Evonik starts ‘smart materials’ line at plant in the Ruhr for additive manufacturing market

Evonik Industries has opened a further production line for speciality polyamide 12 powders of its Vestosint brand at its largest global production site in the Marl Chemical Park, near Recklinghausen in the Ruhr region of Germany. The facility makes high-performance powders for the 3D printing market, which is expanding with double-digit growth rates.

Harald Schwager, deputy chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik, said: “Polyamide 12 is part of our strategic Smart Materials growth engine that involves optimising the performance and efficiency of products with improved materials. We significantly expanded our polyamide 12 powder plant in Marl to support the development of future-oriented technologies such as 3-D printing with innovative solutions.”

The investment volume for the new Vestosint plant is in the mid double-digit million Euro range. With the new plant, Evonik is increasing its existing annual capacities for PA 12 powders by 50 percent. The speciality chemicals company manufactures its high-performance powders from PA 12 granulate in a proprietary process in its integrated production network for polyamide 12 products.

Claus Rettig, chairman of the Board of Management of Evonik Resource Efficiency, said: “The new production capacities will enable us to assume an even more prominent role in the global growth of attractive markets such as the coatings industry or 3-D printing. In addition, we are able to develop new customised polymer powders even faster and more flexibly in order to support our customers’ strong growth and thus of our polyamide 12 powder business.”