from the Daimler Group. Pictured above: the engine of the Fuso Hybrid.

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Vehicle drives powered by hybrid technology – a combination of internal combustion engine and electric motor – have become increasingly popular among customers in recent years. Almost all big-name automakers are now committed to the development of this fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology and are offering their first series-produced hybrid vehicles. Mercedes-Benz’s first hybrid, the S 400 HYBRID, was launched in 2009. This combines a 3.5-liter V6 gasoline engine (279 hp) with an electric motor (15 kW/20 hp), consumes an average of

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

7.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers and generates 186 grams of CO2 per kilometer. The electric motor supports the gasoline engine in situations that generally require particularly large amounts of fuel – i.e. starting and accelerating.

This was the first series-produced model to use a lithiumion battery for storage. The second component is the 15 kW/20 hp compact hybrid module.

This disc-shaped electric motor saves space in the converter housing between the engine and the sevenspeed automatic transmission. The compact component also serves as a starter for the ECO start-stop function and as an alternator. During braking, the electric motor serves as a generator, recuperating kinetic energy that is then stored in the lithium-ion high-voltage battery. Under normal operating conditions, this battery has a service life of at least ten years.

With its series-produced plug-in hybrid, Mercedes-Benz will soon also be able to offer a hybrid that provides the option of all-electric driving over 30 kilometers.

In the concept car, the drive consists of three main components – a powerful V6 direct injection gasoline engine, a hybrid module with around 44 kW/60 hp and a lithiumion battery with a storage capacity of more than ten kWh. Thanks to the efficient drive and the reduction in CO2 emissions in battery-electric mode, the car consumes just 3.2 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers (certified).

The Mercedes-Benz E 300 BlueTec HYBRID also combines various hybrid modules. With its new four-cylinder diesel engine, this vehicle has a combined fuel consumption of just 4.2 liters per 100 kilometers, making it the world’s most economical luxury-class model.

Hybrid technologies are also key to the development of drives for commercial vehicles. Depending on how the vehicle is used, diesel consumption can be reduced by up to one third.

The Atego BlueTEC Hybrid, with its lightweight fourcylinder diesel engine and a water-cooled electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery with a peak output of 44 kW, has been available to customers in the German distribution transportation sector since the beginning of 2011. It consumes 15 percent less fuel and generates correspondingly fewer emissions.

Many thousands of hybrid buses and commercial vehicles from Daimler’s Orion, Freightliner and Mitsubishi Fuso brands are already in operation in the United States and Japan. Taking into account the Mercedes-Benz trucks, buses and vans powered by natural gas in Europe as well, this makes Daimler the largest provider of alternative drive systems for commercial vehicles.

Eco-friendly travel with green energy When it comes to green mobility, the most promising solution is currently the electric motor powered by climateneutral electricity. Electric vehicles powered by energy from hydrogen fuel cells also fall into this category. If the hydrogen were produced from renewable sources such as

biomass, glycerin, electrolysis using wind energy or solar power, or algae rather than the natural gas or coal overwhelmingly used today, zero-emission transportation would already be a reality. The technologies are available and are largely tried and tested. It is now a question of finding financially viable solutions to make these processes ready for series production. Considerable progress has already been made in this regard.

An efficient, secure and reliable energy storage device is a basic precondition for all electric drive systems. The performance of the battery – from its storage capacity and service life to its crash safety and recyclability – determines the performance of the overall system.

Lithium-ion technology provides the best prerequisites and has already proved its mettle in hybrid applications.

The main advantages are its relatively compact dimensions and significantly higher performance compared with conventional battery technologies. Working with partners, Daimler has already started series production and incorporates lithium-ion batteries into its vehicles since 2012.

Thanks to their longer range and short refueling times, fuel cell vehicles are also suitable for long journeys, as they generate their own electricity onboard from hydrogen. Daimler has been investigating the use of fuel cell technology in cars since 1994 and now has 180 registered patents in this area. As part of broad-based practical

The Mercedes SLS AMG E-CELL sports car. The four synchronous motors have a combined total output of 390 kW / 532 hp.

trials with fuel cell vehicles, 100 passenger cars, buses, and vans have been on the move in everyday use with customers, during which time they have already covered more than 4.5 million kilometers. The insights gleaned from these trials provided the basis for manufacture of the first series-produced fuel cell vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL, as of late 2009.

Daimler’s all-battery-powered electric vehicles are mainly designed for use in cities and urban centers: • The smart fortwo electric drive is powered by a 55 kW electric motor that draws its energy from a lithium-ion battery in the undercarriage of the vehicle. It has a range of around 140 kilometers, which is suitable for urban areas. Large-scale series production started in 2012.

• The A-Class E-CELL is the first series-produced batterypowered electric car for everyday use from MercedesBenz. This family-friendly five-seater uses lithium-ion batteries that enable a range of 255 kilometers (NUDC).

The motor provides peak power of 70 kW and an electronically limited top speed of 150 km/h. A total of 500 A-Class E-CELL cars have been produced since fall 2010. Delivery of these to selected fleet and private customers began in 2011 as part of a leasing scheme.

• The B-Class F-CELL fuel cell passenger car, with a range of approximately 400 kilometers, is the first vehicle of its kind to be series-produced by Mercedes-Benz. Its electric motor has an output of 100 kW/136 hp, putting

Impressive capacity

The battery in the SLS AMG E-CELL consists of 324 lithium-ion polymer cells with a storage capacity of 480 kW – the highest storage capacity in the automotive industry.

Green is “Blue” at Volkswagen

VW is preparing for the market launch of all-electric vehicles with a test fleet of Golf blue-e-motion cars.

Ready for action

A Mercedes-Benz technician performs a temperature test on a fuel cell.

Urban dwarf NILS is Volkswagen’s compact electric concept car for commuters.

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it on a par with a two-liter gasoline engine, and its top speed is 170 km/h. Some 200 B-Class F-CELL cars were delivered to customers in Germany and the United States up to 2012. The recently completed MercedesBenz F-CELL World Drive – where three of these vehicles circumnavigated the globe covering a distance of more than 30,000 kilometers – certainly proved the maturity of this technology. As a result, the start of series production of electric vehicles powered by fuel cells is being brought forward a year to 2014.

• A limited number of SLS AMG E-CELL, the super sports car among electric vehicles, will be produced as of 2013. Launched in mid-2010, this gullwing car has four synchronous electric motors located near the wheels, with a peak output of 392 kW/533 hp. The lithium-ion high-voltage battery can store 48 kWh of energy.

• Thanks to its zero-emission electric drive and maximum load of 900 kilograms, the Vito E-CELL is perfect for driving in cities and particularly eco-sensitive areas. Its electric motor has a peak output of 70 kW/95 hp, a range of around 130 kilometers and a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The first 100 vehicles were delivered to customers in 2010 and a further 2,000 have followed since 2011.

•A s of 2012, Daimler also offers an electric bicycle in the form of the smart ebike. Strictly speaking, the smart ebike is a hybrid, as it functions as a pedelec. The elec­tric motor switches on as soon as the cyclist starts pedaling as if he were on a conventional bicycle. The cyclist himself decides how much boost is required from the 250-Watt electric motor. He can choose from four levels depending on his requirements. Irrespective of the selected level and cycling style, the smart ebike can cover a range of 100 kilometers on one full battery charge.

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

Volkswagen’s goal is to ensure that all vehicles and technologies are developed with a view to them having better environmental properties than earlier comparable models.

With this in mind, Europe’s largest automotive group takes into account environmental considerations at the earliest possible stage of technical development. To fulfill its own requirements, Volkswagen has defined the environmental objectives for technical development. These are reviewed on an ongoing basis and adapted to current environmental laws and requirements and to voluntary commitments.

The Wolfsburg-based group wants to make an active contribution to cutting global CO2 emissions, to lowering emissions of substances such as nitrogen oxides and soot particles and, last but not least, to reducing dependence on crude oil. The automaker’s drive and fuel strategy is therefore geared to longterm sustainable mobility.

In addition to continuously improving vehicles from one model generation to the next, Volkswagen is also committed to a variety of technologies for sustainable mobility.

These include gasoline and diesel engines (TSI and TDI), which still have vast potential for improvement, natural gas engines, units for second-generation biofuels such as SunFuel and SunEthanol and engines featuring a Combined Combustion System (CCS), combining TSI and TDI. Volkswagen is also working on hybrid concepts and electric vehicles powered by battery and fuel cell technology.

BlueMotion seal of quality BlueMotion has been Volkswagen’s seal of quality for the most economical models in their classes since 2005.

BlueMotion stands for the interaction between the engine, engine management system, transmission, aerodynamics and tires. In concrete terms, less fuel is consumed through: • revised engine management with modified software • reduced idle speed • longer transmission ratio in the higher gears • gear-change recommendation indicator to help select the most efficient gear • optimized aerodynamics for lower air resistance • tires with optimized rolling resistance • lower bodywork • regenerative braking (recuperation) • engine with start-stop system.

In the case of the VW Polo BlueMotion, the new 75 hp diesel engine consumes an average of just 3.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers and generates just 87 grams of CO2 per kilometer – 20 percent less than the Polo TDI. The Golf BlueMotion, with its 1.6-liter common rail TDI and 105 hp consumes an average of 3.8 liters of diesel.

According to manufacturer data, it emits 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Like the Golf, the VW Passat BlueMotion has a 1.6-liter common rail TDI engine that, in this larger vehicle, consumes 4.4 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers.

For the Passat, VW also offers the SCR catalytic converter in conjunction with the AdBlue additive (liquid urea) to significantly reduce the level of nitrogen oxides in exhaust gas.

SCR stands for “selective catalytic reduction. The catalytic converter converts nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water, thus preventing the formation of ground-level ozone in the hot summer months.

Volkswagen pioneered the introduction of cylinder deactivation for the new 1.4 TSI engines in 2011. This technology temporarily deactivates two of the four cylinders under low or medium loads. According to manufacturer data, this cuts fuel consumption by 0.4 liters per 100 kilometers. Together with the start-stop function, which deactivates the engine when the car is idling, the total fuel saving is approximately 0.6 liters per 100 kilometers. This deactivation technology is even more effective in urban driving environments. At a speed of 50 km/h in third or fourth gear, measurements showed that fuel consumption is up to one liter less per 100 kilometers.

The VW Touareg SUV was the first VW to be fitted with the hybrid model of a gasoline engine combined with an electric drive.

Positive steps toward hybrid technology With its test fleet of 20 Volkswagen Golf Estates, Volkswagen is also gaining practical experience of the plug-in hybrid and range extender in Berlin. The Golf Twin Drive test cars enable zero-emission driving over large distances in urban areas. In electric mode, the Volkswagen Golf Estate is powered by a battery. If the battery is empty or the vehicle’s speed exceeds 120 km/h, the 85 kW/116

hp internal combustion engine automatically kicks in.

This technology makes it possible to cover more than 50 kilometers in all-electric mode in urban areas. The gasoline engine can remain deactivated if the driver wishes.

Once the energy from the battery has been used up, the Twin Drive automatically switches to its internal combustion engine and continues to drive. The battery and tank have a combined range of around 900 kilometers and the electric motor and internal combustion engine have a combined system output of 120 kW/163 hp. According to the guidelines for determining the fuel consumption of plug-in hybrid vehicles, the Golf Twin Drive consumes 2.1 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, which corresponds to 49 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

Volkswagen has promised fuel consumption of 0.9 liters per 100 kilometers and 24 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer for the XL1 prototype. This one-liter vehicle combines lightweight construction, aerodynamics, a plugin hybrid system consisting of a two-cylinder TDI engine (35 kW/48 hp) and electric motor (20 kW/27 hp), seven-speed dual transmission and a lithium-ion battery.

The electric motor supports the TDI when accelerating, but can also power the XL1 prototype independently over a distance of up to 35 kilometers. The lithium-ion battery can be charged at any wall socket and also charges itself during braking, when the electric motor serves as a generator.

Volkswagen is testing hydrogen and fuel cell technology with the VW Tiguan HyMotion.

Environmental objectives of Volkswagen

Climate protection: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions; reduce fuel consumption in the driving cycle; be fuel-efficiency leader in each class of vehicle; support fuel-efficient styles of driving; contribute to/assess eco-compatible traffic management measures.

Resource conservation: Improve resource efficiency; pursue best possible recyclability and identification of the materials used; use renewable and secondary raw materials; develop and make available alternative powertrain technologies; enable the use of alternative fuels.

Health protection: Reduce regulated and nonregulated emissions; avoid the use of hazardous and harmful materials; minimize interior emissions including odors; attain best possible exterior and interior noise levels.

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Electric city cars In addition to continuous efficiency improvements, Volkswagen is also committed to the commercialization of electric mobility with and without fuel cell technology. Since 2006, Volkswagen has been a member of the Clean Energy Partnership, which seeks to promote electric mobility based on hydrogen and fuel cell technology. The aim of the 15 partners from the mineral oil, automotive, energy supply and plant /industrial gas industries is to demonstrate the viability of the fuel cell vehicle in continuous operation, including its refueling with hydrogen and the sustainable production, transportation and storage of hydrogen, and to develop it into a marketable product.

In the Volkswagen Tiguan HyMotion, for example, the hydrogen is stored at a pressure of 700 bar. The 80-kW fuel cell system is supported by a traction battery where necessary to provide energy for the 100 kW electric motor. During rapid acceleration, the electric motor draws additional energy from the battery, which serves as a buffer for the electrical energy needed to perform the hybrid functions. For example, the energy recovered while braking is fed back into the battery. In addition to two VW Tiguan HyMotion models, Volkswagen has also been testing two Caddy Maxi HyMotion models and two Audi Q5 HFC models since 2009. In Berlin, Hanover and Wolfsburg, VW has been testing a fleet of pilot series Golf blue-e-motion electric cars since March 2011. According to manufacturer data, this all-battery-powered electric motor can cover a range of at least 150 kilometers and has an output of 85

At the beginning of 2011 Volkswagen presented the one-liter XL1 that consumes just 0.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers.

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RUBRIK

kW (115 hp). The car is expected to be launched in 2013.

The compact E-UP will also go into series production in 2013, as will the E-VW Jetta towards the end of year.

By 2018, the proportion of electric vehicles produced by VW is set to rise to three percent or around ten million units.

A number of research projects already unveiled by Volkswagen provide an insight into its future vehicle concepts.

The NILS research project is a one-seater, 3.05-meter long electric vehicle designed specifically for commuters. The driver sits in the middle, the motor is situated to the rear and the 17-inch alloy wheel rims are fitted with 115/80 (front) and 125/80 (rear) tires with optimized rolling resistance. According to manufacturer data, it has a range of 65 kilometers and a maximum speed of 130 km/h. The 5.3 kWh lithium-ion battery can be plugged into any normal wall socket and charged within two hours.

With the eT! concept car, Volkswagen is looking to re-invent the delivery vehicle. This all-electric van is powered by two wheel hub electric motors on the rear axle with a total output of 70 kW and can reach a top speed of 110 km/h.

A lithium-ion battery that can store 31.1 kWh of energy is located in the undercarriage of the eT!. Its maximum range is 100 kilometers.

Four-pillar Audi strategy VW subsidiary Audi AG pursues a four-pillar mobility strategy. Audi’s aim is to further expand its strengths in the field of successful TDI and TFSI engines (combination of direct injection and turbocharging). At the same time, its

The all-electric Ford Focus Electric is scheduled to be launched in Europe in 2012.

engineers are working on a sustainable fuel strategy and on the electrification of the drive system, i.e. hybrid and electric vehicles.

Audi sees great potential for the reduction of fuel consumption and emissions in the downsizing of TDI and TFSI engines – i.e. replacing displacement with turbochargers.

As the turbocharged engines already offer high torque at low speeds, longer transmission ratios and therefore less fuel consumption is possible without losing dynamism.

To optimize the tried-and-tested TDI technologies, Audi is making increasing use of electronic engine management – for example, the targeted deactivation of individual cylinders, which allows the engine to run on four instead of eight cylinders where appropriate. Audi engineers believe that vast savings can be realized in this area without compromising on the typical characteristics of the brand.

Further electronic aids are also set to improve driver awareness of efficient driving techniques.

The third pillar of Audi’s efficiency enhancement drive is the increasing use of biofuels made of plant-based raw materials such as straw or waste wood that cannot be used for food production.

The fourth pillar of Audi ’s mobility strategy is the electrification of the powertrain. Activities in this area range from start-stop and recuperation systems (micro hybrid) and mild and full hybrids in the higher vehicle classes to plug-in electric vehicles powered by electricity from a wall socket.

This type of battery-powered electric vehicle with a rangeextending internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrids gives excellent all-rounders for short and long distances.

Ford focuses on electric drives Ford in Europe has set itself the target of offering a range of electric vehicles by the end of 2013. In addition to hybrid and plug-in hybrid models, these include all-electricpowered cars. This drive is based on the global product strategy ONE Ford, which aims to ensure a uniform port­ folio of models worldwide.

These next-generation Ford vehicles benefit from Ford’s experience in North America – primarily in urban areas – with, for example, the Limousine Fusion Hybrid. The same applies to the Escape Hybrid, the first hybrid SUV launched by Ford in 2004. Both the Fusion Hybrid and the Escape Hybrid are among the most fuel-efficient ­vehicles in their respective classes in North America.

The company’s experience in the field of electrification is also channeled into the development of other models.

These include the plug-in-hybrid test cars based on the Escape Hybrid that are currently being put through their paces by Ford in cooperation with ten U.S. electricity suppliers, the U.S. Department of Energy, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the Electric Power Research Institute. They have already covered more than 560,000 kilometers under real test conditions.

Hybrids and plug-in hybrids such as the new C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi models, which Ford plans to launch in Europe in 2013 together with a third vehicle of which no further details are known, are an obvious alternative to vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines. They benefit from Ford’s powersplit technology and state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, which are now even more compact and lighter than in previous hybrid models.

As the first series-produced Ford model with a plug-in hybrid drive, the C-MAX Energi is based on the five-seater bodywork of the new compact van series. In combined mode (electric motor and internal combustion engine), it will have a range of more than 800 kilometers.

Before the three new hybrid models are launched, two allelectric Ford vehicles are set to hit the European market – the Transit Connect Electric and the electric version of the latest generation of Ford Focus.

The new Ford Focus Electric is based on the third generation of this model.

Remote control

Ford has developed an app for the Focus Electric that allows the driver to check the charge status of batteries, calculate the distance to the nearest electric charging station and calculate the remaining range.

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

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Innovation drivers for green mobility Climate change, a growing global population, increasing industrialization in the larger emerging economies, the trend toward megacities and the rapid take-up of automotive mobility in populous countries such as China, India and Brazil pose massive challenges for suppliers of mobility. By offering innovative products and processes, LANXESS is helping to reduce CO2 emissions, wear and noise pollution, while also promoting sustainability.

An electric flywheel energy store in the Porsche 918 RSR Hybrid supplies energy to the electric motors.

Progress Handling 130 % Rolling resistance

Dry braking

135 %

130 %

100 %

Wet braking

Mileage

135 %

130 % Aquaplaning

130 % Tires, 1975 (=100 %) Modern passenger car (2005)

The continual further development of technologies and materials has enabled tire producers to optimize all of the main parameters for tires by at least 25 percent since 1975.

According to various estimates, between 600 million and 900 million cars are currently driving along the world’s roads and tracks. By the year 2050, the figure will be between 1.7 and 2.7 billion. On top of this figure come another 400 million commercial vehicles – and this figure too is rising fast. At the same time, the high emission levels of CO2 and other harmful gases are threatening to accelerate climatic change into potentially catastrophic global warming. Should the application of climate-neutral fuels, innovative drive technologies and design measures aimed at reducing vehicle weights not be successful in reducing pollution emissions drastically – despite the increase in vehicles worldwide – motorized road transport will be responsible for the emission of an unimaginable eight gigatons of CO2 in the year 2050.

That would be around one fourth of the total global emissions of carbon dioxide. The remainder is released by industry, power plants and private households.

This scenario assumes that nothing will be done to combat the current trend! After all, although the governments of this world find it difficult to establish binding limits and targets for greenhouse gas concentrations – despite the many climate conferences – there are a large number of national and supraregional regulations and directives

that impose strict limits aimed at reducing CO2 emissions in spite of the increase in traffic volume.

The automotive industry and its suppliers have taken up the challenge of sustainability. They are addressing issues that include fuel-saving internal combustion engines; hybrid drive systems; the suitability of electric vehicles for everyday use; new lightweight materials; the manufacture of less-polluting fuels from biomass; and the resource-conserving and environmentally friendly generation of hydrogen for use in fuel cells for zeroemission electric drive systems.

Important partner for green mobility As the world’s most important manufacturer of synthetic rubber and an essential partner of the international tire and automobile industry, LANXESS considers it has a special duty to help achieve the objectives of climate pro­tection and the sustainable utilization of finite re­sources.

After all, the company, which was formed from the Bayer Group in 2005, has a long tradition to live up to. It is over 100 years since the company’s chemists discovered synthetic rubber, which has undergone a great deal of development in the meantime. Without this material’s wide-ranging and versatile properties, green mobility

ducts for “Green Mobility” are produced at 27 of our 48 Green mobility – site network duction sites 27 of 48 production sites offer Green Mobility solutions

Brilon (DE) Dormagen (DE) Krefeld-Uerdingen (DE) Antwerp (BE) Hamm-Uentrop (DE) Zwijndrecht (BE) Leverkusen (DE)

Sarnia (CA) Chardon (US)

Port Jérôme (FR)

Gastonia (US)

Baytown (US)

Lipezk (RU)

La Wantzenau (FR)

Little Rock (US)

• Existing site • Inauguration 2013

Bitterfeld (DE) Mannheim (DE)

Orange (US) Filago (IT)

Cabo de Santo Agostinho (BR)

Qingdao (CN) Wuxi (CN)

Toyohashi (JP)

Jhagadia (IN) Singapore (SG)

Porto Feliz (BR) Triunfo (BR) Burzaco (AR)

As of April 2013

Existing site

Climate protection through green mobility is essential if megacities such as Tokyo are to survive.

would scarcely be possible. With its important production locations in Europe, South America, North America and Asia, and with the extensive product range it offers for the tire and automobile industries and their suppliers, LANXESS sees itself as playing a key role in the collaboration between all sectors involved in automobile manufacture. The specialty chemicals manufacturer is well equipped for this role, due to its innovative approach, customized solutions and high-tech products.

