Cyclics Europe Expands cPBT Capacity in Germany

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Cyclics Europe GmbH (Schwarzheide, Germany) is already planning an expansion of cyclic polybutylene terephthalate (cPBT) production capacity (PEC 73000195) at a plant that is currently under construction at Schwarzheide, Germany (Plant 1063436). The first phase of the cPBT plant will have a production capacity of 2,500 metric tons a year and should be operational before 2005 and the second phase will double this capacity to 5,000 metric tons a year by 2006. Both phases combined will cost between $40 and $50 million.

The plant is being constructed on the site of BASF's complex and EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft MBH (Leipzig, Germany) has been selected as the engineering and construction contractor for the first phase. Davy Process Technology is also serving in a process design capacity for Cyclics.

Feedstock for the new plant will be provided by BASF from their existing polybutylene terephthalate production unit on site. Cyclics will also be able to take advantage of the existing infrastructure provided by BASF.

Cyclics Corporation was established in 1999 and is headquartered in Schenectady, New York. Cyclics acquired the cPBT process technology from General Electric (GE) in 1999, which had been developing the technology since 1984 for application in the automotive industry. The cyclic polycarbonate was never integrated into the lightweight structural automotive parts, because looming regulations were never implemented and a new material was not required to meet the perceived upcoming standard changes.

Cyclics has formed a relationship with Dow Automotive to manufacture automotive structural composites, Rohm and Haas to manufacture thermoplastic coatings and Alcan Composites for construction, infrastructure and transportation applications. Cyclics has already proven the quality and wide-ranging use of their CBT Resins in compression molding, injection molding, slurry processing, compounding, extrusion and powder coating, just to name a few.