LANXESS will be exhibiting its comprehensive product portfolio for the plastics industry at K 2025 in Duesseldorf. The specialty chemicals company will present diverse polymer additives, colorants and heat stable inorganic pigments for coloring plastics as well as new product developments.
Harald Puetz, Head of Marketing for brominated and phosphorus-based flame retardants at LANXESS, says: “Polymer additives are key factors in the performance, safety, and sustainability of modern plastics. Our diverse solutions open up new opportunities for manufacturers and end customers to realize the most demanding applications with innovative, durable, and environmentally friendly materials.”
Efficient flame retardants for polymers
With its brominated and phosphorus-based solutions, LANXESS offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of organic flame retardants in the world. The polymeric and reactive flame retardants reduce the release of additives from polymers, thus contributing to environmental and health protection without compromising fire safety. Due to their high efficiency, brominated flame retardants are widely used in the construction and electronics industries. In addition to effective fire protection, phosphorus-based flame retardants offer other advantages such as good processability and high elasticity in polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) systems.
In order to support its customers, LANXESS continuously develops new sustainable solutions. Levagard 2100 for example is a next-generation, reactive flame retardant – safe, efficient, sustainable. With Levagard 2100 LANXESS customers get safer, longer-lasting, and more environmentally friendly flame retardants without compromising on fire performance. The product is specifically designed for rigid polyurethane (PUR), polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams as well as closed cell spray foams used in construction and insulation applications.
Unlike conventional additive flame retardants such as TCPP (tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate), Levagard 2100 is a low-viscosity reactive phosphonate that chemically bonds into the polymer becoming an integral part of the matrix. This reactive integration offers several key benefits: low volatility, minimal migration, lower VOC emissions and enhanced durability – thus making it a sustainable alternative for modern insulation systems. In addition, due to its low plasticizing effect the product offers improved mechanical properties. Levagard 2100 perfectly fits into the LANXESS value chain due to a full backward integration into the phosphorus-based building block produced in Germany which is used in the product and therefore offers a high supply chain resilience.
Emerald Innovation 5000 is another newly developed sustainable flame retardant designed as an alternative to decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE). The product allows manufacturers and compounders to meet stringent fire safety requirements while fulfilling the latest regulatory demands in traditional and emerging markets as well.
Due to its polymeric, melt blendable characteristics, Emerald Innovation 5000 addresses the fundamental migratory issue of small molecular bromine-based flame retardant products. The product shows high permanence with low mobility when compounded into plastic resins, preventing blooming with the long-life cycle of end use cases. In addition, it enables a broad processing window and tailored physicochemical properties in a variety of engineering plastic resins.
75 years of Mesamoll: Proven phthalate-free plasticizer, continuing to shape the industry
At this year’s K Trade Fair, LANXESS celebrates a remarkable product anniversary: 75 years of Mesamoll. The phthalate-free plasticizer enables the production of flexible, durable, and long-lasting products and has shaped the global plastics industry since its inception in 1949.
From textile printing, waterbeds and stand-up paddle boards to automotive applications and sealants, Mesamoll continues to deliver performance and reliability across a wide range of applications. Its high-gelling capacity and exceptional saponification resistance allow customers to manufacture cost-efficient products with a long service-life – ensuring consumer satisfaction over decades.
Mesamoll underwent a major improvement in 2023. LANXESS transitioned to a more sustainable version by using carbon-reduced raw materials, offering its customers a reduced product carbon footprint by approximately 20 percent. This is done without compromising on quality or performance via the mass balance approach. Alongside to Mesamoll, LANXESS offers multiple other non-phthalate plasticizers in its additive portfolio.
Stabaxol product range enables hydrolysis stabilization
In order to offer more sustainable and less regulatory restrictive solutions to the customers, LANXESS is expanding its product range of hydrolysis stabilizers for plastics and polyurethanes with the addition of Stabaxol L as monomeric and Stabaxol P LF as polymeric carbodiimide, two products in a new line of innovative, low-emission carbodiimides and with no labeling.
With Stabaxol L and Stabaxol P LF, LANXESS is addressing the trend toward customized anti-hydrolysis agents that are tailor-made for use in individual applications and can thus optimally meet requirements with respect to stabilization performance, toxicology, emissions and handling.
Stabaxol L shows outstanding performance when used in polyester/polylactone polyols, thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), other PU elastomers and polyester based polymers. In particular its use in the polyurethane and PET monofilament applications leads to an extension of the service life of the final article under moist and warm operating conditions.
Stabaxol P LF on the other hand is a label free sustainable hydrolysis stabilizer providing excellent protection against hydrolysis in ester-based thermoplastic elastomer compounds (TPE) in combination with high thermal stability, lower emission during processing. Typical applications include cable sheathing, filaments and textiles, shoe systems, rollers, engineering injection moldings and electronic housings.