With 17,200 employees in 31 countries, LANXESS achieved 9.1 billion euros in sales in 2012 and earnings of around 1.2 billion euros before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization (EBITDA) and exceptionals. LANXESS is aiming for EBITDA pre exceptionals of around 1.4 billion euros in 2014.

On a regional level, the dynamically growing emerging economies of Brazil, India and especially China are ensuring continued high demand for LANXESS products.

More than a third of LANXESS’s investments was focused on Asia and Latin America in 2012, compared with less than one fifth in 2005. The increase in sales in the BRICS countries clearly confirms that this strategy is the right one. Their share of Group sales has more than doubled since 2005. The synthetic rubbers and plastics businesses of the Performance Polymers segment have also demonstrated that they are a strong growth engine within the Group.

Megatrend mobility LANXESS’s management has now distributed respon­ sibility for the operational business among 14 marketoriented business units, which are grouped together in the three segments – Performance Polymers, Advanced Intermediates and Performance Chemicals. All of the polymer-based businesses have been brought together under the Performance Polymers segment, which encompasses the synthetic rubbers of the Butyl Rubber (BTR), Performance Butadiene Rubbers (PBR), Keltan Elastomers (KEL) and High Performance Elastomers (HPE) business units and the plastics of the High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit, which are based on polyamides (PA) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT).

The PA 6 precursor caprolactam and glass fibers are also manufactured by this business unit.

The tire and automotive industry is LANXESS’s most important customer group. Here, custom-formulated high-performance rubbers such as neodymium-butadiene ­rubber, butadienes (Nd-BR) and solution styrene-butadiene (S-SBR) have developed into the most dynamic market segment with annual growth rates of around 10 percent. This increasing demand for green tires is being driven by the mobility megatrend. According to current predictions, around two billion new tires will be produced worldwide in 2015. Given that the current equivalent ­figure is around 1.6 billion, this corresponds to an increase of around 25 percent.

Setting trends

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of synthetic rubber, LANXESS feels a special responsibility for promoting mobility that does not negatively affect the climate.

Innovation Driver

39

Fritz Hofmann

Fritz Hofmann, the inventor of rubber synthesis: Hofmann accomplished this feat in 1909 and his invention was patented in the same year. He received many honors for his scientific achievements, including the Fischer Medal in gold from the Society of German Chemists, an honorary plaque from the German Rubber Society and the gilded Buna Medal at the World Exhibition in Paris.

Methyl rubber

Tire production in the Continental plant in Hanover-Vahrenwald prior to World War I.

LANXESS also numbers among the world’s leading manufacturers of high-performance halobutyl rubbers.

These types of rubber are mainly used for the inner liners of tubeless tires. This is because one of the most important properties of this elastomer is its high impermeability to moisture and air. The corresponding LANXESS products protect the steel cord in the tire from moisture and keep the tire pressure constant for a longer period of time – an important factor when it comes to saving fuel. The range of butyl rubbers from LANXESS encompasses three product families: regular butyl, bromobutyl and chlorobutyl rubber. The latter two are classified as halobutyl rubbers, products that only a few companies are capable of manufacturing.

The Performance Butadiene Rubbers (PBR) business unit is an important manufacturer of the synthetic rubbers polybutadiene (PBR) and styrene-butadiene (SBR).

These elastomers are marketed under the brand names Buna® CB, Buna® SE and Buna® VSL. Polybutadiene rubber is of immense importance. In fact, it accounts for around one fourth of the synthetic rubber produced worldwide. Some 70 percent of this figure is used in tire mixtures, while a further 20 percent is used in the manufacture of high-impact plastics (HIPS, m-ABS).

Compulsory labeling boosts demand This original sample of methyl rubber from Hofmann’s lab has been preserved. It was the first piece of synthetic rubber to be used in the manufacture of car tires.

40

Innovation Driver

The compulsory labeling of tires, which requires the clas­si­fication of rolling resistance and wet grip, is becoming increasingly common around the world. This development will generate additional demand for synthetic rubbers from LANXESS. This type of labeling has been voluntary in Japan since 2010, and South Korea is ­following suit – ­initially on a voluntary basis, with com­pulsory labeling intro­duced in November 2012, the same month in which the compulsory labeling of all tires came into effect in the E.U.. Brazil, the United States and China will soon follow.

A study carried out by the Munich Technical University demonstrated that the market share of green tires will increase to up to 80 percent of the tire market in Japan and to up to 90 percent of the South Korean market by 2020.

Tradition brings obligations In other words, thanks to the dynamic development of the automobile and tire markets, as well as increasingly strict regulations governing exhaust emissions and the associated savings in fuel consumption, the outlook for synthetic rubbers is positive.

Consequently, the development of rubber will in the future also be primarily stimulated by the requirements of the tire industry. This marks a continuing tradition. After all, Fritz Hofmann’s invention in 1909 would never have had such an impact without the success of the automobile.

When Fritz Hofmann, chief chemist in the pharmaceuticals department of the company Farbenfabriken vorm.

Friedr. Bayer & Co., took up the challenge of developing “a process to manufacture rubber or an equivalent substitute” in 1906, he had no idea where this venture would lead. Nonetheless, a personal bonus of 20,000 marks beckoned, should he succeed in developing a synthetic replacement for rubber by 1909. At the time, it was only possible to produce rubber from the latex sap of Hevea brasiliensis – the rubber tree. There wasn’t much time available for research; in addition, the company’s directors insisted that the acquisition price of the substitute should not exceed 10 marks per kilogram for top-quality material.

Hofmann and his team began the research project – and in August 1909 they were able to present to the world a product that Carl Dietrich Harries, a professor in Kiel who was the leading rubber expert of his day, classified

as “veritable” rubber. As early as September 1909, the Imperial Patent Office granted the chemical company patent No. 250 690 for its manufacturing process for synthetic rubber. Hofmann had succeeded in synthesizing and polymerizing pure isoprene, a substance that is also present in natural rubber in the form of long chains of innumerable isoprene molecules.

Teething troubles The successful history of synthetic rubber, which extends back over 100 years, had begun – but not without some teething troubles and detours.

Despite the initial development success, as Hofmann was later to recall, his synthetic product did not yet come close to matching the positive properties of its natural model. In addition, the rubber chemists had not been able to make isoprene from p-cresol, a component of coal tar, at a competitive cost.

In the next stage of development, Hofmann and his colleagues used dimethyl butadiene – methyl isoprene – the polymer of which they called methyl rubber. Although the production process proved to be more economical, it was also only of limited utility, as polymerization took up to six months.

A sketch of the first Buna plant in Schkopau near Halle from the year 1936.

Nonetheless, methyl rubber became established as a usable raw material for tire production in 1910. The Continental Caoutchouc & Guttapercha Compagnie in Hanover pressed the first automobile tires of synthetic rubber. In 1912, Carl Duisberg, the great mentor of rubber research at Bayer, presented two car tires at the International Congress for Applied Chemistry in New York. They had been attached to a vehicle that he personally had driven 4,000 kilometers without a puncture.

Even German Emperor Wilhelm II had methyl rubber tires fitted to his state coach. On June 4, 1912, he sent a telegram declaring that he was “extremely pleased” with the results.

Nevertheless, Hofmann’s great invention would have to wait for decades and undergo numerous further developments before it achieved the breakthrough. His invention showed many weak points in continuous everyday use – methyl rubber not only decomposed relatively quickly in air, it was also difficult to store.

After the first use of methyl rubber in German submarine construction during World War I, its production had to be halted in 1919. Even development work remained on hold until 1925. In 1924 Fritz Hofmann, who had moved to the Silesian Coal Research Institute of the Kai-

Pioneers

In 1929, chemists Walter Bock and Eduard Tschunkur (below) discovered the…

...emulsion copolymer of butadiene and styrene, Buna® S.

I.G. Farben received the patent for the synthetic rubber Buna® on June 21, 1929.

Buna® has remained a component of tires to this day.

Between 1884 and 1935 Carl Duisberg played a key role in the German chemical industry.

41

Signs of change

ser Wilhelm Society in Breslau, said: “Synthetic rubber is dead. Long live synthetic rubber! We hope that a happier generation will be able to continue our pioneering work.”

Hofmann, who died in 1956 at the age of 90, nonetheless witnessed a large part of his invention’s incredible success story.

The birth of Buna®

The first car tires with treads made from Buna® S hit the headlines in time for the 1936 automobile exhibition in Berlin.

I.G. Farben halted construction of a pilot plant for synthetic rubber following the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929.

Three factors were responsible for the relaunch of research and development work: • First, the sharp rise in motor traffic led to a substantial demand for rubber. Despite the fact that vast plantations had been developed in Southeast Asia, the producing nations were having difficulty keeping up with demand.

• Second, as early as 1910, Carl Dietrich Harries and – independently the Englishmen Francis Edward Matthews and Edward Halford Strange had discovered that alkali metals could accomplish the rapid polymerization of butadiene.

• Third, chemists at Hoechst and the Badische Anilinund Sodafabrik in Ludwigshafen had discovered an economical way of producing butadiene, the new key product for synthetic rubber.

As a result of these three developments, the management of I.G. Farben, which had been founded in 1925

by BASF, Bayer, Agfa, Farbwerke Hoechst, Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur and Chemische Fabrik Kalk, decided to restart research work on synthetic rubber.

The team, headed by Eduard Tschunkur and Walter Bock in Leverkusen, started by testing new catalysts for the polymerization of butadiene. Eventually they discovered a reliable and smoothly functioning process for producing a synthetic rubber from butadiene and sodium. In a further step, which was primarily based on an idea by Walter Bock, it proved possible to copolymerize styrene and butadiene in an aqueous emulsion. The result was a rubber material that was suitable for both tires and tech-

German Emperor Wilhelm II declared himself “extremely pleased” after trying out the first pneumatic tires made from methyl rubber.

nical rubber goods. Some of its properties were even superior to those of natural rubber.

On June 21, 1929, I.G. Farben received the first patent­ in connection with the invention of butadiene­styrene copoly­merization – Buna® S was born. Incidentally, the name Buna is made up of the initial letters of butadiene and ­natrium – the Latin name for sodium. Buna® was registered­on behalf of I.G. Farbenindustrie as a trademark at the ­German State Patent Office on June 5, 1930 (Buna® received the German registration in 1938).

In 1930 the team headed by Erich Konrad and Eduard Tschunkur developed the swelling-resistant acrylonitrile-­ butadiene rubber (Buna® N, known as Perbunan® from 1938 onwards), which was used to produce rubber articles that were resistant to oil and gasoline. These properties ensured the initial commercial success of the nitrile rubber, despite its high price. Even today, the product range based on this development remains one of the central pillars of LANXESS’s rubber business.

New crisis, new beginning But before the economic breakthrough could be consolidated, another setback occurred. Germany was hit by the global economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. In response, the Board of Directors of I.G. Farben stopped the construction of a planned pilot plant for synthetic rubber production in Knapsack near Cologne. All the successful work on synthetic rubbers was once again more or less put on ice.

Further changes were to come with the assumption of power of the Nazi party in 1933. Germany now strove to become largely independent of imported raw materials.

Synthetic rubber thus received another boost, particularly when newly discovered rubber additives such as antioxidants, vulcanization accelerators and fillers became available from the mid-1930s onwards.

On the basis of all these research results, it was possible to begin the large-scale production of synthetic rubber (Buna® S) in Germany in 1936. I.G. Farben established a large plant for this purpose in Schkopau, near Halle, and planned the construction of two more.

The first car tires with a tread made of Buna® S made headlines following their presentation at the automobile exhibition in Berlin in 1936. After all, one could drive 36,000 kilometers on these tires, while natural rubber tires were only good for 29,000 kilometers. The world’s first car and truck tires made from 100 percent Buna® S were manufactured in 1942. Shortly before the end of World War II, I.G. Farben had a theoretical production capacity of 170,000 metric tons of synthetic rubber per year. However, due to the war, actual peak annual production never exceeded 120,000 metric tons.

Mass producer United States Massive capacity for the production of synthetic rubber was also established in the United States of America dur42

RUBRIK

Advertising The beginning of Germany’s “economic miracle” in the 1950s boosted growth in the automobile industry – and thus also in the rubber industry, which supplied the material for tires, hoses, seals and dampers.

Nobel laureates

ing World War II. Because Japan occupied a large part of the Southeast Asian cultivation area for natural rubber, the United States was cut off from these imports after its entry into the war in the Pacific in 1941. The American effort was a gigantic tour de force – at a cost of USD 750 million, the U.S. government established its own factories.

Their annual production reached around 820,000 metric tons in 1945 – seven times as much as I.G. Farben.

The U.S. rubber program, which was indirectly based on the invention of Buna® S in Leverkusen in 1929, undoubtedly led to synthetic rubber’s breakthrough as a massproduced raw material for tire production. At any rate, in 1979 Walter Bock received an appropriate place of honor in the “Hall of Fame” of the rubber processor General Tire.

Another new beginning The production of synthetic rubber in Germany was initially forbidden as a consequence of World War II. It was recommenced with a production volume of 500 metric tons per month in 1952. However, in order to reestablish the tried and tested Buna® rubbers on the international market, it was necessary to once more make them available to customers in large quantities. To this end, Chemische Werke Hüls, Bayer, BASF and Hoechst founded Bunawerke Hüls and established Europe’s largest and most modern production plant for synthetic rubber on a 147,000-square-meter site in Marl in the district of Recklinghausen in 1956.

In 1952, Bayer had already restarted manufacturing the nitrile rubber Perbunan® N, which was primarily supplied

to the flourishing German automobile industry. And the automakers’ needs were not limited to tires. Hoses and seals were also required, as were increasing amounts of damping components made of elastic material that was not only resistant to oil and gasoline but also relatively insensitive to a wide range of temperatures.

The Leverkusen-based group’s product range was extended by the further development of polychloroprene­ rubber, which was first launched in 1957 under the trade name Perbunan® C and later produced and marketed as Baypren®. This class of materials is used in situations where harsh ambient conditions demand high weathering and ozone resistance, alongside resistance to aging processes and high flame retardance. Specific grades from the Baypren® range also provide the raw material basis for adhesives.

Karl Ziegler

was Director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr until 1969. He received the 1963 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Petrochemistry opens new dimensions The triumph of synthetic rubber experienced a further boost in the 1960s. The chemical industry’s changeover from a coal to a petroleum basis and the introduction of new catalysts also considerably improved the rubber industry’s situation as far as raw materials are concerned.

Ethylene, propylene, butadiene and other olefins became cheap starting materials. At the same time, catalysis research – especially the work of the later Nobel laureates Karl Ziegler, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, and Giulio Natta, Professor of Chemistry at the Politecnico di Milano University – opened up completely

Giulio Natta

Together with Ziegler, Natta was honored with the Nobel Prize for his work on the asymmetrical synthesis of optically active polymers.

Innovation Driver

43

ides or UV irradiation. Its mechanical properties and high resistance to weathering, ozone and hot air have predestined Levapren® for applications such as flame and corrosion-resistant cable sheathing. In response to standards that are being introduced for rail transport, Levapren® is becoming an increasingly important material for cables, flooring and profiles in trains. The youngest member of the synthetic polymers category is the high-performance rubber Therban®. It is produced by the hydrogenation of nitrile rubber and is in a quality class of its own. Therban® combines outstanding oil resistance at both high and low temperatures with extremely high wear resistance. As a result, Therban® is always the first choice when extremely high stresses are involved, for example in the engine compartments of automobiles.

Customer-oriented innovations

Although Henri Victor Regnault produced the first PVC, he himself was not aware of the significance of his discovery.

In the final analysis, the market and customers’ requirements are the decisive factors governing the development of synthetic rubber and its many variants. That is why LANXESS primarily concentrates on the initial and advanced development of grades of synthetic rubber with very special properties. This leads to a focus on the needs of the tire industry and its mission of offering tires with the minimum possible rolling resistance so that CO2 emissions can be cut. The developers are also striving to address the needs of manufacturers of hoses, damping elements, conveyor belts, and cable and pipe insulation. After all, although the tire industry is by far the largest consumer of synthetic rubber, accounting for around 60 percent of global production, there are also numerous technical items that would scarcely function without hundreds of rubber variants, many of which are customized.

Strong plastic brands Pioneering spirit

Fritz Klatte presented the basic principles of the technology for manufacturing PVC for films, synthetic fibers and coatings, and as a substitute for horn, in 1913.

44

Innovation Driver

new possibilities for instilling very specific properties in synthetic rubber. What’s more, this feat was achieved under relatively mild reaction conditions.

Reactions such as the polymerization of butadiene and styrene, which 30 years previously had never been more than moderately successful, could now be carried out without problems thanks to these new catalysts. At the same time, it was possible to decisively improve the properties of the butadiene rubber. Production of the rubber Buna® CB began in Dormagen in the mid-1960s and some time later in the Port Jérôme site in France.

This type of rubber is characterized by outstanding abrasion resistance, stable aging characteristics and high elasticity even at low temperatures – the best qualifications for use in car tire treads.

Another innovative leap forward occurred when the rubber researchers discovered that vulcanization could also be accomplished without the use of sulfur, thanks to a different type of crosslinking. The results of this new method included Levapren®, which has been in production since 1961 and can be vulcanized using perox-

The idea of green mobility is to significantly lower the consumption of fossil fuels and the associated emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition to the introduction of new drive technologies and the application of climateneutral fuels and tires with low rolling resistance, accomplishing these goals requires lightweight but nonetheless strong materials for vehicle construction. High-tech plastics from LANXESS that are based on polyamides (PA) and polybutylene terephthalates (PBT) fulfill exactly these requirements in many components of commercial vehicles and passenger cars. The two plastic product lines are marketed under the names Durethan® (PA 6 and PA 66) and Pocan® (PBT).

They encompass remarkably versatile polymer materials with lots of innovation potential. Products made of Durethan® and Pocan® withstand substantial mechanical stresses and impress with their excellent reliability in continuous use. Thanks to these properties, coupled with their good processability, resistance to chemical media, high electrical insulation and impact strength, they are highly regarded – and not just by the automotive

industry and its suppliers. The plastic products are also widely used by manufacturers of household appliances and companies in the electrical and electronics industry, the construction industry, health care, and, last but not least, in the area of sports and leisure.

Plastics and their inventors It took a great deal of effort in the fields of science and technology to develop such high-tech materials. The era of modern plastics began in the second half of the 19th century. At that time, numerous chemists worldwide were seeking a replacement for ivory – the material from which many millions of billiard balls were made. John Wesley Hyatt’s invention of celluloid in the mid-19th century provided the first cheap replacement material that fit the bill.

This invention proved to be an initial milestone in the history of plastics. By the end of the 19th century, the American clergyman Hannibal Goodwin and the George Eastman Company – now Kodak – had developed a celluloid that served as a transparent substrate for photographic films. The new material was also used in countless consumer products to create almost perfect imitations of luxury items made from natural materials such as ebony, ivory and mother of pearl.

A similarly groundbreaking discovery was Bakelite, which was developed early in the 20th century by Belgianborn Leo Hendrik Baekeland. Bakelite was the first fully synthetic phenol-based plastic, and it came just at the right time to meet the needs of the emerging electrical and telecommunications industries. Its excellent heat resistance and insulating properties soon made Bakelite indispensable for switches, telephones, radios, housings and many other technical components.

The next milestones were also reached before the outbreak of World War I, when Fritz Klatte developed the basic principles for manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Hermann Staudinger emerged as the founder of polymer chemistry. Later, in the 1930s, Otto Röhm created shatterproof acrylic glass.

In 1933, the indefatigable researcher conducted experiment after experiment with the ester of methacrylic acid.

One day he created a completely new type of glass completely by accident. The material turned out to be exceptionally shockproof. Even the most violent impacts failed to shatter it. What’s more, it was also astonishingly light. Having originally called this rather curious thermoplastic polymethyl methacrylate, or PMMA for short, Röhm then gave his creation a name that tripped more easily off the tongue – Plexiglas.

The first Perlon was created as a result of a longdistance competition between Paul Schlack, a PhD chemist who worked as head of the Research Department at Berlin-based company Aceta GmbH from 1926 onwards, and the U.S. chemist Wallace Hume Carothers. In spring 1930, Carothers’ team had succeeded in making the synthetic rubber neoprene. Carothers went

on to synthesize the first polyesters, and finally in 1934 he discovered nylon (polyamide 66). This gave Schlack the impetus he needed to do some research of his own on polyamides.

Caprolactam proved to be the key to success, even though Carothers claimed it was totally unsuitable for making polyamides. This was extremely fortunate for Schlack, because using caprolactam meant there was no risk of infringing the rights of the U.S. nylon manufacturer DuPont.

Just a few months after starting a series of experiments with caprolactam, Schlack produced an extremely tough caprolactam polymer and used its melt to create tearresistant continuous threads. The synthetic fiber Perlon (polyamide 6) was born.

The real breakthrough for Schlack’s innovative fiber did not come until the 1950s, when Perlon production started at the Hoechst site in Bobingen. This marked the beginning of the success story of Perlon ladies’ stockings and many other products made from polyamide 6.

After World War II, plastics became virtually invincible, thanks to the pioneering work of scientists such as Fritz Stastny, Karl Ziegler, Hermann Schnell and many others.

They developed the basic principles for a host of products that have become part and parcel of our daily lives.

Perlon® / Nylon®

When Paul Schlack invented polyamide 6, he took a different approach from that of his competitor Wallace Hume Carothers, the inventor of polyamide 66.

Wallace Hume Carothers, the inventor of nylon, was forced to accept the greater success of fellow chemist Paul Schlack with Perlon.

Hermann Staudinger, the founder of polymer chemistry, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1953.

