Lanxess AG : Building the car of the future

Wolfsburg, Germany - Basically you can find every single part that is necessary to build a car: At the International Supplier Fait (IZB) in Wolfsburg the who-is-who of the industry had gathered to present their newest products and applications which are necessary to build the car of the future.

Not surprisingly "lightweight materials" were the dominating topic of the fair, that attracted over 700 automotive suppliers from 28 countries. Everything was about sheding weight and building lighter cars. Weight plays a substantial role when it comes to reducing the energy consumption of vehicles and a light car is an absolute necessity when constructing cars that run on alternative fuels as well as electric cars.

LANXESS delivers a variety of products to the automotive and tire industry and thus is dedicated to creating innovative solutions hand-in-hand with the car manufacturers or their immediate suppliers. Several cooperation projects are being staged at the moment and LANXESS showcased some of their latest products, such as a brake pedal that is entirely made of high-tech plastics instead of the plastic-metal-mixture that has already been on the market. The all-new prototype was made possible by using composite sheets of the Tepex brand. Similar ones are also used in running shoes.

But not only the substitution of metal parts with plastics is a great way to make cars lighter - there are other possibilities. LANXESS presented the X-lite technology for the production of significantly lighter upholstery leather for automobiles but also for planes and trains at the ACLE. It is based on expandable microcapsules that are introduced into the fiber structure during the retannage and which are activated via an innovative process. After thermal expansion, it produces upholstery leathers that are no different from normal leather in terms of appearance, texture or wear resistance, but are up to 20 percent lighter, leading to greater fuel efficiency, higher load capacity and lower CO2 emissions for cars, planes and trains.

The supplier get-together attracted big brands such as Continental tires and of course the client itself: Volkswagen was present with a huge booth featuring an unique experience: To get into the booth every person had to register and was given a special time slot. Once that time had come, small groups were guided through different sections of the booth that explained how important the senses were when constructing cars: seeing, hearing, feeling and smelling. The exhibition also gave everyone an insight into the role that leather plays in the construction of cars (for the interior decoration of some Bentleys up to 18 leather skins are used) and gave an overview of the development of the different parts such as window openers in the last few years.

The International Supplier Fair always focuses on different partner countries. This time the spotlight was on Brazil and Argentina, both countries with a growing automotive market. Especially Brazil has developed substantially in the past years and is now the number three automotive market in the world.
This is why LANXESS Country Speaker Marcelo Lacerda came to Wolfsburg to deliver a speech in front of the Volkswagen Management and other decision-makers of the industry: "The IZB has very good reasons to focus on Brazil and Argentina. Demand for cars has increased significantly since many years. In 2010 3,6 million cars were produced. There are more than 71 million vehicles in Brazil. And the middle class with access to automobiles is growing rapidly. Brazil is the third-largest automotive market after China and the United States and many of the globally leading automotive brands already produce in Brazil and are strengthening their capacities. This of course is also very good for the suppliers of the car manufacturers - like us. We are the leading producer of high-tech rubbers and lightweight plastics that play a major role in the construction of a vehicle."