Technologietreiber

45

The right rubber for every application Properties

Applications

Polyacrylate rubber ACM

Temperature range: -25° to 170° C; good resistance to fuel oils; good aging and ozone resistance

Oil hoses, seals

Ethylene-acrylic elastomer AEM

Temperature range: -30° to 170° C; good weathering and ozone resistance; medium resistance to mineral oils

Oil hoses, seals, O-rings, shoes, cable sheathings

Chloroprene rubber CR

Temperature range: -45° to 110° C; good mechanical properties; good ozone, weathering, chemical and aging resistance; medium oil and fuel resistance; high flame retardance

Cable sheathings, hoses, seals, window and construction profles, drive belts, diving suits

Chlorosulfonated polyethylene CSM

Temperature range: -20° to 130° C; good ozone, aging, weathering and chemical resistance

Seals, membranes, films, molded products, roll covers, cable sheathings

Polybutadiene BR

Temperature range: -80° to 90° C; excellent strength; outstanding abrasion resistance; crack resistance

Car tires, conveyor belts, crash protection pads

Ethylene oxide epichlorohydrin rubber ECO

Temperature range -40° to 100° C; highly oil and fuel resistant; ozone resistant; satisfactory mechanical properties

Intermediate and outer layers for fuel hoses

Ethylene-propylene-diene rubber EPDM

Temperature range: -50° to 150° C; very good aging resistance, including for UV and ozone; resistant to dilute acids and non-mineral-oilbased brake fluids; not resistant to mineral oil products

Body seals in automotive engineering, roof and pond sheeting, membranes, seals, construction profiles, hoses, floor tiles, belts, conveyor belts, roll covers

Ethylene-vinyl acetate rubber EVM/EVA

Temperature range: -30° to 170° C; high heat resistance; good electrical properties

Hot product conveyor belts, flame retardant, halogen-free cable insulation and sheathing, films, technical products of all kinds, sports shoe midsoles

Fluororubber FKM

Temperature range: -25° to 200° C; very high resistance to ozone, oxygen, mineral oils, synthetic hydraulic fluids, fuels, many organic solvents; low gas permeability

Groove rings, lip rings, O-rings, wipers, pretensioned elements and special seals

Hydrogenated nitrile rubber HNBR

Temperature range: -40° to 150° C; excellent physical properties, very good abrasion resistance; high resistance to ozone and hot air; good resistance to chemically aggressive oils

Heavy-duty rubber products, e.g. for the oil industry and mechanical engineering such as seals, hoses, stators, belts for the automotive industry, cable insulation, special couplings

Butyl rubber IIR

Temperature range: -40° to 140° C; good resistance to acids, hot water, glycol, high gas impermeability; high buffering capacity; ozoneresistant; moderate mechanical properties

Inner plies for tubeless tires, bladders for tire manufacture, roof sheeting, tunnel insulation, hot water hoses, bearing elements with excellent shock absorption, inner tubes for tires

Nitrile-butadiene rubber, acrylonitrilebutadiene rubber NBR

Temperature range: -40° to 130° C; moderate ozone and weathering resistance; high resistance to oils, grease and hydrocarbons; favorable aging behavior; low abrasion

Seals, hoses for hydraulics and pneumatics; rubber gloves, elastic threads, blankets for print cylinders and rolls

Styrene-butadiene rubber SBR

Temperature range: 50° to 100° C; moderate abrasion resistance; good mechanical properties

Treads in car tires, technical rubber products (conveyor belts, seals, profiles); floorings; shoes soles and heels

Polyamide PA 6, PA 66

High mechanical strength and stiffness, good electrical insulating properties, high heat and chemical resistance, good frictional and dryrunning properties, wear resistance, good noise absorption and vibration damping; through modification with other materials compounds with specific property profiles (e.g. flame retardance) can be produced

Highly elastic structural automotive components such as front end carriers; applications under the hood such as intake pipes; media-carrying parts under the hood such as oil pans; components of household appliances; electrical and electronic components

Polybutylene terephtalate PBT, PBT blends

High heat resistance, strength and hardness, excellent frictional properties, high abrasion resistance, good chemical resistance, low susceptibility to stress cracking, low moisture uptake, very good electrical properties; through blending with other plastics or modification with other materials compounds with specific property profiles (e.g. flame retardance) can be produced

Electrical and electronic components e.g. plugs and sockets; stressed structural components such as building element carriers; bodywork parts; sports and leisure applications; components of household appliances

Technical rubber

46

New processes and products

Material

Innovation Driver

Rubber for the tire industry

The talented young researcher Karl Ziegler soon developed a particular interest in free radicals – extremely reactive molecules that play an important role in the formation of chain molecules. Armed with this knowledge, he then turned his attention to previously unknown organometallic and polymer compounds. Later on he became more interested in polymerization. Ziegler’s ultimate aim was to develop a new, profitable manufacturing process for polyethylene that required neither extreme pressure nor high temperatures. The highly effective metal compounds he and his team discovered provided the solution. Basically, these compounds made it possible to perform polymerization in a jar. At the end of 1953, a patent application was filed for the Mülheim normal pressure process.

Born in 1902 in Frankfurt am Main, Otto Bayer most likely never even considered a purely academic career. After receiving a doctorate at the university of his home town in 1924 and spending short periods in a number of different jobs, he joined what was then I.G. Farben in Leverkusen in 1933, where he took charge of the main scientific laboratory. Bayer was fascinated by the idea of polymerizing a raw material that could be spun into threads in a similar way to nylon. What he had in mind was a new process for creating macromolecules that involved using polyaddition to make two low-molecular compounds react without the reaction products splitting off.

His patient laboratory work was ultimately rewarded with the discovery of polyurethane (PU). However, the real market breakthrough of polyurethanes only came much later. Even today they are still regarded as remarkably versatile plastics.

For extrusion and injection molding There is no end to polycarbonate’s talents. It is virtually unbreakable, elastic but stiff, heat-resistant, transparent, and physiologically safe. All this would not have been possible without Hermann Schnell, who was born in Gaienhofen in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany in 1916. Schnell obtained his doctorate in Freiburg in 1944. His doctoral supervisor was Hermann Staudinger, the discoverer of macromolecules.

In 1953, Schnell moved from Bayer’s main laboratory in Leverkusen to the company’s Uerdingen branch, where he soon attracted attention with some rather curious experiments. By performing all kinds of tests with phosgene and sensitive carbonic acid esters, he was hoping to find a basis for stable plastics with good impact strength. He finally succeeded in using phosgene to create his first polycarbonate – from dian, a known condensation product of phenol and acetone.

But that’s not all. He ultimately succeeded in transforming the polycarbonate into a thermoplastic that was suitable for extrusion and injection molding. There was no stopping polycarbonate now. Under the trade name Makrolon®, the polymer became a real sales success for Bayer starting

HiAnt® – innovation in teamwork with customers HiAnt is a combination of the words “high-tech” and “ant.”

It stands for efficiency, dedication and teamwork.

The High Performance Materials business unit, whose portfolio includes Durethan® and Pocan®, is regarded the world over as a premium supplier of high-tech polyamides and polybutylene terephthalates for high-tech applications.

The image of the two families of materials is inextricably linked with the comprehensive services that are provided to international customers worldwide that are involved in the development of innovative system solutions.

in 1958. And that’s no wonder, because the possible applications of this plastic are almost unlimited.

Creator of expanded polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) foam was first presented by BASF at the 1952 plastics trade fair in Düsseldorf. BASF named its expanded version of polystyrene Styropor.

This material was developed by Fritz Stastny, who was born in Brno in 1908. After receiving his doctorate in chemistry, Stastny joined BASF in 1939, where one aspect of his work was creating new foam production processes. It was 10 long years before he took a vital step toward the successful production of expanded polystyrene. As was so often the case, chance played a key role. Something completely unexpected emerged from one of his experiments – an extremely lightweight rigid foam with a honeycomb-like appearance. Nowadays, expanded polystyrene is synonymous with thermal insulation and has also become an indispensable packaging material, especially for fragile items.

Lightweight alternative materials During the last century, many more products were developed, and more and more new areas of application have been found for them. In the automobile industry, for example, Pocan® and Durethan® are increasingly replacing metals as a weight-saving alternative, especially under the hood, where materials must stand up to heat, aggressive chemicals and continual vibration. What’s more, LANXESS materials can be used to directly mold many functional parts such as fastening elements, guides and contact surfaces when injection molding is used to manufacture components. This functional integration shortens subsequent assembly times, simplifies logistics and lowers manufacturing costs. One prominent example of the innovation potential of Durethan® in automotive lightweight construction is a plastic-metal composite

This sets the business unit firmly apart from many competitors – an aspect that is being further underscored with HiAnt®. The new brand stands for specially tailored customer service and in-depth know-how in relation to the development of products, applications, processes and technology.

The expertise behind HiAnt® can be illustrated by a wealth of examples – for instance, the business unit is a leader in plastic-metal composite technology

(hybrid technology).

HiAnt® also stands for the in-house enhancement of mathematical calculation methods for predicting component behavior, such as integrative simulation.

Component testing is a further element of the expertise on offer. For example, a new shaker technical service lab for vibration testing has recently been built for items such as the blowmolded parts used in engine compartments.

technology – also known as hybrid technology – which was developed by LANXESS and its partners. The classic variant of this hybrid technology has already proved its worth millions of times in highly stressed automobile front ends. Thanks to the continual refinement of this technology, it is also heading for a bright future. Steel and aluminum sheet can now be replaced by considerably lighter nylon composite sheet. These lightweight but stiff semi-finished products are made of a glass fiber fabric embedded in a polyamide matrix.

Modern production locations in Europe The potential for growth is one of the reasons why LANXESS is continuing to expand its production capacities for high-tech plastics. In addition to compounding plants for Durethan® and Pocan®, LANXESS also operates production facilities for polyamide 6 at the Uerdingen site. The capacity for compounds at the Hamm-Uentrop site, where LANXESS produces PBT and PBT-based compounds in a production joint venture with DuPont, was almost doubled at the beginning of 2012.

In terms of volume, polyamide 6 and 66 are among the most important polymers on the global market as far as engineering plastics are concerned. Accounting for just under 30 percent of this market, they are second only to polycarbonate (approximately 34 percent). According to the market research company PCI Nylon, 6.8 million metric tons of PA 6 and PA 66 are currently processed every year. In recent years the global market has been changing. China now accounts for 30 percent of the global demand for polyamides (38 percent for PA 6 and 15 percent for PA 66). In the future, PCI expects the global polyamide market to grow on average by 2.4 percent per year until 2020. The automotive and electrical/electronics sectors account for 44 percent and 27 percent of sales respectively. Polyamides are increasingly being used for lightweight construction elements in automobile manufacture. Other major customers are the

Plastics in demand

Polyamide 6 and 66 are the most important polyamides in terms of production volume. The chemical structure and the properties of PA 66 and PA 6 are very similar.

Plastics experts at LANXESS’s technical service laboratory in Dormagen develop and test new applications.

Hybrid technology

Durethan® granules from LANXESS are one of the most sought-after and versatile thermoplastics for technical applications.

The front end of the Audi A8 combines aluminum, nylon composite sheet and Durethan®.

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Weight saver

The commercial vehicle manufacturers Volvo and IVECO use plastic from LANXESS to make radiator grilles and bumpers.

LANXESS produces caprolactam, a precursor for the manufacture of the high-tech plastic Durethan®, in Antwerp-Lillo.

construction industry and packaging manufacturers.

However, the availability of PA 6 is dependent on the manufacture of the precursor caprolactam. While the U.S. and the European markets have adequate caprolactam manufacturing capacities, bottlenecks are occurring in Asia, because PA 6 production capacities have been expanding at a faster rate than caprolactam production. Backward-integrated PA 6 manufacturers such as LANXESS therefore enjoy an advantage in terms of raw

material supplies and can stand out from their competitors as a strategic partner in the PA 6 value added chain.

Versatile PBT The use of PBT is growing, especially in the electrical and electronics industries. In addition to the material’s excellent mechanical properties, this development is due to PBT’s good dimensional stability, outstanding electrical properties and flame-retardant effect, which is cre-

Ready for use Caprolactam – the basis for high-tech plastics

Durethan®, which is manufactured from the precursor caprolactam, is an important material in the automobile industry, for example.

Caprolactam is transported both as a liquid and in dry form in sacks.

At the beginning of February 2011 – just a few weeks into LANXESS’s “Year of HighTech Plastics” – the specialty chemicals company based in Leverkusen produced its five millionth metric ton of caprolactam at its site in Antwerp. This is the roughly the content of 250,000 tank trucks. Some half of the caprolactam manufactured in Antwerp is currently used in monomeric form for the production of polyamides (PA 6) of the Durethan® product family.

Durethan® has a proven track record when it comes to items such as plastic components that need to withstand high stresses in automotive applications. Production at the world-scale plant in the port of Antwerp started in 1967. A EUR 35 million

The investment project also increased the capacity of some of these facilities.

Following intensive research work, in 1938 Paul Schlack and his team at I.G. Farben discovered that ultrafine threads can be pulled from polymerized caprolactam. This led to the invention of the synthetic fiber he later named Perlon.

Incredibly versatile

Caprolactam is the basic raw material for this engine casing. investment recently boosted the plant’s annual 200,000 metric ton capacity by ten percent.

Capacity expansion

Oil pan made of Durethan®

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Innovation Driver

Caprolactam production in Antwerp takes place within a larger network comprising five facilities that manufacture this important raw material. It is the final stage in a production chain that provides chemicals such as cyclohexanone and oleum – highly concentrated sulfuric acid – and their precursors for caprolactam manufacture.

Polyamide 6 started out in ladies’ stockings but was soon also being used to produce hard heat- and media-resistant plastics, including the Durethan® brand for making molded parts – above all for the automotive industry. Polyamide 6 is also used for carpets and rugs, packaging films, fishing nets and all kinds of brushes. And the possible applications for this versatile thermoplastic are far from exhausted.

The wide world of additives Rubbers; rubber chemicals; PA and PBT plastics; their precursors caprolactam, adipic acid and cyclohexanol; and the glass fibers used to reinforce plastics are not LANXESS’s only products. The company also produces a large number of additives for all kinds of polymers.

Only a small proportion of these products are used in LANXESS’s own plastics. Instead, they are primarily supplied to manufacturers of other plastics.

The large number of different additives reflects the variety of tasks they perform.

For example, additives are needed to ensure the smooth forming and further processing of materials such as thermoplastics using injection molding and extrusion. Without demolding agents, polymers would stick to the mold after injection molding and it would not be

Thanks to additives from LANXESS it is possible to make plastics with versatile and customer-specific properties. possible to remove the component from the mold. Nucleating agents are added to ensure that the hot, viscous plastic crystallizes as quickly as possible.

Further additives include dyes and pigments, which also need to withstand high temperatures.

ated by the use of additives. Pocan® is an ideal material for switches, lamp sockets, and the electric plugs and plug connectors found in cable harnesses. PBT’s wellbalanced thermo-mechanical properties make it suitable for particularly small, thin-walled components.

Particularly easy-flowing PBT grades are opening up new markets because they help cut injection molding costs significantly thanks to their shorter cycle times.

Blends containing PBT can also be used in many different ways in the production of paneling/moldings and add-on body parts for truck cabs. Examples include fenders, wind deflectors, A-pillars, access steps and radiator grilles. One existing series application is the bumper of the Eurocargo truck from IVECO, which is manufactured from the glass fiber-reinforced PBT+PET blend Pocan® TS3220. Due to the success of this material, LANXESS has extended its range of PBT blends for exterior truck components with Pocan® A3131 (glass fiber-reinforced PBT-ASA), C3230 XF (free-flowing glass fiber-reinforced PBT-PC) and T3150 XF (free-flowing highly glass fiberfilled PBT-PET). Each of the three materials has been optimized with specific strengths in mind, such as good coatability, minimal distortion and excellent stiffness. The PBT blends of the ECO series Pocan® ECO T 3220 (20 % GF) and Pocan® ECO T 3240 (45 % GF) contain a specially processed post-consumer PET as a blend partner. This enables the manufacture of premium finished parts whose properties and quality are very close to those of virgin material.

Bladders are used in tire manufacture.

Once the press is shut, the unvulcanized tire blank is forced against the internal wall of the mold by internal pressure. This is done using a butyl rubber bladder that is then inflated under high pressure and at high temperatures to give the tire its final shape. LANXESS subsidiary Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH makes bladders at three South American locations; these are then sold under the brand name Rhenoshape®.

Flame retardants are a particularly important group of additives. Other additives help improve plastics’ flowability so that the walls of items such as plug connectors can be made thinner.

Thermal stabilizing additives that prevent plastic products from becoming brittle prematurely are also extremely important. Antioxidants are used to en-

sure that plastic components exposed to sunlight and UV radiation retain their color longer and do not become brittle after a short period.

LANXESS and Rhein Chemie supply appropriate additives for a great many plastic grades and applications in order to match materials to their tasks; they also help customers find the ideal combination and the appropriate technology at their own test and laboratory facilities.

customer proximity throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Based on current forecasts, sales of these plastics in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to rise at an annual rate of around ten percent in general and as much as 15 percent in China.

LANXESS has been able to benefit from this market growth in recent years. While the Asia-Pacific region only accounted for ten percent of the company’s global high-tech plastics sales in 2005, this figure has now risen to well over 25 percent. This is primarily due to the increases in and extension of marketing, sales and production activities in the region. For example, the Leverkusen-based group now has more than 150 employees working on the production and development of

Lightweight Nine injection-molded structural inserts with glass fiber-reinforced Durethan® serve as supports in the Citroën C4’s bodywork. The result is significantly less weight and better protection for the occupants.

Investments in Asia As a leading global supplier of polyamides and polybutylene terephthalate, the specialty chemicals company LANXESS is rapidly expanding its production capacities, especially in Asia. Here the focus is particularly on China and India. The aim is to not only serve the strongly growing markets in these countries but also improve

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Durethan® and Pocan® – made for innovations

Lightweight construction Polyamides and poly­ butylene terephthalates are versatile materials that have found their way into modern automobiles, where they are used in electronic systems, air and fluid lines, and weight-saving bodywork components.

Polyamide and PBT plastics owe their growing success to numerous premium properties that can be combined to meet the requirements of many different branches of industry. The plastics can be finetuned for all kinds of applications in order to provide lightweight yet robust components for complex tasks in a cost-effective production process. This advantage has been instrumental in turning automakers and their suppliers into the largest customer group for the high-tech plastics Durethan® and Pocan®.

here, thanks to properties such as excellent dynamic and impact strength under both hot and cold conditions. Hybrid technology makes it possible to produce self-supporting components with a high load-bearing capacity that are not only lighter than their allsteel equivalents but also safer and often stiffer. The first time hybrid technology was used in large series production runs was for front ends. Well over 50 million of these structural bodywork components have now been manufactured using Durethan® BKV 30 H2.0.

Successful hybrid technology

Considerably less weight

High-tech plastics are also an important element in hybrid technology, which combines the strengths of plastics and metals such as steel and aluminum.

Glass fiber-reinforced polyamide 6 grades of Durethan® are the plastics most commonly used 50

Innovation Driver

Aluminum can be used instead of sheet steel in hybrid front ends. This was first done in the Audi TT. The design of the highly integrated plastic/aluminum component results in a significant weight saving of around 15 percent. Once again, Durethan® BKV 30 H2.0 is the plastic used.

Enormous potential As one of the pioneers of hybrid technology, LANXESS has now expanded its range of applications. In addition to pedal brackets and components for car roof frames, brake pedals for vans are now also being made from Durethan® BKV 30 H2.0 using this type of lightweight construction.

These pedals have a 60 kilogram higher load-bearing capacity, are around 40 percent lighter and cost approximately 20 percent less than an all-steel design.

There are some promising concepts around when it comes to doors, tailgates and hoods. Because of their complexity and the high crash requirements that apply to them, side doors and tailgates are very challenging hybrid applications.

New markets

high-tech plastics at the Wuxi (China) location. Through the introduction of an additional compounder facility, the annual capacity of these plastics in Wuxi was increased from just over 40,000 tons to 60,000 tons in mid-2011.

Growth market India India, another growth region, is in the process of becoming an important market for high-tech plastics. Here, in addition to supplying PA and PBT plastics to the automobile industry and the electrical and electronics segment, LANXESS is meeting the requirements of a third major customer segment: the network of companies that manufacture on behalf of the Indian railroad system.

Virtually all global automakers and system suppliers, as well as their suppliers, have now opened their own factories in India or are in the process of doing so. A large number of international manufacturers of electrical and electronic goods have also discovered India’s giant market and are setting up their own production facilities there.

LANXESS supplies its customers with tried and tested materials via short routes and collaborates locally in order to develop custom-made plastic materials for the products.

The geographic location of LANXESS’s Jhagadia site, which is situated in the state of Gujarat, India’s leading chemical region, is a particular advantage. What’s more, Jhagadia is not far from Thane, which is situated near Mumbai and is not only the center of India’s automotive industry but also home to numerous plants operated by international customers.

The construction of the production facility for high-tech plastics at this location followed the example of Wuxi and commenced regular production at the start of 2012.

Compounding capacities sufficient for the annual production of 20,000 metric tons of Durethan® and Pocan® went into operation in an initial step. The new production facility will supply high-tech plastics to the Indian market and other countries in Asia. Together with Wuxi, Jhagadia will create a new production network for the Asia-Pacific market.

A compounding facility for Durethan® and Pocan® began operation at the LANXESS site in Jhagadia at the beginning of 2012.

In India, the many companies that manufacture railroadrelated items represent vast customer potential for PA and PBT plastics.

functions, electronic safety functions and electrified auxiliary systems. The latter include power steering, oil pumps, air conditioners, control units, electronic brake control systems (ABS), electronic stability programs (ESP), electric window lifts, seat controls and electric motor housings. The trend toward electric mobility is also opening up significant growth potential. PBT’s ability to replace metals is resulting in a number of new applications, such as front headlight bezels and sunroof frames.

Thanks to its rubber and plastics program, LANXESS is a global player at the heart of the international automotive sector. By continually promoting innovation in areas such as raw materials, materials, processing and end products, the specialty chemicals company is doing its utmost to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus open up the road to green mobility.

Strong position

From its site in Wuxi, LANXESS has established a strong presence on the Chinese market.

Huge demand The reason for LANXESS’s high investments in Asia was, and remains, the mushrooming demand for high-tech plastics in this region. The main driving force behind this increase is the booming automotive industry. China is now the largest car market in the world. According to a study made by the auditing and consulting company ­Oliver Wyman, the number of cars produced in China rose to 17 million units in 2011. In 2012, more than 50 % of the world’s total production of motor vehicles came from Asian factories. Production in Asia (excluding Japan) reached around 20.29 million cars in 2010.

The above-average growth of high-tech plastics in automobile engineering has been stimulated by a large number of applications. These include new structural components made of PBT and PA, the trend toward equipping vehicles with electrically controlled comfort

LANXESS Pte Ltd. in Singapore is an important trading hub for the entire Asia-Pacific region.

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Bridge bearings made of reinforced rubber protect against destructive vibrations.

Levapren速 in wind turbines lends dynamic resistance to the trailing power cable.

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SOMMERREIFEN

Conveyor belts coated with rubber stand up even to sharp-edged transport goods.

Indispensable mobility helpers Hardly any other group of materials has proven to be as versatile as technical rubber since it was invented over 100 years ago. Rubber components made from these products perform essential tasks in all kinds of motor vehicles, and in machinery, buildings and virtually all technical equipment. Unobtrusive yet effective, they serve as seals and absorb vibrations in motor vehicles, in buildings on tectonically active ground and in bridges. In the form of belts, hoses and cable sheathing, they convey all kinds of solids, liquids and energy.

To understand the many different applications and functions of the numerous synthetic rubber grades, with their highly diverse properties, it is helpful to categorize them according to the tasks performed by articles made from one or more grades. These tasks are: sealing, damping vibrations, and transporting (electrical insulation for wiring and thermal insulation for pipes conveying hot or cold media being included in the transport category since something flows under the insulation, be it electricity, water, steam, fuel or coolant).

Mobility would be impossible without versatile, highperformance technical rubber, including passenger and goods transport by car, truck, rail, plane or ship.

Motorized mobility is only possible because the right synthetic material is available for every respective load and task, such as Keltan® EP, Baypren®, Therban®, Therban® AT, Buna® SE and Krynol®.

Keeping things tight Sealing machine housings, pumps, windows, doors and roofs has always been a major challenge for engineers. They attempted this in the past with leather and

textiles, even with parts of plants, resin, pitch and latex, but none of these materials was reliable in the long term. This situation did not change until natural, and then synthetic, rubber became available.

If rubber seals are to do their job reliably under the toughest conditions – in heat or cold, in contact with aggressive media such as oil, gasoline or brake fluid, in exposure to ozone or under strong mechanical stress – then there is no getting around synthetic materials.

High-performance rubber grades from LANXESS are the ideal sealing material for any application requiring maximum reliability. For instance, when a motor vehicle application, such as the cylinder head seal in an engine, requires resistance to fuel, oil and coolant, plus outstanding resistance to heat, then seals made of HNBR or EVM rubber are often the material of choice on account of their long service life.

But the shock absorbers and pneumatic springs in cars likewise cannot function without similar oil- and temperature-resistant rubber seals. And there are more examples, such as axle boots made of Baypren® polychloroprene rubber or Therban® seal driveshafts, to name just a few of the the diverse seal applications in motor vehicles, not to mention the visible door and window seals made of EPDM rubber, such as Keltan® EP.

Global market leader

Specialty chemicals manufacturer LANXESS offers a broad product program of synthetic rubber grades for green mobility.

At work under the hood LANXESS reached an important milestone in development when it demonstrated that it was possible to cost-efficiently manufacture complex plastic parts comprising both a rigid and a flexible component. To fabricate an oil pan with integrated seal from the two materials in a single production step, the raw materials

Technical rubber products

53

In urban conurbations (photo: Taipei), green mobility has right of way when it comes to protecting people and the environment.

Reliable protection

must be closely adapted to one another. The rubber and plastics experts were successful using Durethan® polyamide and a special grade of Therban® AT HNBR rubber, both of which can easily be integrated in an injection molding process.

When liquid or gaseous substances need to be separated, rubber membranes do an outstanding job.

Membranes coated with Perbunan® are installed in pressure regulators, for instance, to control the highprecision injection of fuel into the cylinders of a car engine.

Protective clothing for work and sports

Protective clothing for handling hazardous substances often contains elastomeric composite materials.

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When it comes to work safety for people who handle oil, fuel and other corrosive substances, the manufacturers of the corresponding protective clothing, such as rubber boots, gloves and technical textiles for protective suits, rely on oil-resistant NBR rubber grades like Perbunan®, Krynac® and Baymod® N, or SBR rubber grades like Buna® SE and Krynol®. The soles of firefighter, construction and safety boots are often made of SBR rubber or the XNBR rubber Krynac® X, which is non-slip and abrasion-resistant as well as resistant to oil, acids and alkalis.

Hobby and professional divers wear rubber suits made of chloroprene rubber grades (CR), such as Baypren®, to keep warm in cold water. Innumerable, tiny air bubbles distributed evenly throughout the foamed material are responsible for its outstanding insulation properties.

Technical rubber products

Effective vibration damping It’s impossible to imagine just how many things would shatter or break if they were not protected against sudden shock, high-frequency or torsional vibration by elastic materials. Without vibration-damping elements, automotive engines, transmissions, driveshaft and axles, truck loads, bridges and buildings in earthquake regions would not only shake, but even crack or rupture in many cases.

Rubber buffers even make an important contribution to protecting against the vibration and noise caused by traffic.

Consider, for instance, a Berlin-based housing developer, who used the surface above an underground highway tunnel to build an apartment complex with 1,215 units.

To prevent vibration in the building and noise pollution for the residents, the two tunnels under the complex were positioned on top of the parking decks in the basement and isolated with rubber bearings.

Reinforced rubber bearings, pot bearings and shock absorbers in bridges protect against the strong vibrations caused by motor vehicles. Bridge bearings often are made of chloroprene rubber, such as Baypren®, or a blend based on natural rubber, with one or more steel reinforcing layers inside.

A safe and comfortable trip The oscillating pistons and rotating crankshaft in a motor vehicle’s engine, along with the drivetrain connected to them, are a constant source of vibration. If this motion

were not damped and largely isolated from the chassis and body, a comfortable trip by car, bus or truck would be an impossibility. To isolate the vibration from the rest of the vehicle and its occupants, the engine transmission unit is fitted with powerful rubber dampers known as unit bearings. They secure the engine block and transmission to the vehicle body.

The bearings also absorb jolts caused by uneven road surfaces, ensuring that the engine transmission unit does not cause the vehicle to judder.

In mid-range and high-end vehicles in particular, automotive engineers tend to opt for hydraulic-damping engine bearings, because they form an adjustable connection between the drive system and chassis, offering more effective damping of strong vibrations than rubberto-metal bearings. Since these bearings must operate in a hot environment, engine bearing manufacturers often choose the high-performance rubber Therban®.

Disturbing and damaging vibrations also occur in shafts, if their torsional vibration is not controlled by damping elements. Under unfavorable operating conditions, the entire drive system could reach a state of resonance, resulting in disruptive noise and mechanical damage.

To eliminate this risk, automotive engineers equip the crankshaft with a torsional vibration damper. Heat-resistant Therban® frequently is the main component of the elastic elements inside such dampers.

On a bed of air Air springs in all types of vehicles are virtually synonymous with comfort and adaptability. That is because the air-filled rubber bellows in such suspension systems on axles, or on each individual wheel, not only absorb shock from the road surface and prevent a vehicle from juddering in curves, but also enable the vehicle to be adjusted to different heights and driver preferences. Air suspension systems have also become firmly established in commercial vehicles and buses, and are even considered standard in coaches and public transport buses. The usual configuration is to have two air springs on the front axle and four on the rear.

In modern buses – especially public transport buses – the air springs can even pneumatically lower one side of the vehicle (known as kneeling) to facilitate boarding and exiting for passengers. The air-sprung axles of commercial vehicles help considerably to protect roads and cargo, because their spring characteristics adjust to the vehicle load.

The chassis technology in today’s local, intercity and high-speed trains must meet high standards in terms of comfort, safety and noise generation. Pneumatic suspension and elastomeric spring elements are essential components in both the primary suspension system between the wheelsets and the bogie, and in the secondary suspension system between the bogie

Air springs

In modern buses, spring systems on the axles or on each wheel ensure a smooth ride.

Air springs are standard today in modern buses for tourist travel and public transport.

Technical rubber products

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In ocean-going vessels, couplings padded with the high-performance rubber Therban® cushion the oscillations and vibrations of the diesel engine.

Spring systems

and the railcar body. The primary suspension securely guides the wheelsets, while the secondary suspension serves as an elastic bearing for the railcar body.

Operational reliability on the high seas

The Gigabox system, comprising wheelset bearing and hydraulic spring with integrated rubber spring, provides for hydraulic damping in rail vehicles.

Safety, reliability and efficiency are also what count when it comes to the use of the high-performance rubber Therban® in ship couplings, sometimes of massive dimensions. To prevent the vibration of the ship’s diesel engine from being transmitted to the driveshaft and propeller, a coupling is installed between the engine and driveshaft, whose elastomer interior absorbs the impact. The coupling manufacturer, Vulkan Kupplungs- und Getriebebau GmbH & Co. KG, based in Herne, Germany, uses cylindrical rubber parts made of the hydrogenated HNBR rubber Therban® between the coupling’s disks. Resistant to heat, oil, lubricants and ozone, this high-performance rubber is critical to extending maintenance intervals and thus minimizing costly dock time.

Driving forces Rubber products in the form of conveyor and drive belts similarly serve to transport goods and media.

Rubber-coated conveyor belts above and below ground transport everything from ore, coal, waste, excavated material, sand and stones, to parcels and passenger baggage. Even people are glad to make use of the 56

Technical rubber products

moving walkways that carry them along the long corridors at airports. These walkways are made either of metal or, like the handrails, rubber.

Similarly, belts of various design installed in car engines, motorcycles, printing presses, mines, funfair carousels or sawmills drive motors for locomotion, generating electricity or conveying workpieces. Drive, V or toothed belts of different cross-sections, lengths and materials transmit forces and control operating speeds.

Busy highways Liquids such as oil, gasoline, diesel, water, brake fluid, cement, extinguishing and cooling agents, air and gases all have their own special highways and byways.

They flow under pressure or suction through hoses, ducts and pipelines. Many of these transport paths must withstand temperatures of minus 40 to over 200 ºC, aggressive liquids and gases, or high physical stresses, such as abrasion against hard rock for extended periods.

Fortunately, pipes and hoses need not withstand all of these stresses simultaneously. The right synthetic rubber products and blends are available to suit every environment, every task, and every medium to be transported. Rubber grades often compete with other materials, such as steel and copper or plastics like thermosets. In most cases, however, a rubber grade designed to meet specific requirements is more efficient than

its competitors, and above all, more environmentally friendly because it normally contains neither plasticizers nor heavy metals.

Inherent fire safety Pipes, insulating materials, floor coverings and conveyor belts made of rubber are preferred components when safety, particularly fire protection, is a high priority in a given application. In addition to withstanding high temperatures, halogen-free rubber grades like Levapren® can also be rendered flame-retardant. In other words, they are self-extinguishing when used in conjunction with special fillers, and they release virtually no noxious fumes. Thanks to its low viscosity, this EVM rubber can also be mixed with a high proportion of halogen-free flame retardants without becoming difficult to process. Levapren® therefore is often used in hoses, cable insulation and floor coverings in airports, hospitals and other busy buildings, as well as in railway cars, aircraft and crude oil and natural gas production facilities.

With appropriate compounding, Levapren® is also ideal as insulation, providing a protective shield for the safe transport of electrical energy. In this case, it is the material’s high heat resistance that counts most.

When it comes to the topic of “transport” mention must also be made of cylinders and rollers. Rollers coated with Therban® can manage a range of heavy-duty work, from conveying freight containers in the cargo holds of aircraft, to applications in paper mills and steel processing plants. But they can do more than just handle heavy loads, they can also bear high temperatures – a very important capability when rollers and cylinders are required to move heavy loads at high speeds. The heat that builds up during these processes due to the high contact pressure would quickly age normal rubber and destroy it.

Flexible and adaptable

High demands

Rubber hoses are exposed to extreme stresses in motor vehicles. Rising temperatures under the hood and aggressive media are especially hard on the materials.

Hoses also must stand up to all manner of stresses and aggressive substances. No matter where they are used – in cars, machine tools, hydrostatic drives, aircraft, in the garden, in fire departments, mines or on oil platforms, at home or in concrete pumps – hoses often face extremely rough conditions when doing their job of transporting media. These flexible lines convey water, hydraulic oil, gasoline, diesel, chemicals, gases and even solids.

Without rubber and plastic hoses of various types, it would be impossible to make cars more environmentally friendly, fully exploit oil deposits, move robot arms, or

Moving walkways and conveyor belts in heavi­ly frequented buildings, such as airports, must be durable and flame-retardant.

PROGRESS THANKS TO LEVAPREN® Robust materials, such as heat- and media-resistant Levapren®, are indispensable to high-tech automotive engineering.

For example, the Audi A8 4.2 TDI and Audi A8 6.0 with 12-cylinder engines are equipped under the hood and even in the crankcase with fuel hoses sheathed in Levapren®, enabling them to withstand sustained temperatures of over 160 ºC at a pressure of 4 bar and, in the event of fire, to resist the flames for at least two minutes.

Levapren® also provides a high level of safety in the sheathing of sensor lines in ABS antilock brake systems, and for good

Inside the 12-cylinder Audi engine, hoses sheathed in Levapren® stand up to high temperatures.

Fuel-saving

Modern engines with fuel-saving turbocharging generate high temperatures, which hoses made of Therban® can withstand easily.

Temperature test in the combustion chamber of a Porsche engine.

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tive supplier SKF, also defies lubricants, combustion gases and vapors.

Safe trains

The special-purpose rubber LowSmoke® 33-4, made from Levapren®, is used in the French TGV. reason, as these cables are in the direct vicinity of the engine, wheels and hot disk brakes, and therefore must withstand both intense heat of over 160 ºC and biting cold of minus 40 ºC. Another advantage of Levapren® in ABS sensor lines is its high strength under flexural fatigue stress.

Levapren® is also a reliable rubber material for automotive seals. One prominent example is the seal on the cylinder head cap of the 10-cylinder diesel engine in Audi’s high-end vehicles. There are more things under this cap than just high temperatures. The seal material, a rubber blend of Levapren® developed by automo-

When it comes to passive safety on trains and buses, particular attention is paid to the fire behavior of the materials used in their construction. Engineers impose strict demands on the rubber seals (e.g., for engine housings), vibration-damping elements (for effective and safe suspensionmounting of generators and engines) and insulating mats for floors, to name just a few applications. In the event of fire, the mate-

The outer insulating sheath on highpower cables in wind turbines often are made of a Levapren® grade.

even water the yard. Thermally insulated hoses prevent the loss of heat or cold in air-conditioning and heating system ducts and pipes, and in transporting molten material in industrial applications.

Even a simple garden hose can be technically sophisticated. It usually consists of three layers: the outer casing, reinforcement and core. The outer casing and core are normally made of PVC, while the reinforcement consists of a synthetic fabric. Although this is the most common design at present, it is not necessarily the best. The more ecological alternative is garden hoses made of rubber, preferably ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) such as Keltan® EP or chloroprene rubber such as Baypren®.

These materials do not harden in cold weather; they are torsionally rigid, buckleproof, abrasion-resistant and impervious to oxygen and ozone. Last but not least, hoses made from such materials contain significantly fewer harmful substances and, therefore, are good for the environment, also in terms of their long service life spanning several decades.

In automotive engineering applications, hoses play a key distributing role for fuel, cooling circuits, oil circulation, heating systems, power steering, brakes, hydraulic suspension systems (Active Body Control), turbocharging systems, automatic particulate filter cleaning systems and SCR (selective catalytic reduction) exhaust gas treatment for diesel engines.

The more hoses installed in a car, the more manufacturers strive to keep weight gain and costs in check.

For example, automakers are choosing oil cooler hoses

Technical rubber products

rial should generate virtually no toxic gases and only a very low smoke density. What is more, it should be self-extinguishing. All these properties are fulfilled by the specialpurpose rubber LowSmoke® 33-4, manufactured from Levapren® by the French elastomer specialist Interep and supplied to railroad equipment manufacturer Alstom.

Case study: Wind turbines The increased use of wind energy around the world has opened up another rapidly growing market for Levapren®. The electric power generated by a turbine in the nacelle of the system must be transported by a trailing cable to the base of the tower and from there to other locations.

This cable hangs freely in the shaft of the tower, which is often more than 100 meters high.

Required to conduct up to 36,000 volts, the cable must not only be fire-resistant and withstand operating temperatures of 90 ºC, in the event of a short it must even temporarily resist 200 ºC without failing and function reliably at minus 40 ºC. These extreme requirements are met by an outer insulating sheath made of a special grade of Levapren® developed specifically for this application.

made of HNBR Therban®, because they are temperature resistant and impervious to ozone. What is more, no other materials are used in the manufacture of these hoses, making them thinner, lighter and more cost-effective than a hose comprising several layers of different materials.

High-performance grades The design and performance-related rise in temperatures under the hood of motor vehicles continues unabated, with engineers recording peak temperatures at the drive unit of some 170 ºC, while continuous temperatures under the hood are nearing the 150 degree mark. The solution for coping with the resulting stresses in hoses and seals combines special antioxidants with intelligent chemistry, enabling the HNBR rubber to withstand even higher temperatures. The maximum temperature in continuous operation is now at 165 °C for the special-purpose rubber Therban® HT. LANXESS chemists are also extending the Therban® working temperature downwards by integrating large molecule fragments at points along the chain molecule, which prevent the polymer from crystallizing, i.e., hardening, too soon. The product is known as Therban® LT. Another new special-purpose grade, Therban ® AT, boasts excellent flow behavior, making it the ideal choice for large rubber components. In the production of Therban ® AT, chemists use a reaction method known as “metathesis” to obtain organic molecules.

Thanks to its outstanding resistance to rough, abrasive sludges, its high resistance to aggressive media and chemicals, high temperature resistance, low tendency to swell, high strength in dynamic applications and good adhesion to metals, the Therban ® AT grade produced by this method is ideal for an entire range of applications, including seals in stator/rotor systems, eccentric screw pumps and drill motors for oil production.

Continuous cycle For the sorting lines at Germany’s postal service, Deutsche Post, rapidly and reliably transporting between 30,000 and 60,000 letters an hour is a high priority. Traveling on conveyors at a speed of four meters per second, the envelopes pass through scanners and on for further distribution. Letters are seldom lost on these high-speed lines thanks to conveyors coated with the extremely abrasion-resistant NBR rubber brand Krynac® X, whose hydrophilic (water-friendly) surface exhibits excellent separating and carrying properties. The functional rubber surface designed specifically for transporting letters also protects sensitive surfaces and can withstand the highly dynamic loads at the deflection rollers. LANXESS produces Krynac® X 740 in an emulsion process specifically for this application to supply conveyor belt manufacturer Forbo Siegling GmbH. The rubber is a terpolymer made from acrylonitrile, butadiene and an unsaturated carboxylic acid, which lends the surface its hydrophilic properties.

By way of contrast, the food industry requires conveyor belts that are primarily resistant to hot water, grease and detergents.

Materials used to transport stones and bricks, on the other hand, must display good tear propagation resistance, while those found in industrial environments must be particularly impervious to oils and lubricants.

Brilliant print Alongside cylinders and rollers, blankets carry out a rather inconspicuous transport function in offset printing presses. They not only transfer ink from the printing plate to the paper, but are also responsible for transporting the paper with millimeter precision. The top layer of these complex, multilayered high-tech products from ContiTech Elastomer Coating is made of the nitrile rubber Perbunan® from LANXESS. This chemical and abrasion-resistant elastomer gives the blankets the absolutely homogeneous surface required for high dot and contour definition and excellent full-tone smoothness. In addition to its excellent chemical and oil resistance – a key factor when it comes to cleaning the blankets – and its outstanding abrasion resistance, Perbunan® can also be customized to provide blankets with the various surface properties required in sheetfed, web offset and newspaper printing.

Treading safely Floor covering is also an integral part of transportation, be it on foot or on wheels. Architects and real estate developers frequently choose rubber floor coverings based on Levapren® (EVM) or blends of Levapren® and nitrile rubber, such as Perbunan® or Krynac®, when building high-traffic warehouses where forklifts are always on the move, hospitals and nursing homes where beds and wheelchairs are constantly rolled through corridors and rooms, and heavily frequented buildings, such as airports, museums and train stations, for instance the city terminal of the Transrapid maglev in Shanghai, China. Depending on the area of application, these floor coverings – which already offer excellent load-bearing capacity and easy cleaning – can also be designed to dissipate electrostatic charges.

Further, they provide anti-slip properties and excellent floor soundproofing, and are very comfortable to walk on thanks to their elasticity.

Krynac® meets the toughest requirements in terms of fire protection, non-hazardous fumes, antistatic properties and resistance to aggressive media, such as oil, lubricants and saltwater. The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS) therefore chose floor coverings based on the NBR rubber Krynac® from LANXESS for its largest sea rescue vessel, the Hermann Marwede.

The driving force Belts are key components when it comes to transmitting power in drive units, wheels, pumps, generators and shafts. Rubber belts with fabric inlays made of

The city terminal of Transrapid maglev in Shanghai has extremely durable rubber flooring based on Levapren®.

Precision

Made of Perbunan® from LANXESS, the top layer on printing blankets ensures a totally homogeneous surface.

Conveyor belts in postal sorting lines frequently are coated with the NBR rubber Krynac® X, which displays good separating and carrying properties.

Transmission

Drive belts transmit forces and set motors, pumps, wheels and shafts in motion.

Fuel-saver

plastic (polyamide, polyester or aramid) ensure optimal and uniform surface adhesion to drive pulleys, thereby improving power transmission.

As materials have changed over time, so have the cross-sections and surfaces of the belts. V-belts made of rubber have a trapezoidal cross-section, meaning they adhere to two sides of the V-shaped pulley, improving power transmission as a result.

The V-belt gave rise to V-ribbed belts, whose crosssection is provided with wedge-shaped ribs running lengthwise. The pulley has grooves to match these ribs.

Thanks to their innovative design, V-ribbed belts can run half a dozen units at the same time in so-called serpentine drives.

Toothed belts are ideal for applications demanding zero slip. Perfectly matched toothed belts and toothed pulleys guarantee that this requirement is met. Toothed belts can also bridge fairly long distances of up to three meters.

Belts of all kinds are conquering new territory, in particular in automotive manufacturing. However, the materials used to make these belts must do more than just transfer power, they must continuously stand up to the toughest conditions. For example, high-tech belts in cars must withstand heat (up to 170 °C), cold (down to minus 40 °C), oil, ozone, extremely dynamic loads and operating conditions likely to promote abrasion.

The teeth on heavy-duty belts are reinforced with aramid fibers; the tension member inside the belt is a glass cord that provides for high bending fatigue strength, water resistance and linear stability. The compact design of state-of-the-art car engines demands even more from these specialist belts: to be able to drive and synchronize as many units as possible at the same time, i.e., to save space and reduce weight, toothed belts have been developed with teeth both inside and out.

Motorcycle manufacturers, such as Harley-Davidson, BMW and Kawasaki, are replacing chains with toothed belts to drive the rear wheel in some of their vehicles (right: the Harley-Davidson Nightster XL1200N). The switch reduces fuel consumption.

Motorcycle manufacturers, such as BMW, HarleyDavidson and Kawasaki, are also fitting some of their vehicles with these heavy-duty toothed belts. The belts take over the steel chain’s function of driving the rear wheel. They cut down on vehicle weight and reduce maintenance significantly, because they need not be lubricated or tightened during their service life of some 40,000 kilometers.

Drive belts further help to reduce fuel consumption and thus CO2 emissions in motor vehicles. For instance, Continental AG markets a toothed belt that also operates in an oil environment as an alternative to chain drives. The oil-resistant toothed belt offers a number of advantages: with a 30 percent lower friction loss, it cuts fuel consumption by 0.1 to 0.2 liters per 100 kilometers, reducing CO2 emissions accordingly.

Other elastomer multitalents The LANXESS High Performance Elastomers business unit also produces the high-quality nitrile rubber products Perbunan ® and Krynac ® (NBR). They are used in all applications subject to relatively low thermal stresses, such as seals, membranes and hose inner liners.

Krynac® and Perbunan® are oil-resistant acrylonitrilebutadiene rubber products manufactured by emulsion polymerization. In addition to numerous fields of ­application, such as hydraulic, gasoline and oil hoses, as well as transport rollers, they are used in the soles of athletic and safety shoes.

The weather-resistant chloroprene rubber (CR) Baypren® traditionally serves a sheathing material for hoses and axle boots. Thanks to its excellent dynamic properties, it also is incorporated in products such as non-discoloring windshield wipers. Baypren® is becoming increasingly important as a material for air springs in cars, trucks, buses and trains.

The ethylene-propylene rubber (EPDM) Keltan® EP of the Business Unit Keltan Elastomers, has become ­essential to the automotive industry. In door, window and trunk seals, it prevents air and rain from penetrating a vehicle. In cooler hoses, it withstands hot cooling water.

V-belts made of EPDM drive the alternator, water pump and other auxiliary units. In the brake hoses, the material must withstand high pressures and temperatures.

EPDM further is used to manufacture oil additives.

Rubber products with great future potential Thanks to their versatility and adaptability, high-quality high performance elastomers, such as Therban® and Levapren®, have become established in a wide range of applications, and still have plenty of territory to conquer ahead. With its unique combination of very good heat and oil resistance, low-temperature flexibility and outstanding mechanical strength, Therban® is moving into additional sectors, including automotive manufac60

Technical rubber products

Corn can be a raw ­material for the isobutene production.

turing. The increased use of hybrid and electric drive systems, as well as rising temperatures under the hood resulting from smaller turbo engines, indicate that demand for high-performance elastomers will continue to grow. Another product trend is bio-based polymers.

Further, new HNBR grades are of great importance to LANXESS’s future business. These hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber products (HNBR) boast improved swelling properties in oils and open up new opportunities for developers of technical rubber articles, e.g., in terms of contact with alternative fuels. High performance elastomers also offer enormous future potential in the field of alternative energy generation from wind and sun. Wind power plants, for example, need heat- and ozone-resistant vibration damping components to ensure reliable operation, and Therban® is the optimal performance material for this application. The EVM rubber Levapren®, on the other hand, is ideal for making the heat-, oxygen- and ozoneresistant film in which the components of photovoltaic systems are embedded.

Fluororubber added to portfolio

After launching a sales partnership with Moscow-based rubber manufacturer Halopolymer, OJSC, LANXESS now also has fluororubber (FKM) in its product portfolio.

These grades are being marketed under the name Levatherm® F. Fluororubber products are characterized by outstanding resistance to high temperatures up to 230 °C, ozone, oxygen, mineral oils, synthetic hydraulic fluids, fuels, aromatic compounds, numerous organic solvents and chemicals. Their gas permeability is as low as that of butyl rubber. Because of these advantages, peroxidecured Levatherm® F 7043 and 7044 are particularly suitable for hoses, membranes and other rubber parts in contact with biofuels. Toothed belts made of Levatherm® F can also help reduce fuel consumption. Studies have shown that using toothed belts instead of chains cuts fuel consumption by 0.1liter for every 100 kilometers.

Assuming 30,000 kilometers of travel a year, that adds up to 30 liters of fuel. Another example of an application for fluororubber is rubber expansion joints for pipes conveying hot or corrosive media. Expansion joints are elastic couplings used in industry to compensate for vibrations and linear expansion in pipelines. They are responsible for both sealing and damping vibration. In addition to the fluororubber raw polymer, LANXESS recently began offering its customers precompounds to facilitate the processing of these rubbers. Precompounds are intended, among other things, for the manufacture of products requiring rapid vulcanization or those with higher crosslinking density. Examples include injection molded parts with low compression sets. Another grade is designed for processors who need excellent process reliability. These “slower” precompounds are suitable, for example, for extruding hoses or manufacturing products with long flow paths in the mold.

Heat-resistant

Bio-based products for green mobility In efforts to reduce the consumption of both fossil resources and energy in production, LANXESS is constantly searching for new basic substances and methods to manufacture its high-quality products. The company made a highly recognized breakthrough in this connection in 2011, in the production of its highperformance elastomer Keltan®. At its Triunfo site in Brazil, LANXESS has been producing this EPDM rubber on the basis of sugarcane since the end of 2011. The ethanol obtained from the plant is dehydrated to form ethylene and then polymerized into EPDM. Braskem S.A. supplies the “green” ethylene to the LANXESS plant by pipeline. The new bio-based product is marketed under the name Keltan® Eco. It contains 70 percent of the organic starting material. This proportion is to be increased to over 90 percent in the next few years.

During the course of 2012, the bio-based grade made up an increasingly high percentage of the 40,000 metric tons per year of Keltan® produced in Triunfo, and

Toothed belts made of Levatherm® fluororubber function reliably at temperatures up to 230 ºC.

Technical rubber products

61

Nanoprene

capacity will eventually reach 10,000 metric tons per year. Notably, the decision in favor of sugarcane does not translate into excessive strain on the Brazilian agricultural industry: less than one percent of the country’s entire area and 1.5 percent of its cultivated land is used to grow sugarcane. Another factor in favor of sugarcane is its very good energy balance and high energy yield of 7,000 liters ethylene per hectare.

Baynox® makes biofuel last Together with its subsidiary Rhein Chemie, LANXESS is developing new fields of application for Nanoprene...

...such as membranes for fuel cells, which promise emissions-free mobility using electricity from hydrogen.

Biodiesel, whether as a fuel in its own right or a mandatory additive in mineral diesel, is also made possible by new products from LANXESS. Without the addition of stabilizers like LANXESS product Baynox®, the oils frequently used to make biodiesel, such as jatropha, karanja, soy and sunflower oil, would become rancid in fuel tanks due to oxidation caused by exposure to air.

Without Baynox®, the corrosive fatty acids and polymeric solids generated in the process, known as gums, would develop into harmful deposits and residues in the engine and fuel system. LANXESS has now solved this problem. Even very small amounts of the antioxidant Baynox® help to ensure that the green fuel enjoys a long life in fuel tanks. It is fully combusted in the engine, leaving behind no residues. Its effectiveness has been proven in practical studies. For example, it was awarded the coveted “no harm” certificate by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitätsmanagement Biodiesel e.V. (AGQM).

Nanotechnology for better tires

Antioxidant

Another development from the laboratories of LANXESS’s High Performance Elastomers (HPE) business unit is Nanoprene. These newly developed microgels, containing precrosslinked, nanoscale rubber particles, are made from polymerized styrene and butadiene. The polymer additive improves specific material properties in elastomers and thermoplastics. Through a highly specialized production process, LANXESS ensures the small size and high surface functionality

Adding Baynox® stabilizer to biodiesel makes it last longer.

62

Technical rubber products

of the particles. The additive has been a success in its first major application: the production of winter tires.

As a material additive in the rubber mix for the treads, it substantially cuts abrasion, greatly extending a tire’s service life and reducing environmental pollution.

Equally important is that no compromises must be made on rolling resistance or wet grip with this additive. The Nanoprene product range will be expanded in the near future to include grades that vary, for example, in terms of their glass transition temperature (i.e., their low-temperature flexibility) and are thus even better suited to specific types of tires. Together with its subsidiary Rhein Chemie, LANXESS continues to develop new fields of application for Nanoprene. These include impact-resistance modification in thermoplastics and thermosets. The experts in nanotechnology are also working on a specific Nanoprene grade for the membranes of fuel cells. Seals made of ethylenepropylene-diene rubber (EPDM), such as Keltan® EP, or butyl rubber, are effective in sealing these energy sources of the future for emissions-free road traffic.

Additives for green tires The products with green potential include Vulcuren®, a crosslinking and anti-reversion agent for the manufacture of eco-friendly tires. It forms much more thermally stable and flexible hybrid network points than “traditional” rubber crosslinking with sulfur bridges. As a result, the rubber retains its elastic properties much longer when exposed to heat than conventional systems. The vulcanization temperature therefore can be increased as needed to significantly boost productivity in the manufacture of large rubber components, such as truck or construction vehicle tires. Vulcuren® is also an alternative to the secondary accelerator N,N’-diphenylguanidine (DPG), which is widely used to make fuelsaving silica tires, but unsuitable in combination with silanes, such as Si 363. Furthermore, DPG can release aniline under vulcanization conditions. Vulcuren® does not exhibit this effect, considered undesirable by many customers. In road tests, Vulcuren® has proven that it counteracts abrasion in truck tires made of NR, BR and SBR rubber grades. Car tires likewise are less susceptible to use-related aging if made with Vulcuren®. Another of LANXESS’s innovations for green mobility is the VulkalinkTM line of rubber additives.

These help to reduce the rolling resistance of state-of-the-art tread

In Brazil, LANXESS is running a new process to manufacture EPDM rubber using ethylene derived from sugarcane.

mixes and optimize the behavior of tires in wet conditions. They are brand new additives that significantly improve the interaction between the polymers and the silica filler. The VulkalinkTM products were developed in close cooperation with customers and can very easily be added to the vulcanization process without causing compatibility problems with the other “ingredients.” A second group of VulkalinkTM products includes VulkalinkTM 1871, an additive with very similar properties and one big advantage: manufacturers can cut the amount of filler without having to modify their production process and without negatively influencing the hardness of the rubber blend. Lowering the amount of added silica greatly improves the rolling resistance of passenger car tires, and that represents yet another step towards making future mobility one thing above all: more sustainable.

mideTM 100 improves the hydrolysis stability of bioplastics (PLA) by a factor of seven compared to an unstabilized grade, meaning it helps to extend a polymer’s service life. BioAdimideTM 500 XT also serves as a chain extender. With this additional function, it increases the melt viscosity of an extruded PLA by 20 to 30 percent compared to an unstabilized grade, which simplifies PLA processing. The two BioAdimideTM grades can be combined to achieve both optimal hydrolysis stabilization and improved processing. These are just a few examples of how well LANXESS, as an innovation leader and manufacturer of high-end products, is prepared for the future of green mobility.

Biorubber

BioAdimide™ supports the production of long-lasting products from bio-based polyester.

Additive for biopolyesters

The BioAdimideTM product line is the result of a global product development program by LANXESS subsidiary Rhein Chemie. At the same time, it is a response to the demand for more eco-friendly products. BioAdi­mideTM supports the production of renewable, bio-based polymers for durable applications. These additives are specially suited to improving the hydrolysis resistance of bio-based polyesters, particularly polylactide (PLA), and to expanding their range of applications. Two Bio­AdimideTM grades are available at present. BioAdi-

Technical rubber products

63

Destruction at work

Fouling on a ship’s hull not only damages the outer skin of these ocean-going giants, it also poses a risk of spreading bacteria and other harmful organisms.

Mobility helpers for the shipping industry Some 6,000 different organisms are busy under water ­tampering with anything that travels the world’s oceans.

They cling to the hulls of ships, where they build entire colonies. Experts refer to this unwanted growth as “fouling,” and make a distinction between “soft” and “hard” growth. Soft growth is caused by microorganisms and algae that usually form a slimy film. Hard-fouling organisms include mussels and crustaceans that attach permanently to the hull.

In commercial shipping, fouling means real damage. The growth destroys the surface of a ship’s outer skin over time, eventually promoting rust and wear. Above all, it causes sig-

nificant frictional resistance. Fuel consumption can increase by up to 40 percent as a result, making an enormous difference in cost for large cargo ships that travel thousands of kilometers. On their journeys, these ocean-going giants consume 100 tons of fuel – per day! No wonder it pays to regularly clean the hull of all growth. Legal regulations require all ships to be put into drydock every three to five years, depending on class, for inspection below the waterline. Any organic growth as well as flaking or damaged paint is removed by sandblasting. Touching up the paint also renews the biocide whose active ingredients have washed out over the years in a process referred to as “leaching.”

While copper oxide protects against hard growth, Preventol® from LANXESS prevents algae and microorganisms from colonizing the outer skin on ships.

64

SOMMERREIFEN / Winterreifen

Prevention pays In terms of saving fuel, it is better to prevent or at least minimize fouling from the start. Copper inhibits the attachment of mussels and other organisms. The paints used on ships today therefore contain up to 40 percent copper compounds.

The hulls of modern tankers and container ships typically are red because of the copper oxide in the paint. In contrast, most coatings in the racing boat segment are based on copper thiocyanate, which is white and considerably more expensive. The longer these coatings last and protect the hull, the more efficiently a ship operates. And that helps not only shipowners and their customers, but ultimately also the climate and the environment.

PreventolŽ for enhanced protection While copper mainly spoils the appetite of the hard-fouling organisms, the soft growth (fouling caused by algae and the like) can only be suppressed by other special additives in the paint. The slimy film produced by algae and other microorganisms also slows down a ship, in addition to providing an ideal surface for the hard growth. Biocidal ingredients in a coating make a ship’s surface unpalatable for all forms of fouling. Furthermore, they prevent the spread of bacteria and other pathogens in the water from one part of the world to another, and reduce the risk of regional animal species being transported to foreign coasts, where they compete with and displace native species. One example of such an invasion is the Eurasian zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha, which was introduced to various places including the Great Lakes of North America, where a staggering five billion US dollars already have been spent on efforts to control it.

To minimize damage to their outer skin from fouling, ships must regularly be put into drydock to clean off the hard and soft growth.

Partner to the leather industry Custom-made

LANXESS manufactures a number of chemicals for the leather industry at its facility in Filago, Italy.

LANXESS is one of the leading suppliers of products and system solutions for the leather industry. As such, it is constantly developing innovative technologies to optimize processes and products and, at the same time, significantly help to protect the environment. With its Sustainable Leather Management initiative, which was rolled out at the beginning of 2011, LANXESS underscores its commitment to ensure that new products and processes for the leather industry are as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible. LANXESS offers products, system solutions and services for all stages of the leather manufacturing process from the wet end right through to the finishing. Its portfolio of leather chemicals – the broadest worldwide – includes mineral and synthetic/organic tanning materials, preservatives, tanning auxiliaries, fatliquoring agents, dyestuffs and numerous finishing products such as polyurethane dispersions and polyacrylates. One of the largest customers for these products is the automotive leather sector, which accounts for roughly one quarter of leather business worldwide.

LANXESS is also contributing to the “green wave” in the mobility sector with new leather manufacturing and treatment technologies such as X-Lite® for producing lighter-weight leather. This technology is based on expandable microcapsules that are introduced into the fiber structure during

the retannage via an innovative process and, after thermal expansion, produce a leather that looks and feels like a full, 1.3-mm-thick upholstery leather, but is 20 percent lighter. Car seats upholstered with this leather are therefore also much lighter, which helps to cut fuel consumption.

LANXESS has also developed an antisoiling system primarily for leather car seats that protects even pale-colored leathers effectively against stains. Aquaderm® X-Shield is an innovative system based on a waterborne polymer dispersion that is applied as a top coat. Unlike conventional soil-repellent finishes that wear off after a while, the Aquaderm® X-Shield binder system consists of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) segments which are incorporated by polymerization, and is firmly anchored on the leather surface. In this way, Aquaderm® X-Shield prevents staining with denim dyes and other stubborn substances such as coffee, mustard and engine oil.

In 2011 LANXESS also introduced its extremely environment-friendly X-Tan® tanning system, which is used in the production of wet whites to ensure very high whiteness. This makes it possible to obtain particularly brilliant colors in the subsequent dyeing of leather for car seats. Throughout the entire tanning process, no substances that could be harmful to health or the environment are formed – yet another contribution to green mobility.

Pale-colored leather seats such as the ones in this Jaguar must be treated with special products to protect them against soiling.

66

SOMMERREIFEN / Winterreifen

Red “carpet” for political leaders

For the G20 Summit of the heads of government, the city of Cannes rolled out a red “carpet” in front of the Congress Center.

When the world’s 20 most powerful heads of government met in the “Palais des Festivals” in Cannes on November 3 and 4, 2011, to discuss state indebtedness and the euro crisis, they stepped out of their limousines on to a red “carpet” that owes its rich red color to the Bayferrox® 230 A iron oxide red pigments from LANXESS. For the G20 Summit, the city of Cannes had renewed the red asphalt on walkways and squares around the Congress Center.

Manufactured using the Laux process, this pigment was the product of choice because it is custom-made for coloring asphalt.

Bayferrox® pigments have the advantage of high color strength, exceptional lightfastness and excellent weather resistance. They are also characterized by their high quality and simple and environmentally compatible processing. Bayferrox® pigments are available in the form of powder, compacted pigment or granules.

They are used to color construc-

tion materials, such as cast insitu concrete, precast concrete components, roofing tiles, pavers and asphalt.

A total of 9,400 square meters of road surface in Cannes were paved with an asphalt mixture colored with 30 metric tons of the powdered Bayferrox® pigment. The old asphalt had been previously removed and recycled.

Maximum energy efficiency LANXESS is the only manufacturer worldwide to use the Laux process, which kicked off the success story of iron oxide pigments 85 years ago at the Uerdingen plant.

Thanks to regular investment in the process and constant optimization through innovations, it has now reached the point where it is considered state of the art for producing iron oxide pigments in relation to other synthesis methods in commercial use.

It is above all responsible for the outstanding quality properties

of the company’s black and red shades.

The method even has ecological advantages. For example, the heat of the chemical reaction is used to generate steam and hot water for subsequent process steps. The result is a process with unsurpassed energy efficiency.

Iron oxide

The rich red color around the Congress Center in Cannes....

...is attributable to powdered Bayferrox® pigments from LANXESS.

innovation driver

67

Inspiring technology: “Green Mobility” through lightweight design by LANXESS Advanced materials provide greater efficiency and reduce fuel consumption.

L

osing weight pays off – especially in vehicle manufacturing. Lighter vehicles consume less fuel. This means that in view of rising energy­ costs and increasingly stringent emissions limits, vehicles must be designed­ as light as possible. However, increased requirements concerning workmanship and equipment have led to a continuous increase in the average weight of vehicles.

As a result, car manufacturers are now willing to pay up to 20 Euro per kilogram of weight reduction. LANXESS has accepted the challenge. As a pioneer in

“Green Mobility”, we are developing prac­tical lightweight design solutions that enable manufacturers to build lighter yet stronger vehicles. Today, LANXESS provides­ Excess weight Example: Mini

650 kg 1959

1,070 kg 2006

innovations that reduce per kilo production costs and make lightweight design solutions viable for high-volume production.

Advanced hybrid components and high-performance plas­tics are key to this development.

In addition­ to reducing­ vehicle weight, fuel consumption and emissions, they also reduce energy­ consumption and related production costs during manufacture. As a result, the environment, drivers and industry all benefit.

New requirements significantly increase the average­weight of a vehicle.

Equipment Leather seats X-Lite® leather weighs up to 20 % less than conventional lea­ther yet is equally wearre­sistant. Advanced Tepex® in­lays made of thermoplastic composites (moldable fiberreinforced plastic panels) help manufacturers reduce the weight of car seats by up to 50 % when compared to seat designs constructed from plastic alone.

airbags Tepex® hybrid technology allows for a much thinner design for airbag housing side walls thanks to thermoplastic composites that do not compromise on stiffness or strength. Thus, the weight of airbag housings can be reduced by roughly one-third.

Drive belts

Oil pans

Structural reinforcements

Timing belts made of highperformance rubber are not only significantly lighter, they also extend the service life and increase the efficiency of engines.

Polyamide materials (Dure­than®) are super light and moldable. Polyamide oil pans for engines and trans­missions­ can be manufactured with­out the need for re-machining. They allow for the cost-efficient integration­ of functions – while reducing weight by up to 50 % in comparison to steel solutions.

Roof frames are 30 % lighter when made with plastic / metal hybrid technology, yet cost just the same.

Car bodY

Pedals

DRIVE TRAIN

Significantly lighter pedals provide the same strength as conventional steel pedals: Thermoplastic composites (Tepex®) and ribbed structures made of polyamide (Durethan®) enhance the load-bearing capacity of the pedals in comparison to steel pedals and save up to 50 % in weight.

Spare tire wells

Front ends

A plastic and fiber spare tire well reduces weight and increases functionality.

The nine kilogram spare tire well made of highly filled plastic with 60 % glass fiber­ is attached­ di­ rectly to the body frame. It stores the spare tire and onboard tool kit and also stiffens the rear section of the vehicle.

Depending on the vehicle type, hybrid front ends made of plastic / metal composites can reduce weight from 10 % – 40 % compared to front ends made of metal alone. By integrating thermoplastic composites, up to 20 % in vehicle weight can be saved additionally in comparison to sheet aluminum solutions.

SAVINGS POTENTIAL

New drives – more weight

If vehicle weight is reduced by 100 kg through lightweight design,

State-of-the-art electric motors and hybrid engines weigh significantly more than conventional internal combustion engines. This alone is reason enough for LANXESS to push forward with research and development initiatives that can mitigate the expected weight increase of vehicle fleets through intelligent lightweight design innovations. This will help reduce operating costs and CO2 emissions.

1 suitcase = 25 kg

motorists upTreibstoff to 5 liters Das spartcan 5 save Liter of 1000 fuel for every 1,000 km they auf km Reichweite drive.

250 kg Electric car

50 kg Combustion engine

100 – 150 kg Hybrid vehicle range extender

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Green tires for green mobility Component mix A car tire is produced from more than 200 components to meet the many different requirements, including:

14%

40 %

5 % 13 %

• Natural and synthetic rubber fillers • Reinforced • Chemicals Reinforcing fabrics • Steel reinforcement •

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Source: Michelin Fact Book 2003

28 %

Buying a new car without life-saving airbags would be almost inconceivable today. After all, the importance of safety is increasing all the time as the volume of traffic grows by the month. Yet many drivers either do not know or they ignore the fact that their tires also play a decisive role in traffic safety. They entrust their lives and those of their passengers to four tires that have a contact area with the road no greater than a postcard. Only in tricky braking situations do many people suddenly become aware of how important this contact – and thus the rubber tire – really is.

To sharpen people’s awareness of the major role played by the tires in safety, fuel consumption and noise emissions, the European Union will introduce a new tire labeling system in fall 2012 (E.U. Regulations 661/2009/EC – type testing of tires – and 1222/2009/EC – labeling of tires). This means that tire manufacturers will be compelled to label their new

tires to give drivers additional information. A similar labeling system already exists for refrigerators to tell consumers how much electricity each model consumes. The upshot of this is that manufacturers have performed real energy-saving miracles in the development of new refrigerators in the last few years.

Tire labeling, which LANXESS has supported from an early stage, will revolutionize tire markets in the future.

The label will inform the consumer about the tire’s fuel efficiency (fuel consumption through rolling resistance), wet grip (safety) and noise emissions. The rolling resistance of category A tires is around 40 percent lower than that of category G tires, which translates into a potential fuel saving of some ten percent.

Professor Horst Wildemann from the Technical University of Munich remarks in the foreword to his study entitled “Car tires – ecological and economic effects of E.U. regulations” that “new regulations from the Euro-

pean Union on reducing vehicle emissions will have a positive impact on the performance characteristics of tires. Rubber producers, tire manufacturers, tire dealers and vehicle manufacturers are challenged to develop solutions that help meet the changing demands on vehicle tires. With the introduction of these regulations by the E.U., the consumer can now decide himself what contribution he wants to make to reducing energy consumption and emissions.�

In his study, Prof. Wildemann has calculated that reducing the rolling resistance by one kilogram per metric ton lowers the fuel consumption of a vehicle by 0.08 liter per 100 kilometers. At the same time, CO2 emissions are cut by 200 grams per 100 kilometers. The 45 million or so cars in Germany consume some 47 billion liters of fuel every year. If the rolling resistance were reduced by ten percent, the potential savings would be 750 million liters of fuel, equivalent to over ten million tankfuls. Based on this calculation, this would put the reduction in CO2 emissions at 1.875 million kilograms.

In Europe, the new regulations on CO2 reduction should be completed by 2015/16. In the United States, similar regulations are to be implemented by 2016 at the latest. The goal there is to lower CO2 emissions by ten percent. Japan aims to draw up fuel consumption targets by 2015, and in China, too, a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is being discussed. In Brazil, a similar fixing of CO2 targets is likely to take until around 2020, while South Korea and Taiwan intend for the time being to rely on voluntary commitments by the industry. On the other hand, the global competition in the automotive industry and their suppliers is likely to result in all manufacturers adapting quickly to the E.U. thresholds in order to retain their export opportunities.

In search of potential savings With its tire labeling legislation, the European Union is adding to its regulations on threshold values for carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars. To achieve the defined target of a maximum of 130 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer, car manufacturers are looking for economic ways to lower the fuel consumption of their products. Absolutely nothing is being left out because the European Commission aims to reduce average CO2 emissions for new vehicles in the E.U. by adopting additional measures such as lowering the rolling resistance of the tires by a further ten grams to 120 grams CO2 per kilometer. The emission threshold does not apply to each individual vehicle, but is the average figure for all vehicles built in one year by a manufac-

A minimal braking distance even on wet roads is a key safety requirement for car tires.

turer registered in the E.U. From 2012, manufacturers who do not meet their target will have to pay a levy for exceeding the emissions limit.

To keep within the thresholds and make the required contribution to climate protection, car manufacturers have for several years been occupied with the development of innovative engine management systems, new injection techniques, electronically controlled stop-andgo systems in urban traffic, new transmission systems such as hybrid units and electric motors, lighter-weight designs and materials, and assemblies that use fuels from renewable energy sources. However, the project got off to a slow start. In the future, electricity could be generated with hydrogen from renewable sources together with oxygen in fuel cells. This electricity would be used to feed the electric motors that drive the car.

This would achieve the status of zero emissions.

The tire industry and its suppliers have been involved for a considerable time in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions attributable to road traffic. To produce even greener tires, manufacturers are constantly modifying their rubber compounds and developing new varieties of fillers and additives. For the tire treads, they take advantage of computer calculations, using every trick in the book to ensure a safe grip on dry and wet roads despite lower rolling resistance.

The rolling resistance of tires, generally indicated as kilogram per metric ton, results from the deformation of the tire to create a sufficiently large tire contact area on the road. This is what essentially transmits the propulsion power. Every time the tire turns and deflects, it absorbs energy, which is converted into heat and discharged to the environment. The firmer the grip of the tire tread on the road surface and the less air in the tire, the greater the energy loss through friction and deformation. Every car driver can make an important contribution to climate protection by regularly checking the tire pressure.

Labeling

As of November 1, 2012, all new tires produced after July 1, 2012 for cars and light and heavy utility vehicles must be labeled.

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Always in the picture

Tiny sensors inside the tire keep the driver informed of the tire pressure via the onboard computer.

There’s no need for electronics: tire pressure gages are available at any filling station.

No conflict between safety for the family and rolling resistance.

The right tire pressure helps the climate In addition, the green tire of the future will also be “intelligent” enough to register whether it is optimally inflated. This is done by sensors on the inside of the tread, which will inform the driver if the tire needs more air. Should the air pressure fall by just 0.3 bar below the level recommended by the manufacturer, the vehicle will use around 1.5 percent more fuel because the rolling resistance is around 6 percent higher. With a mid-size car, this means an extra 16 liters of fuel a year, increasing harmful CO2 emissions by 38 kilograms a year.

At first sight, this is not a huge amount, but if we transfer this figure to the 33 percent of passenger cars driving with the wrong tire pressure in Germany alone (15.2 million), the annual CO2 output adds up to more than 600,000 metric tons. The calculations were based on a car with a consumption of 7.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers and an annual driving distance of 15,000 kilometers.

The serious effect of low tire pressure on climateharmful emissions is also illustrated by figures from the European Union: if the pressure of the tire is 0.5 bar too low, this can increase the CO2 emissions of a car by as much as 140 kilograms a year. If, on the other hand,

all vehicles in Europe were to drive with the correct tire pressure, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions could be cut by up to 2.5 percent.

With utility vehicles, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced to an even greater extent if the tires run at optimal pressure. Experts from the tire manufacturer Continental have established, for example, that, in the United States utility vehicles drive on average with a tire pressure that is 12 percent too low. This leads to an additional fuel consumption of some four billion liters of diesel a year and consequently to avoidable CO2 emissions of more than nine million metric tons.

Perceptive electronics Because it seems that a large percentage of drivers go to the filling station merely to top up on fuel and, at most, to check oil and water levels, and seldom think of monitoring the tire pressure, leading tire manufacturers are working on a new generation of tires with an electronic tire pressure control system.

In these tires, sensors weighing only a few grams are mounted on the inside of the tread to link the tire to the on-board electronics. This sensitive “stowaway” transmits all the relevant data on tire type, tire pressure,

speed and load index to the on-board computer so that assistance systems such as ABS (anti-lock braking system) and ESP (electronic stability program) can function more effectively. Furthermore, before the start of every journey, the ABS and ESP microchips are supplied via the on-board computer with the current axle-load and wheel-load distribution data, making the journey safer and more comfortable. In the near future, the driver will also be “contacted” at the beginning and end of a journey and asked to adjust the pressure after loading and unloading the vehicle.

Plenty more potential Despite all these developments, tire manufacturers are still of the opinion that the greatest potential in terms of environmental protection and fuel consumption lies in optimized rubber compounds and modifications to the tire structure itself. Even more sophisticated use of silica filler, carefully engineered rubber compounds, and optimized design of the tire tread, belt and carcass will all play a crucial role in this process. Although the leading tire manufacturers have been able to lower the rolling resistance by around 30 percent in the last 15 years, tire researchers think there is still some way to go: ambitious tire designers want to reduce the rolling resistance by a further 50 percent or so in the next 25 years. The fuel consumption caused by the rolling resistance would then also be halved.

The experts have even more impressive figures to illustrate the positive effects of green tires: Example 1: If all automobiles and trucks in Europe were equipped with modern tires with low rolling resistance, 4.5 billion liters of diesel and 1.5 billion liters of gasoline could be saved each year. That would reduce emissions of CO2 by 15 million metric tons.

Example 2: If all passenger cars were equipped with the best low-rolling-resistance tires currently available, global carbon dioxide emissions would be around 50 million metric tons lower than at present. This is because the fuel consumption of an average mid-range car would drop by up to 0.3 liters per 100 kilometers.

Calculated over the average service life of the vehicle, that would mean cutting CO2 by a minimum of 1,200 kilograms.

Highly promising test phase In their efforts to lower the rolling resistance and thus improve the CO2 figures, tire developers are now making use of new rubber compounds for the tire tread. They have the property of concentrating the deformation heat – which can rise to 80 °C on a long journey and is spread evenly over the entire surface of a conventional tire – on the area of the tire that is in contact with the road surface at any one moment. The heat is thus generated mainly where it is needed for a good grip.

And, because grip is needed less when driving along a straight flat road than when negotiating bends, braking

The lower a tire’s rolling resistance, the lower its output of CO2.

and accelerating, tire researchers have also developed “intelligent” tread compounds that adjust to the different driving situations. To do this, tire developers utilize the high vibrations in the tire that are generated when the driver brakes, accelerates or negotiates a bend. The vibrations of up to 100 kilohertz heat the rubber compound of the tread within fractions of a second and thus ensure a better grip. It then cools down again equally quickly when the extra grip is no longer needed. The tread acquires this ability among other things through a high content of silica fillers.

Product variety

Sensitive interior A modern tire is far more than just rubber and steel. Many of its key properties – such as stability, low rolling resistance, tractive capacity, high mileage and a secure grip on the wheel rim – can be considered as the “inner values” of the tire. The tread, which is responsible for transmitting the engine power to the road, must be soft to ensure optimal grip, but must also be robust enough to prevent too rapid wear. Every other tire component must be optimized in terms of its specific tasks to ensure outstanding overall tire performance. The side walls, for example, must deform easily without heating up because every milliliter of gas that warms the tire is wasted – it makes no contribution whatsoever to moving the vehicle.

The layer of rubber on the inside of the tires known as the inner liner, on the other hand, has to be extremely airtight.

In the carcass, the load-bearing framework of the tire, the rubber must bond extremely well to the polyamide and steel fabric reinforcing the tire.

As many as 20 different rubber grades go into a modern high-performance tire, most of which are based on synthetic rubber. Although pretty unremarkable from the outside, a tire is thus a very sophisticated high-tech product. There is even a touch of “black magic” about it, as manufacturers prefer to keep its composition to themselves.

Specialty chemicals company LANXESS supplies the international tire industry with a variety of high-tech rubbers...

... as well as numerous additives and rubber chemicals.

The “magic triangle” of tire technology Tire manufacturers and suppliers trying to produce tires with the optimal combination of these properties are faced with significant conflicts of interest, generally referred to as

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All these lightweight parts in the Audi A8 make an important contribution to reducing fuel consumption.

Causes of accidents Accidents due to technical defects have declined considerably in Germany in the past 35 years. Nevertheless, tires are the main cause of accidents attributable to technical defects.

6 %

4%

12 %

49 % 29 %

• Tires • Other • Brakes • Lights • Steering Source: German Federal Statistical Office 2010

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the “magic triangle.” This relates to the physical/chemical link between the three key tire properties – abrasion, wet grip and rolling resistance.

One of the big challenges is the fact that grip on wet roads can be increased by making the rubber softer, but that soft grades of rubber are usually worn away more quickly, leading to greater fuel consumption and higher levels of fine dust. There are similar conflicts between the other corners of the triangle. Consequently, anyone wanting to improve one of these three properties in the past inevitably had to compromise on the other two.

With the further development of suitable synthetic rubbers (SSBR, neodymium rubbers and butyl rubbers) LANXESS is helping suppliers to overcome this dilemma and thus offering tire developers greater scope. By continuously improving its rubber grades and developing new additives and processes for the optimized combination of rubber and fillers, the specialty chemicals company is helping to loosen the magic triangle of grip, abrasion and rolling resistance. LANXESS produces high-performance rubbers that already enable the tire industry to comply with the E.U.’s new strict requirements relating to safer, more environmentally friendly tires. LANXESS is confident that its cutting-edge rubbers will help to further reduce the fuel consumption of highperformance tires in the future.

Leading by example To do this, car manufacturers, parts manufacturers and – last but not least – their suppliers in the chemical industry will have to work even more closely together.

The joint goal is to ensure people’s mobility without any significant restrictions and, at the same time, stop global warming with its potentially dramatic effects. To achieve this objective, however, customers – the car buyers – must be persuaded to change over to green tires.

Regulations and controls are good, but being convinced and enjoying benefits is better.

The trend toward sustainability is – at least in the industrial nations – here to stay in our day-to-day lives, and this will play an important role. In broad sections of society, the term “sustainability” has already become established in many walks of life. It is being accompanied by an active effort by companies to make processes and products environmentally compatible. With the two E.U. regulations mentioned above, the tire industry will be obliged to inform consumers about emissions from their tires. Along with the other tire parameters, sustainability will then become an important sales argument.

“Emission-optimized tires available now on the market show that consumers are certainly prepared to pay a little extra for greater sustainability,” writes Prof. Wildemann in his study.

The higher price of an ecologically-optimized tire does not, however, have to mean higher driving costs.

Tires with optimized rolling resistance can easily save five percent and in some instances up to seven percent of fuel if the tire pressure is kept at an optimal level.

Depending on the vehicle type and mileage, this can easily amount to 100 Euros a year. With a service life of around 50,000 kilometers, investing in a set of car tires with low rolling resistance can pay for itself after one or two years.

In the case of tires for utility vehicles with a weight of 40 metric tons and covering a distance of 150,000 kilometers, changing to green tires can even mean fuel savings of around 1,350 Euros a year.

For tires with a low rolling resistance, the consumer currently pays between 20 and 50 Euros more per tire. According to the ADAC summer tire test 2010, buyers have to pay a maximum of 112 Euros for a tire with the best ecological characteristics, compared with 73 Euros for an average tire. The consumer can thus decide himself whether he is prepared to pay extra for an environmentally friendly tire which more than pays for itself over its lifetime.

LANXESS high-tech for green tires For the production of green tires for green mobility, LANXESS already markets rubber raw materials that enable fuel consumption to be substantially reduced. Examples include butyl rubbers (IIR), new, modified grades of solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) and refined grades of neodymium-polybutadiene rubber (Nd-PBR).

The LANXESS chemists anticipate that the rolling resistance of the next tire generation can be further lowered by up to ten percent merely by using currently available high-performance grades of tire rubber – without affecting vehicle safety.

The cause of high rolling resistance can, for example, be high internal friction of the tire components. One way of reducing the internal friction of the silica gel filler particles that give the rubber its stability is to use modified SSBR rubber from LANXESS. Expressed in layman’s terms, the molecules of these rubber raw materials have a high density of “sticky” anchor points that stick particularly well to the hard filler particles and basically cover them with a thick, friction-reducing rubber skin. This “wrapping-up” of the silica gel particles optimizes the polymer/filler network, and this should have a positive

Gentle driving

At the press of a button, modern vehicles can be switched to fuel-economy mode.

BMW ’s ECO Mode development project with preview assistant and “idlespeed sailing” 75

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LANXESS has doubled Nd-PBR capacity at its Cabo de Santo Agostinho site.

Capacity expansion

Production capacities for Nd-PBR in Orange, Texas, United States and … ...

... in Dormagen, Germany, have risen considerably.

LANXESS will also soon be producing in Singapore.

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effect on road grip and abrasion. Initial laboratory and practical tests indicate that tires made of these materials not only have good rolling resistance, they also give outstanding grip. On top of that, they have a very long service life.

The “expander cord” effect can also play a part in the internal friction: if a rubber contains too many molecules with loose ends, it cannot make optimal use of the energy. These loose ends, much like torn expander cords, contribute virtually nothing to transmitting forces in the tire, yet they still have to be moved along. In NdBR rubber from LANXESS, the number of “loose ends” in the rubber matrix is much lower than in other grades of tire rubber.

At the same time, the latest grades of Nd-BR rubber from LANXESS result in more uniform, homogeneous products than many polybutadiene rubber types of former generations. What’s more, largely air-impermeable grades of butyl rubber from LANXESS help keep tire pressure constant for a longer time.

Another current focus of R&D at LANXESS involves specifically varying the molecular microstructure of styrenepolybutadiene tire rubber. New catalysts and increasingly sophisticated process engineering will help to further lower the rolling resistance of new high-performance tires, and thus help to extend, for example, the range of electric vehicles, making them safer at the same time.

On the other hand, the term “sustainability” should not be simply reduced to the aspect of fuel consumption.

Avoiding waste is another important aspect of sustainability. Here, too, modern, robust grades of Nd-BR rubber from LANXESS offer a number of advantages: for example, they cushion an impact with the curb better than many other rubber materials. They thus not only enhance safety, they also avoid waste. Particularly abrasion-resistant grades of rubber in the tread also contribute to good environmental performance, as they not only prolong the tire’s life, they also help to ease the fine dust problems in towns and cities.

Expanding capacities to meet the high demand To meet the growing demand for the grades of rubber needed to manufacture green tires, LANXESS is expanding its global capacities for high-performance rubber. In 2011, the plant for neodymium-polybutadiene rubber production at the company’s Brazilian site of Cabo de Santo Agostinho in the State of Pernambuco was expanded, raising annual capacity to 40,000 metric tons. In addition, LANXESS has adapted the locally used technology to its Nd-PBR plants in Germany and the United States.

The company has also significantly increased its production capacities for Nd-PBR at its sites in Dormagen, Germany and Orange, Texas, United States. For this type of synthetic rubber, LANXESS is also planning a new plant in Singapore at a cost of around EUR 200 million, due to go on stream in 2015.

At the Brazilian site of Triunfo, LANXESS started producing solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), as is used in green tires. The decision on this project has already been taken in 2012.

SSBR is used predominantly for tire treads to reduce the fuel-guzzling rolling resistance and, at the same time, to improve wet grip. Tire manufacturers also use NdPBR in the tread and side-walls of green tires to reduce both rolling resistance and tire abrasion. The positive consequences of this are lower fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions, coupled with improved safety and higher durability.

Additives for high-performance tires

customer proximity, it also helps to evolve tailor-made solutions in the development of environmentally-compatible, high-performance products.

Research centers

The specialists from Rhein Chemie offer their customers application engineering advice.

The manufacture of top-quality green tires from these high-tech grades of rubber requires not only around 20 different rubber variants, it also calls for a number of additives. LANXESS and its subsidiary Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH offer a broad portfolio of polymer-bound chemicals, processing promoters, vulcanization and filler activators, anti-sun check waxes, release agents, tire marking inks, and high-performance bladders for tire manufacture. With its own laboratories and research centers throughout the world, LANXESS not only offers

With close cooperation between car makers, suppliers and fuel producers, green mobility can become reality.

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Car tires with optimized ecological and safety properties reduce fuel consumption significantly.

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More transparency leads to increased competition What effect will the E.U. tire labeling regulation have on consumer behavior? What are the consequences of demands for less rolling resistance, greater durability and the improved safety of tires for the industries involved and international competition? Professor Horst Wildemann provides answers.

Professor Wildemann, in future, the European ComWhat’s more, the labeling regulations will not only improve mission is to demand the type testing and labeling of the performance of tires; the transparency that they create vehicle tires. What does it hope to achieve by this? will also heighten competition between tire manufacturers.

The E.U. decision to label automobile and truck tires is part Other countries such as China, South Korea and Japan of the E.U. action plan to achieve energy are also going to introduce labeling along efficiencies. This envisages a 20 percent European lines, which means CO2 emissions "The market in individual transport will fall globally. reduction in the energy consumption of share of energyproducts by the year 2020 through greater the new regulations and stricter efficiencies. In this particular case, the label efficient tires will Will CO2 limits have an influence on the relais seen as a way of contributing to lower fuel consumption of road vehicles and improving increase in the tionship between automakers and their suppliers? traffic safety. The consumer is provided with long term" Hardly. The tires produced by well-known a uniform system for evaluating the key permanufacturers such as Continental and formance dimensions of a tire. This assessMichelin already fulfill the legal requirements of low CO2 ment of tires in terms of how economical and safe they are emissions. And at the same time, rubber producers have supports the end consumer. The label creates transparency. also adapted to meet the new regulations. But what may What impact will labeling and the more stringent rewell be a more relevant issue is getting the message of tire quirements for tire properties have on the market?

The introduction of tire labeling in conjunction with more academic and consultant stringent requirements will increase the market share of Professor Horst Wildemann energy-efficient tires in the long term. This development studied mechanical engineering and business administracan take the lead from the successful labeling of white tion in Aachen and Cologne. goods, a requirement which is now widely accepted. When After several years working the regulation was introduced in 2002, it was the first of as an engineer in the automoits kind. It has led to a sustainable reduction in the energy tive industry and obtaining his doctorate in 1974, he spent consumption of electrical goods in Europe, and had a positime abroad at the International tive effect on both the consumer’s purse and the environManagement Institute in Brusment. Given that environmental awareness in Germany has sels and at various American universities. Following complegrown since then, consumers will no doubt be willing to tion of his post-doctoral studies pay something towards helping the environment when it at the University of Cologne in comes to tires.

Noise protection

A simulation model developed by the "Quiet Road Traffic" research project allows tire producers to work out mathematically the noise level of a new tire even before it is produced.

1980, he was appointed Professor of Business Studies at the Universities of Bayreuth and Passau. Since 1988, he has also been lecturing at the Technical University of Munich. In addition to teaching, Prof. Wildemann heads a consultancy institute with over 60 employees specializing in business planning and logistics. He is also a consultant and a member of the supervisory or advisory boards of a number of leading industrial enterprises.

INTERVIEW Prof. Wildemann

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Rubber Day

At the Rubber Day Germany held by LANXESS in November 2011, Prof. Horst Wildemann presented the results of the tire study conducted by his TWC Transfer Center Institute.

Optimized car tires make a significant contribution to saving fuel and protecting the climate.

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labeling through to the consumer. The responsibility of tire manufacturers, tire dealers and automakers and dealers is clearly defined in E.U. Regulation no. 1222/2009 on tire labeling.

of rubber and additives contribute to the development of green tires?

The potential for innovation is shared between the tire and automobile manufacturers and the rubber industry.

The rubber industry has already made intensive efforts to improve the properties of tires. Thanks to innovative rubber compounds and high-performance additives, the conflicting objectives of the past are no longer a problem and it is possible to take a holistic approach to optimizing all the driving properties.

What are the implications of this for the individual players in the supply chain?

In the future, tire manufacturers will be responsible for equipping the tread of all tires supplied to dealers or end users with a label denoting the fuel efficiency class, external rolling noise and wet grip. Tire dealers, for their part, will be Will new drive concepts such as electric vehicles obliged to ensure that the label is clearly visible to the end or city cars have an influence on the characteristics user. Vehicle makers and vehicle dealers, too, must be ready of tires? to provide information on the fuel efficiency functional specification document for class, external rolling noise and wet grip of "A reduction in The the development of tires will have to be reall tires that they offer to the end user prior to sale. emissions of 30 vised to take into account city cars and cars with electric drive. Tires today have carefully percent by 2020 balanced properties such as handling, wet Will these stricter quality requirements result in a shift of responsibilities bewould create six grip, comfort and rolling resistance. This baltween the industry sectors involved? ance will have to be readjusted to meet the million jobs in As a result of the higher demands placed on changed requirements created by new confuture tires, the supply chain is faced with cepts such as city cars and electric mobility. the E.U." the challenge of driving further developGiven that today’s electric cars have only a ment of its products. In the past, numerous very limited range, they are likely to be driven innovations have come out of the interplay between different mainly in urban areas. This means that rather than focusing producers in the supply chain. The introduction of silica, for on top speeds and pushing the car to its limits, tire manuinstance, led to a vast improvement in key tire parameters. facturers need to address the particular demands of urban The new requirements facing the tire industry have promottraffic. The emphasis will therefore be more on reducing ed the formation of innovation networks – which is why we rolling resistance and rolling noise. Consideration must also find vehicle manufacturers and rubber producers participatbe given to reducing fine particle air pollution caused by ing in the development of new types of tires alongside the tire abrasion. tire makers. One of the outcomes of such networking can be And there’s another point to bear in mind: driving at lower seen in the Michelin Tweel, a tire/wheel combination. This speeds means that reduction in weight relative to other facnovel development was boosted by the close collaboration of tors (like air resistance) becomes more important. As this different players in the supply chain. impacts directly on rolling resistance, it helps to extend the car’s range (especially that of electric-drive vehicles).

In what areas of tire production does the greatest So it’s not just low-rolling-resistance tires that are needed; potential for innovation lie? How can the suppliers it’s tires which contribute to reducing the vehicle’s weight.

What will the ecological and economic impact of the E.U. regulations be?

The E.U. bears responsibility for harmonizing ecological and economic objectives by introducing regulations and constantly adjusting them. To reach this goal, it has to constantly tighten the minimum requirements regarding energy efficiency and CO2 emission levels for road vehicles.

In view of their powerful influence on these factors, tires for cars and trucks are a key lever of strategy implementation and given due consideration in E.U. norms and ECE regulations. This politically determined pull-factor will speed up the development of the European tire industry in the coming decades.

The European Commission’s "Roadmap 2050," presented in March 2011, sets the agenda for 2050. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in E.U. countries by 80 to 95 percent compared with 1990 levels. To reach this

ambitious target, the Commission anticipates an additional investment of EUR 270 billion (1.5 percent of the E.U.’s GDP) for each year up to 2050. However, this high level of investment should bring not only ecological benefits but substantial economic ones, too. According to a study by the German Environment Ministry, a reduction in emissions of 30 percent by the year 2020 would create up to six million new jobs in the E.U. What strengths can European rubber producers use to make their presence felt in the world market?

European rubber producers distinguish themselves internationally through their extensive technological knowhow. Technological leadership in the field of tire rubber in particular represents an important competitive advantage for European manufacturers. In view of growing ecological awareness and stricter environmental legislation, studies forecast that the demand for green tires will rise worldwide.

An international focus and proximity to key markets with high growth rates are further key success factors for European rubber producers.

What arguments will ultimately convince the end consumer to opt for tires that are more environmentally friendly – but also more expensive?

A primary criterion for the consumer is often the price or price/performance ratio. As part of a study, the TCW Transfer Center has developed a tool that can demonstrate economic efficiency individually in terms of the relationship between multi-variate factors such as driving behavior, driving profile and tire pressure. Irrespective of financial criteria, consumer awareness of environmental needs has been sensitized through the media presence of global warming.

Governmental initiatives such as the tire labeling regulations introduced by the E.U. provide both an objective platform for informing consumers and the opportunity for tire producers to differentiate. This makes it easy to communicate facts concerning fuel consumption and safety.

In the future, a label will inform the consumer about the characteristics of the tires when buying a car or spare tires.

driver who clocks up 30,000 kilometers a year, the tool will indicate savings of 1,000 Euros if he changes from standard tires to low-rolling-resistance ones. At the same time, it will point to further measures for improving energy efficiency. These include checking air pressure, adjusting driving style and changing lanes less frequently. The tool will also show the driver that with energy-efficient tires he can lower CO2 emissions by up to 700 kilograms, reduce air pollution from fine particles by up to 30 percent and cut tire noise by as much as 20 percent.

What potential for improvement do you see in the area of green tires?

The rubber industry is pushing the development of tire compounds. In this field, the latest trends are to be found in synthesizing nanoprenes, which significantly improve product properties without the need for far-reaching changes to production processes.

Quality features Rolling resistance CO2 emissions

Grip Safety

Durability Fewer fine particles

The compulsory labeling of tires will make the three most essential quality features of a tire transparent to the consumer. A special tool for calculating this makes decisions easier.

Professor Wildemann, thank you for this interview.

How does the tool you’ve developed establish the individual savings that tires can make?

The tool can be used to adjust the consumer’s purchasing and driving behavior. This adjustment has considerable influence on achieving the savings potential as stipulated in the E.U. regulations. To change behavior, the tool focuses on the consumer’s spending patterns. Quantifying and visualizing the savings potential in terms of costs, fuel consumption and emissions can effect changes in the consumer’s purchasing and driving behavior; for example, it can persuade him to buy tires with low rolling resistance.

The tool is based on the individual parameters of user to vehicle. These include the type of tire used and its inflation pressure, but also driving behavior. The aim of the tool is to determine and visualize individual savings potential in fuel consumption and emissions of CO2 and fine particles by using low-rolling-resistance tires, adjusting inflation pressure and changing driving behavior. For example, for a car

INTERVIEW Prof. Wildemann

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Whether it’s hot or cold, raining, snowing or icy, whether you’re driving on fast roads or across country, there’s a tread to suit every occasion.

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Tires with character First and foremost, the tire tread enhances safety: it reduces the risk of aquaplaning, improves grip to the road surface, and grinds its way through snow and slush. And whether it is symmetric or asymmetric, the tread also needs to look good.

Because the world does not consist merely of dry temperate regions, but also has regions with rain, snow, ice and slush that can turn even the best roads into dangerous slippery tracks, the tread on a modern-day car tire must fulfill a large number of different tasks. Above all, a tire must • ensure maximum traction through excellent grip to the road surface, while reducing braking distances to a minimum; • guarantee good grip on wet roads; • prevent aquaplaning; • provide a comfortable ride with low noise levels; • last as long as possible to ensure high mileage; and • look sporty and dynamic, because drivers of fast, premium cars in particular want not only the wheels and rims to look good, they also attach considerable importance to having stylish tires. Inspired by the giant tires mounted on Formula 1 racing cars, today’s car tires are becoming ever wider (and sportier). The wider the tire, the more important the tread.

Blocks, grooves and sipes The varying weather conditions over the course of the year call for additional creativity on the part of tread developers.

Cold temperatures, snow, ice and slush make different demands on the rubber and the tread than dry road conditions on a hot summer’s day.

It is therefore not surprising that a number of tire manufacturers have set up their own departments for tread design

or have outsourced the work to external design companies.

There, the specialists tinker not only with new tread patterns and sipe structures, they also work on eye-catching, almost artistic groove patterns and block shapes. At any rate, modern tread design has little in common with the traditional combination of longitudinal, transverse and zigzag grooves.

The fundamental elements of a modern-day tire tread are the blocks (positive profile), the grooves (negative profile) and the sipes. The sipes are narrow cracks in the blocks which spread open on contact with the road and basically allow the tire to cling to the surface.

While the blocks provide the necessary grip in all weathers, the grooves really come into their own on a wet surface. They take up the water and channel it away, reducing the much-feared problem of aquaplaning (also known as hydroplaning). In fact, they virtually eliminate it completely at speeds of less than 100 km/h.

Summer tires have a relatively high proportion of positive tread, and, in a narrow tire, can account for up to 70 percent of the tread surface. Because of their greater susceptibility to aquaplaning, wide tires need more grooves and channels (around 50 percent) so that the tires do not swim on rain-drenched roads but “swallow up” as much water as possible and then eject it again.

On the other hand, the tire blocks must not be made too small because they would deform too heavily when thudding along a bumpy road, resulting in poorer grip and loud noise.

Drainage system

To prevent the tire from “swimming” on a wet road, the grooves in the tread are connected to each other in such a way that the water is effectively channeled off and away from under the tire. Computer simulation is used to test the various concepts.

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Eye-catchers Whether dynamic for a sports car study or musclebound for an SUV prototype, whether futuristic, bizarre or ornamental – the design specifications laid down by car manufacturers for the tread of concept vehicle tires are nearly always dictated by optical considerations. The tire must fit in with the character of the vehicle.

Tire characteristics Winter tires not only have a deeper tread, they also have wider grooves into which snow is pressed, providing additional grip through snow-against-snow friction. On the other hand, the softer blocks compared with summer tires change their form when the driver brakes or pulls away, improving grip on wintry surfaces.

The different tread patterns are certainly not used merely to create an optical effect but primarily to improve a number of other characteristics such as low noise, maximum water diversion, good cornering stability and a smooth ride.

Some treads have a zigzag pattern, and some blocks are V or W-shaped. One designer may opt for curved grooves reminiscent of the veins of a leaf (bio-design), while another may prefer the blocks and grooves to be asymmetric to cope with the differing loads on the inner and outer sides of the tire. If a block is designed to be stiffer on the outer shoulders, cornering stability is improved, while if it has open structures on the less stressed inner shoulder, the tire’s capacity to take up water and channel it away is better. In addition, the asymmetric design dampens the noise level through lower resonance frequency.

Special tires for all occasions Almost all major tire manufacturers also offer models with a tread specifically designed to travel in one direction.

This reduces the risk of aquaplaning and improves grip on snow and ice. Care must be taken with these tires that they are mounted in the right direction, because the right and left-hand tires can not be swapped around. This is a disadvantage especially with the first set of tires for production-line vehicles.

With winter tires, sipes have become indispensable. These ultra-thin grooves in the tread improve the behavior of the tire in extreme road conditions in a variety of ways. Sipes in the center of the tread at an angle of 90° to the direction of travel, for example, ensure good grip in snow, while

wave-like sipes – the more of them the better – improve the vehicle’s stability when accelerating and braking.

Dunlop has even patented a special tread design featuring three-dimensional sipes. The side of these fine notches has a diamond-shaped or rhombic structure, comparable with a waffle iron. They are thus able to grip snow and ice and provide the necessary traction in wintry conditions. On dry roads, on the other hand, the 3D sipes close and interlock to form more or less solid tread blocks and deliver improved traction.

The 3D sipes in the Dunlop tires are positioned in the shoulder blocks, where the main steering forces occur, thereby optimizing directional stability and tracking.

Off-road vehicles and the popular sport utility vehicles (SUV) naturally require a deeper, bolder tire tread that underlines the beefy look and all-terrain capabilities of such vehicles – and gives the tires an eye-catching appearance at the same time.

Exotic eye-catchers Even for the concept vehicles that are a major attraction at any motor show, the automakers will ask their tire manufacturer to design a set of individual tires specifically for the purpose. In such cases, the tread is pure craftsmanship. As with lino-cutting, craftsmen cut out individually designed tread patterns into the tire blanks. These patterns can be anything from grooves and coarse studs to exotic-looking ornamentations (see left). This artistic craftsmanship naturally has little to do with the technical side of tire development – it is purely for show.

Tire art

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TIRE DESIGN

While most major tire manufacturers run their own design departments and employ highlyspecialized technical development teams to take care of the shape, properties and aesthetic aspects of the tread, Dutch tire manufacturer Vredestein also works with the renowned Italian design company

Engineers and artists worked closely on the design of these Giugiaro tires. The Italian stylists from Italdesign design the Vredestein tire treads according to aesthetic aspects, but certainly do not disregard performance.

Giugiaro. The business relationship began in 1999 and has since led to a stylish family of tires that appeal in particular to drivers of sporty and high-caliber vehicles. Although the function of the tread takes priority at Vredestein/Giugiaro, the optical aspects are almost as important. The results of the coop-

eration include high-performance tires for summer and winter and, for example, the Ultrac Sessanta (summer) and the Wintrac 4 Xtreme.

Company founder Giorgetto Giugiaro has acquired an international reputation above all as a car designer. In fact, it was on his drawing board that the first Volkswagen Golf took shape. Apart from that, many other exciting models from Ferrari and Fiat were born on the computers in the workshops of Giugiaro’s Italdesign company in Turin.

Most recently, the Italdesign team worked for BMW on the second generation of the Mini.

Pit stop

Tire supplier Pirelli wants to step up the excitement by forcing the teams to make at least two pit stops to change tires.

Dry tires

The Red Bull team of ­Sebastian Vettel was unstoppable again in the 2011 season.

Winners in Formula 1 From 0 to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds: and that’s not due solely to the massive 850 910 bhp engine. The rear tires, which have to transfer this power and acceleration to the track surface without spinning also play a key role. On reaching 100 km/h, the racing car has covered 37 meters. From 0 to 200 km/h, Sebastian Vettel & Co. travel 140 meters in the space of just five seconds. This can only work if the rear tires have optimal grip without actually sticking to the track. In other words, the rolling resistance must not be too high.

On the other hand, when a Formula 1 driver slams on the brakes at a speed of 200 km/h, the car can come to a stop within 55 meters, after just 1.9 seconds. This creates deceleration forces of up to 5 g, increasing body weight by a factor of 5. When a full braking maneuver such as this is performed, a weight of nearly 2.5 metric tons is exerted on the tires.

The load on the tires is also enormous when cornering as they are subjected to extreme lateral forces. In a medium to fast bend, which drivers take at speeds of around 150 km/h, the centrifugal force can be as high as 3.2 g, putting the tires under enormous stress: they must be capable of withstanding lateral forces of around 2.2 metric tons.

Even when the car is driven in a straight line, enormous forces are exerted on the tires. At a speed of 350 km/h – which is nothing unusual on the straights at the Hockenheimring or the Barcelona race track – the centrifugal forces pulling on the tires due to the speed of rotation of the 13 inch tires are so enormous that a tire with-

out sufficient stability would bulge uncontrollably. At the same time, the tires are pressed onto the track by the downward pressure of the aerofoils with a weight of more than one metric ton. Even at 150 km/h, the downward pressure of the aerofoils on a Formula 1 car is so great that the car could drive on the ceiling.

It is particularly the sidewalls of the tires that have to resist this pressure without losing their shock-absorbing function. This is because, with the extremely rigid chassis used in Grand Prix racing, the tires have to assume a large amount of the shock-absorbing function.

Complex development work It is therefore not surprising that only a few tire manufacturers are prepared to undertake this costly development work. Since the 2011 season, Pirelli has been exclusively supplying the tires to the Formula 1 teams. Every race weekend, the Italian company must provide each driver with a maximum of 11 sets of dry tires, four sets of intermediates, and three sets of wet tires. This means that 1,800 tires must be transported to each of the 20 race venues.

The color of the inscription indicates the type of tire: wet tires (orange), intermediates (light blue), slicks: super soft (red), soft (yellow), medium (white), and hard (silver).

Dry tires – like all other 13 inch models – have a diameter of 660 mm and are 245 mm wide at the front and 325 mm wide at the rear. Wets, on the other hand, have a diameter of 670 mm and are 225 mm wide at the front and 325 mm at the rear. At a

Per race weekend, every driver may use a maximum of 11 sets of dry tires … speed of 300 km/h, they can channel away over 60 liters of water per second. Intermediates have a diameter of 665 mm and the same width as wet tires (225 and 325 mm).

The front tires each weigh around 9 kilo­ grams, while the rear tires are slightly heavier because of their greater width.

Each season, the Italian manufacturer produces around 50,000 F 1 tires at its “factory of champions” in the Turkish town of Izmit close to Istanbul.

Intermediates

Design characteristics By the choice of carcass, the tire manufacturer determines the shock-absorbing behavior of the tire. In Formula 1 tires, the cross-section of the carcass is elliptical, which gives the tires their typical “balloon shape.” Because of the enormous power of the engine, the tires must be capable of becoming compressed to optimize the contact patch and thus deliver optimal traction to the track surface. F1 tires are therefore only inflated to a pressure of 1.1 bar (normal car = approx. 2.5 bar) with a mixture of air and nitrogen that does not heat up as much as pure air, and therefore does not expand excessively.

The belt, made of high-stability fibers such as Kevlar® or Rayon®, which is stretched in several layers and at different fiber angles around the tire, prevents the tread surface from bulging due to excessive centrifugal forces.

Pirelli has designed its tires in such a way that F1 drivers must make at least two pitstops to make the race even more exciting for the spectators.

...four sets of intermediates...

Wet tires

...and if necessary, the FIA may decide to allow a further set.

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Modern tires have to withstand high speeds of more than 300 km/h.

Speed specialists for the summer

Summer tire Asymmetry The trend in modern tire technology is towards asymmetrical profiles in the treads with different rubber compounds.

As the performance of modern-day cars increases, the demands on the tires rise accordingly. Apart from that, tire manufacturers and their suppliers are faced with the permanent challenge of lowering the rolling resistance to save fuel. These performance requirements have resulted in the development of a variety of summer tires in many different sizes, widths and speed categories. All of them must cope with the typical summer conditions on the roads: • high road surface temperatures due to solar radiation, • dry and wet road surfaces, and • high speeds plus the corresponding heat generation.

Furthermore, the challenge for the tire builder is even greater when it comes to developing wide sports tires, because they make very high demands indeed on the construction: apart from anything else, the structure also has to ensure that the grip of the tire is distributed evenly over the surface to minimize any tendency to aquaplaning.

Safe on wet and dry roads Driving safety and handling can also be improved in wide, high-performance tires through the technology of using two different rubber compounds in the tread: the upper compound (cap) optimizes the grip, while the lower one (base) is harder and improves steering precision.

Very recently, asymmetrical designs have become popular for the treads of summer tires.

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SUMMER TIRES / WINTER TIRES

One important criterion for a good tire is its noise emission – the lower, the better. Tire engineers are particularly keen to reduce rolling resistance to cut fuel consumption and thus CO2 emissions. As a rule of thumb: five percent less rolling resistance means one percent less fuel consumption. At the same time, it is naturally essential that safety – i.e., handling and wet and dry grip - do not suffer.

Important: check the pressure!

But even the best high-tech tire will fail if the pressure is wrong. If the tire pressure is too low, it not only impairs driving safety and the tire’s life expectancy, it also increases fuel consumption: in fact, if the tire pressure is just one bar below the guide value, consumption will go up by around three percent at a constant speed of 90 km/h.

That, too, is an argument for on-board computers that constantly check the tires electronically and warn the driver in good time if the pressure is too low.

With grip through the winter The quality and design of a winter tire are key when it comes to transmitting the dynamic forces effectively from the engine to the road on icy, snow-covered or wet surfaces, especially when starting, braking and negotiating bends.

But what makes a tire suitable for winter conditions? The following three characteristics ensure significantly better tire grip when starting, braking or negotiating bends on snow, ice, slush and wet surfaces: • rubber compounds in the tread with chemical additives such as silica and a high natural rubber content that does not become hard even in the cold, • a tread design with deep grooves in which the geometry may be either symmetrical or asymmetrical, and • thousands of fine sipes in the tread blocks.

Safety factors: silica and sipes One of the most important constituents of the rubber compound in winter tires is silica, a product that increases the tear strength of the rubber without the material becoming hard. At the same time, silica reduces abrasion, increases mileage and improves the grip of the tire.

Without an elaborate tread geometry, even the most sophisticated rubber compounds would be unable to develop their full potential in the winter. Wide grooves – making for a higher negative content of the tread profile compared with a summer tire – provide a high level of safety against aquaplaning. The wide, deep grooves can also pick up a lot of snow, resulting in a high snow-to-snow friction – and that means good adhesion.

A major advance in winter tire technology has come with the development of sipes: up to 2,500 of these fine indentations in the profile blocks improve grip even on icy roads, giving improved traction, shorter braking distances and greater safety in bends.

Winter tires Safety Up to 2,500 of these fine indentations of different length in the profile blocks improve safety on snow and ice.

High speed in the winter Even drivers of top-performance vehicles get their money’s worth when it comes to safety, speed and aesthetics. Depending on the category marked on the label, maximum speeds of 190 km/h (speed rating T) to 300 km/h (Y) are possible.

And even exclusive wishes regarding the appearance of winter tires can now be fulfilled with extra-wide tire models.

Special tires for snow and ice owe their winter characteristics to the right compound.

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When the going gets tough...

King of the road Diameter: 4.03 m With its V-Steel E-Lug S Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone has produced what is currently the largest radial tire in the world.

Even the most experienced tire experts were blown away by the sheer dimensions when Japanese tire manufacturer Bridge-stone presented the world’s largest radial-ply tire a few years ago: it has a diameter of 4.03 meters and weighs 5.2 metric tons. Monster tires such as this are used to move gigantic machines about in mines around the world. They transport ores and can carry loads of up to 365 metric tons. One of these huge tires costs over 30,000 US dollars.

Gigantic ore transporter While this “V-Steel E-Lug S” may be the biggest tire on the market, it is no more than a few millimeters larger than its rivals. The Michelin plant in Lexington in the U.S. State of South Carolina also manufactures such colossal four-meter rubber and steel tires especially for earth-moving machines and ore transporters.

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Their production involves a great deal of skill and manual work, and represents an enormous challenge for engineers and chemists alike. As many as 160 different materials are processed in Michelin’s giant tires. The earth-moving machines must transport vast quantities of ore and rubble, weighing anything up to 600 metric tons. Nearly all of these bulldozers and trucks need individual, specialized tires because every job they have to do is different: the composition of the rubber compound must be varied according to the firmness and geological structure of the ground, air temperature, weather, hill gradient, etc.

Yet these behemoths are only the pinnacle of an almost unimaginable diversity of industrial tires. Michelin, for example, has developed the MICHELIN X-TERMINAL T tire specifically for transporting goods in container ports.

It allows fuel consumption to be reduced by eight percent compared with conventional tires.

Generally speaking, the market distinguishes between four fields of application: Transportation. This means moving goods safely from one place to another across long distances at a relatively high average speed.

Stacking and lifting.Here, goods must be moved safely and accurately in a vertical direction, often within a very confined space. This typically involves frequent steering movements as well as accelerating and braking maneuvers.

Multi-purpose tasks (multi purpose tires) for vehicles with all kinds of superstructures for road maintenance, snow clearance or agriculture.

Multi-purpose tires exhibit their special strengths on vehicles that need to combine high speed on-road with good traction off-road. Their radial design results in high mileage and good traction and allows high speeds. Diagonal multi-purpose tires are particularly well-protected against sidewall damage and have good damping properties.

Earth movement (EM = earth-moving machines). Wheel loaders, graders, bulldozers, dumpers and other machines that pick up a wide variety of materials, then unload, spread or take them for further processing.

Depending on the construction of the tire – pneumatic, solid, multi-purpose or EM – industrial tires have different properties and applications.

EM tires are noted for their high resistance to damage.

They also offer good traction on difficult terrain. But despite all these refinements and the sophistication of the rubber compound and tire construction, even these tires can fall victim to extreme conditions: not even these four-meter ­giants are immune to a sharp piece of rock in the mines.

Pneumatic industrial tires offer a high level of ride comfort even on uneven surfaces and at relatively high speeds.

Thanks to their radial construction, they guarantee high mileage, low rolling resistance and high traction.

Solid tires are particularly suitable for working on solid flat ground on slow-moving or towed vehicles. They are used primarily for stackers and fork-lift trucks.

On landing, the tires of the A380 are compressed by a third of their volume.

Up, up and away on supertires The technical specifications for the Airbus tires exceed everything that came before: each of the 22 tires on the Airbus 380 has to bear a load of at least 33 metric tons and withstand temperatures of 120 °C on take-off – cooling rapidly not long afterwards to minus 50 °C. On landing, the aircraft tires shrink – despite their pressure of 18 bar – by a third of their normal volume and accelerate in the space of just a few meters to 250 km/h. Once again they heat up to 120 °C and must then heave the 560-ton colossus two or three kilometers to its final parking position. Every year, a passenger aircraft covers about 15,000 kilometers taxiing between the parking position and takeoff runway.

Only two tire manufacturers have received contracts and certification from Airbus to develop and build the tires for the A 380: French market leader Michelin and its Japanese competitor Bridgestone.

Michelin has developed radial tires for the A 380 for the Emirates airline, which are especially resistant to external influences and damage.

These supertires allow significantly more take-offs and landings than diagonal tires and also have the advantage that they are particularly light compared with other tires for transport and military aircraft. The weight advantage of these new tires adds up to 360 kilograms per aircraft, which naturally also has a positive effect on fuel consumption. All 58 of the A 380s ordered by the Emirates airline are fitted with these specially developed tires.

Bridgestone, on the other hand, has developed an innovative radial tire designed specifically to cope with the enormous weight of the A 380-800 and the even heavier

freight version, A380-800F. Here again, one of the main objectives was to keep weight to a minimum.

Fuel saver

Extreme wear on the runway Aircraft tires are subjected to the most extreme of stresses during take-off. In less than a minute, a jet accelerates from zero to 360 km/h before it leaves the ground. During this time, the tire temperature rises to around 120 °C, resulting mainly from the heavy deformation and flexing of the rubber. Despite the high pressure in the tires, they are able to cushion about 30 to 40 percent of this deformation when taxiing along the runway. In comparison, the figure for a passenger car is between 10 and 15 percent. Thus tire wear is at its greatest when an aircraft is taxiing.

Radial tires on the advance Even though lighter-weight radial tires are becoming established on a broad front, diagonal or cross-ply tires still play a major role in aviation – for example with the Boeing 747-400. They acquire their structural strength and loadbearing ability from several carcass and reinforcing layers made of heavy-duty plastic fibers, secured to the wheel by three bead wires. The downside of this construction, however, is that cross-ply tires are significantly heavier, which is why they will inevitably give way at some time or other to radial tires.

For the Airbus A380, Michelin has developed a particularly resistant tire that saves fuel because of its lower weight.

Powerhouse 22 of these tires help the Airbus A380 during takeoff and landing. Apart from Michelin, Bridgestone also supplies such high-tech tires.

SPECIAL TIRES

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High tech for two wheels The choice is incredible: for every motorbike model on earth there are dozens of tire options – and each one appears to have been made especially to suit the individual needs of the rider. At least this is the impression given in advertisements and features written by trade journalists.

And indeed, these enthusiastic accounts are not so far removed from reality. The vast selection of motorized twowheelers available and their many different uses mean that a wide variety of tire constructions, designs and tread patterns is required. The spectrum of motorized two-wheelers ranges from mopeds, motor scooters and lightweight motorcycles, heavyweight enduro bikes and extreme sports motorbikes for cross-country biking to 260-horsepower monster machines.

the manufacturers of motorbike tires now use different rubber compounds for the two tread layers – the upper layer being softer, the under-layer harder – or a softer compound for the sidewalls to ensure firm road grip when cornering and a harder compound for the central part of the tread to enhance mileage.

As regards the tread patterns, anything goes – chunky tread bars for off-road biking, finely cut grooves for dry roads, variegated groove depths at the tread’s center and shoulders or smooth slicks for the racing track.

Triumph of the steel belt

Mixed doubles TK 22RC/44RC: This tire ensures high mileage even when ridden hard. It also has good wet-grip properties. Thanks to a high ratio of positive tread elements in the ground contact area it is very durable.

ContiRoadAttack 2 for sport touring riders: top-level grip, safety and dynamics.

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Motorbike tires

However, despite all this choice there are general trends in the manufacture of motorbike tires that derive in part from research carried out in the automotive and motor-racing industries. For example, radial steel-belted tires are being used increasingly for motorbikes, although about 50 percent of all motorbikes are still fitted with bias plies.

The difficulty in changing from cross-plies to belted tires for motorbikes is connected to the shape of the tires. Unlike car tires, which have a flat tread, motorbike tires are completely round – and that includes the tread. For a long time, this dual rounding – i.e. both horizontally and vertically – made it difficult to develop a belt that could be mounted seamlessly both over the carcass and under the tread.

These days, the steel belts are made of wire filaments that are considerably more elastic and, at the same time, more tensile than simple wire. Thanks to the high degree of flexibility of the fine wire filaments, modern steel-belted tires provide just as good cushioning as Kevlar and can match the cornering stability that for so long was the domain of cross-plies. In terms of weight and running performance they offer clear advantages, since steel-belted radial tires for motorcycles usually need only two layers of belt, whereas cross-plies must be supported by four or more layers in the carcass and belt.

Compounds and tread patterns galore For high mileage – a maximum of 10,000 kilometers for motorbike tires – and secure grip when cornering at high speeds, the tread needs to be made of a particularly sophisticated rubber compound. Here silica compounds predominate nowadays. Tire manufacturers frequently offer a different type of rubber compound for the front and rear tire. The front tire, for example, is often a compound based on solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), which is enriched with fine carbon black, while the tread of the rear tire is made of a silica compound. This combination of high-tech materials provides good traction on both dry and wet road surfaces across a wide range of temperatures – and without the need for a long warmup. Just as with automobile tires,

Bikes such as the BMW HP2 Sport ride on safe, high-performance belted tires.

Tailor-made for the bicycle What is the greatest wish of all cyclists? That they be spared the hassle of a flat tire.

But that’s about the only thing cyclists have in common.

Every cyclist has his own particular requirements when it comes to the bicycle and its tires.

Added to this are differences in road surface, the types of bicycle and weather conditions. And for all these there’s a cycle tire to suit the occasion: whether shopping in town, Sunday excursions, cross-country touring, mountain biking or road racing.

High-tech for the bicycle Rubber compounds with carbon black or silica, materials such as Kevlar and nylon, Vectran® and aramid for the carcass, and all-round compounds for a compromise between good grip, low rolling resistance and high abrasion resilience – these are as much a part of the repertoire when developing high-tech bicycle tires as they are in the manufacture of automobile tires. Puncture-proof tires have special, highly elastic rubbers or aramid or Kevlar between the tread and carcass.

The ingredients for the compound All tire manufacturers keep their recipe for the rubber compounds of the tread a closely guarded secret, as that is what decides how well the tire rolls, how firmly it grips and how far it will run. Hard compounds are obtained by adding a large amount of filler (carbon black) to the rubber mix. Treads composed of such compounds deform less on rolling than ones made from soft compounds. They also have less rolling

resistance and are more resilient to abrasion. Their disadvantage: the grip is not ideal.

Treads made of soft compounds adjust well to the contact surface, their rough carbon black components biting into the slightest unevenness in the ground. However, soft compounds wear out faster than hard ones and the knobs on the tire’s tread pattern can come away more easily.

In the case of multi-compounds, the tread consists of two or three different compounds. Hard compounds are best suited for the rubber under-strip in order to provide low rolling resistance, whereas softer rubber compounds are better for the top strip, as they ensure a firmer grip. All-round compounds come closest to offering the optimal compromise between low rolling resistance, high resilience to abrasion and a good grip.

The very latest trend: for its Marathon model, the tire maker Schwalbe has developed an anti-aging sidewall and a GreenGuard protective belt, a third of which consists of recycled material to conserve resources.

Strong characters

Sustainable With its long-life GreenGuard protective belt made partly from recycled material, Marathon is showing its green credentials.

Laying it on thick Recent years have witnessed another growing trend. Just like car tires, bicycle tires have generally become thicker and broader. These make cycling more comfortable by entrapping more air between the road and the bike to act as a cushion. Riders of cross-country or mountain bikes prefer tires known as “balloon tires” that can be as much as 54 or even 57 millimeters thick.

Good grip

Racing bikes such as the BMW M Bike Carbon Racer require hightech tires with low rolling resistance.

The X-King provides a particularly smooth and noiseless ride. It is also damageresistant.

Puncture-proof The Top Touring 2000 from Conti is puncture-proof thanks to its two extra belt layers under the tread.

Bicycle tires

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“Simply a question of time and space” Dr. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, Professor of Business Studies and Automobile Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Director of CAR Center Automotive Research, on the development of climate-friendly drive systems and the future organization of transport.

Successful model

Prof. Dudenhöffer, electric cars, new “Committees like population of 30 million. That’s one side of the car sharing concepts, the networking coin. The other is: in rural areas and mediumthe National Plat- sized cities, owning a car will continue to be of individual and public transport... are our transport systems about to for the next 50 years. When it comes form for Electric important undergo a revolution? to transport, there are two different worlds.

As far as large conurbations and major Mobility tend to be To what extent is the current development cities are concerned, I’m convinced toothless tigers.” of new drive systems influenced by politithat much will change within the next cal statements of intent – such as a million 15 years. Public transport bodies and electric cars in Germany by 2020 – or legal requireautomakers are heavily promoting car sharing systems. In ments regarding fuel consumption and CO2 emismetropolitan areas we are heading for a new era in transport “Political goals such as a million electric cars on German sions?

– one with a new role for the car. Our data and internet roads pay no more than lip If we want to change things, one way to go about it is technology is opening up new possibilities. These days we service to the campaign at the moment.” to provide financial incentives like giving EUR 5,000 to should not expect to find huge traffic jams in large cities. everyone who buys an electric car. Another way is through China is a major driving force behind this new development. regulatory compliance. Regulations make things simpler Highways and a car in every driveway are not the way to deal for the taxpayer and are easier to sustain. Legal restrictions with the flow of traffic in megacities like Chongqing with a such as banning automobiles with combustion engines from city centers, as proposed by the European CommisMuch-Cited AUTOMOBILe EXPERT sion or planned in China, will bring about rapid change.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer is a distinat Peugeot Deutschland and CitPolitical goals like Chancellor Merkel’s idea of a million guished and frequently cited exroën Deutschland, Dudenhöffer repert on automotive research. He electric cars on German roads pay no more than lip service turned to teaching and research. studied economics at the UniverFrom 1996 to 2008, he was Proto the campaign at the moment. Unless they are backed by sity of Mannheim, obtaining his fessor of Marketing and Managea decisive program – something not yet forthcoming from Ph.D. summa cum laude in 1983. ment at the Fachhochschule Gelthe German government – little will happen. Committees He first worked as a university assenkirchen, where he specialized sistant at his alma mater before talike the National Platform for Electric Mobility (NPE) tend to in engineering. Since 2008 he has king up a post as a business plan/ be toothless tigers. held the chair of Business Studies marketing analyst at Adam Opel AG in 1987. Following that, he became Head of Marketing & Strategy at Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. After holding leading positions

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INTERVIEW PROF. DUDENHÖFFER

and Automobile Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen and is also Director of CAR Center Automotive Research.

Which drive technologies do you think have the best prospects? Will we need different cars for long and short distances, for town and country in the future?

“Highways and a car in every driveway are not the way to deal with the flow of traffic in megacities like Chongqing with a population of 30 million.”

INTERVIEW Prof. Wildemann

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There’s too much made of the question of battery-charging infrastructures. Tests with 230 representative car drivers at our CAR Institute have shown that we can launch electric mobility without having to set up an extensive network of charging stations. More than 50 percent of Germans have private means of charging electricity at their disposal. So in fact we require fewer public charging stations than is frequently implied. However, the issue of hydrogen for fuelcell-powered vehicles is a different matter. I reckon we still have a few years to go on that.

“100 %-battery-driven electric cars have a certain appeal for car-sharing systems.”

Climate-friendly

“In 2011, Nissan sold 10,000 of its Leaf electric cars in the United States alone.”

Hybrid engine

“For motor transport in general, hybrid vehicles with range extender technology and plug-in hybrids are important.”

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New alliances have been formed to work on new drive and transport concepts: Daimler has teamed up with Linde to build hydrogen service stations; electricity providers and parking lot operators are setting up charging stations for electric cars; automakers and public utilities are collaborating over car sharing schemes; IT companies are helping different means of transport to become networked, and so on. Will this create new structures?

We shouldn’t overestimate this in my view. Some people already regard electricity providers as the new axis of the automotive industry. But I’m convinced the core capabilities remain firmly within the automotive industry and are rooted in the systems competence of the automakers. Car sharing 100 %-battery-driven electric cars have a certain appeal for enterprises are clearly gaining significance, but car rentals car sharing systems in towns and as typical city vehicles. For have been around for ages. They are important customers. motor transport in general, it’s hybrid vehicles with range And the importance of this group of customers is sure to extender technology and plug-in hybrids grow – not least because new technologies that are important. The good thing about link mobility systems within a network and, “We require this is that we can scale ranges to more or in so doing, give car rentals greater signififewer public less what we want through electric drive cance. But they remain customers. And just and battery size. I reckon that by around the companies assemble electric mocharging stations because year 2025 the pure combustion engine will tors or fit battery cells does not mean they account for less than 25 percent of all new than is frequently define the rules of the game. In my opinion, cars worldwide. So you can see we’re movthe automakers will continue to shape the implied.” ing step by step toward electric and partly basic structure of the automobile industry. electric drives, and in the long term we’ll Nevertheless, will we see automakers becoming have the ideal electricity supply in the form of the fuel cell. broadly-based mobility service providers in the fuAre the new technologies that are currently available ture? Are public utilities and electricity providers goreally ready for market launch? In many ways, they ing to be operating service stations? Will gas producstill seem to be in the test phase. ers soon become fuel suppliers and electric vehicles a Toyota has already sold almost four million fully hybrid vemeans of storing electricity?

I can’t see automakers turning into mobility service providhicles, and a series of tests has shown the Opel Ampera to ers. After all, aircraft manufacturers are not expected to be very convincing. In 2011, Nissan sold 10,000 of its Leaf know how to run an airline, are they? GM once had a stake electric cars in the United States alone. There are a number in Avis, Ford in Hertz car rentals and VW in Europcar. None of technically mature electric vehicles on the market. But of of these holdings were particularly successful. They were course that doesn’t mean that development is now comall dissolved. It’s important to understand where mobility is pleted. The combustion engine has been around for more heading. That’s why Daimler is developing car2go, BMW than 125 years, whereas hybrids and electric cars are only is working on its Sixt experiment and VW on its car sharing at the very beginning of their life cycle. model.

Both e-mobility and hydrogen-powered fuel-cell sysWe shouldn’t take a one-dimensional view of the future. tems require their own particular infrastructures.

Electric mobility is an important development. But there Who can and should come up with the necessary inare other considerations. The vision of zero traffic deaths is vestments? almost as important. Vehicles are becoming not just partly

INTERVIEW PROF. DUDENHÖFFER

electric but partly autonomous as well.

Where does reality end and utopia “A complete begin in discussions about networked Today it’s already standard for vehicles to be ban on driving in mobility? equipped with emergency brake assist that prevents accidents if the vehicle is travellarge cities is in- The boundary between networked mobility and new utopias is simply a question of ing at a speed of less than 30 kilometers conceivable.” time and space. It takes time for things to per hour – or for a car to park on its own or develop and sometimes even more time for drive automatically into the garage. These these things to penetrate the market. Development is most are important things, which are far removed from public certainly not the main problem. These days, sophisticated, utilities, electricity producers or vehicles that serve as eleccomprehensive billing and accounting systems are state tricity storage units. Smart grids may sound good, but they of the art, so it’s not difficult to make the linkages. People won’t be the ultimate answer to our electricity supply in the are already beginning to think differently in the big cities. In foreseeable future. rural areas we are much more likely to hit the limits of netWill the relationship between driver and car worked mobility, as it makes little economic sense to have change? Is the automobile likely to lose its role as a frequent public transport service operating in remote a status symbol? parts of the countryside. The issue of space imposes limits.

This trend seems to be well under way. Young people today Professor Dudenhöffer, thank you for talking to us. have grown up with computers and the internet rather than nuts and bolts. They spend much of their time in virtual worlds, playing network games with friends elsewhere.

Socialization processes are changing and creating a new understanding of the world, new values that do not depend on having a car in the driveway. This development is much more pronounced in cities than in rural areas.

Does networked mobility not demand a change in values and the need to “re-educate” people?

Re-education sounds like something straight out of the Soviet Union. Our data-oriented society allows us to shape mobility using different kinds of transport in new and convenient ways. At the same time, car parking and car ownership are becoming increasingly expensive in cities. It’s the attractiveness of the new products that will convince people to change, not re-education.

Will driving bans in inner cities and toll charges for urban centers have a major impact on future mobility?

A complete ban on driving in large cities is inconceivable.

Just imagine Frau Merkel having to take the tram in Cologne. But certain types of vehicle will be denied access for environmental reasons. This will make traffic more modern, environmentally friendly and raise the quality of life in cities.

Traffic safety

“The vision of zero traffic deaths is almost as important as the development of electric mobility.”

Change in values

“Young people spend much of their time in virtual worlds playing network games with friends elsewhere.”

“A series of tests has shown the Opel Ampera to be very convincing.”

What role does the development of megacities in Asia and Latin America play for the future of mobility?

China is changing our world faster and more radically than almost any technological development in the past 30 years. Without China we wouldn’t be talking today about the electric car. Without China we wouldn’t even know what an electric bike is. The huge metropolitan conurbations emerging in booming China are defining the standards of our industry. If you’re not in China, then you’re not in the automotive business. China is driving our technologies. And China needs the new mobility. Latin America and India are a long way behind.

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW Prof. Wildemann

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greeting 02-03: LANXESS CONTENTS 04-05: corbis, BMW (2), Bridgestone / Rene Staud Studios GmbH, Porsche, PR, Nokian Tyres, Airbus HISTORY OF Mobility 06-13: Corbis (2), AKG (3), Mercedes Benz (3), Süddeutscher Verlag (3), bpk (4), gettyimages, Virgin Galactic, AP Images,Volkswagen, Ford, istockphoto networked Mobility 16-23: Daimler / Smart (2), Citroen, dpa, gettyimages (2), Better Place, VW, Deutsche Bahn (1), Siemens (3), RWE, Mitsubishi, BMW (2), Renault (2), istockphoto (2) Drive concepts and strategies 24-35: Daimler Benz (7), LANXESS, VW (4), Ford (2), istockphoto, Toyota / Lexus (3), Linde, BMW (3), Audi (2) LANXESS the innovation DRIVER 36-51: Illustration: Sascha Carl (2), photos: Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, LANXESS (12), BPK, Opel, Continental Tyres (2), Ullstein (2), dpa (2), gettyimages (3), Audi (3), Iveco, Agentur Focus , Süddeutscher Verlag (3) indispensable Mobility helpers 52-63: Porsche, Rhein Chemie, Continental, (2), LANXESS (3), istockphoto (10), Volvo Trucks (2), Deutsche Post, Audi, gettyimages (3), Daimler (2), Harley Davidson (2)

PROJECT TEAM: Eva Degener, Business Unit Inorganic Pigments, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Krefeld Rodrigo Henriquez, Corporate Communication, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Leverkusen Ilona Kawan, Corporate Communication, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Leverkusen Martin Reinecke, Redaktionsbüro Reinecke, Wuppertal Thomas Sames, Business Unit Material Protection Products, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Leverkusen Christoph Schmidt, Business Unit Leather, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Leverkusen Kerstin Stahl, Corporate Communication, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Leverkusen CONcEPT | TEXTs | PRODUcTION PSC – Presse Service & Consulting GmbH, Munich ART DIRECTOR Sascha Carl, Hamburg picture editing André Kirsch, Munich final editing Manfred Grögler, Munich printing & LITHOGRAPHy Druckerei Fritz Kriechbaumer, Taufkirchen

Anti-fouling products 64-65: LANXESS, gettyimages, istockphoto (2) Leather chemicals | IRON OXIDE PIGMENTS 66-67: LANXESS (4), gettyimages (1) Green tires 70-77: Continental (2), gettyimages (2), Audi (1), LANXESS (6), Nokian Tyres, BMW (3), istockphoto, PR interview Prof. Horst Wildemann 78-81: gettyimages, LANXESS (3), istockphoto, private collection Tire typology 82-85: Bridgestone / Rene Staud Studios GmbH (1), Nokian Tyres, gettyimages (3), Pirelli (3), Vredestein (2), Hyundai, Opel Summer and Winter tires 86-87: Bridgestone (2), Audi (1), Fisker (1), gettyimages (1) when the going gets tough / up, up and away on supertires 88-89: Airbus (1), Michelin (2), istockphoto, Bridgestone High-tech for two wheels / tailor-made for the bicycle 90-91: BMW (2), Continental (5) Interview Prof. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer 92-95: dpa (1), Daimler / Smart (1), CITROËN, LANXESS (2), istockphoto (3), Nissan, Toyota, Opel

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