An expansion project has been launched by Covestro AG to add new production lines for high-quality polycarbonate films at its manufacturing site in Dormagen, Germany. Part of the company’s €100 million global capacity expansion plan, the investments aims to help meet growing demand in all regions.

The project has been scheduled for completion by the end of 2020, including the addition of new coextrusion lines for the production of multi-layer flat films. The new manufacturing unit further underscores the Dormagen site’s importance as a competence centre for speciality films, according to chief technology officer Dr. Klaus Schäfer.

The company is investing in “promising” technologies and applications, such as in cars, medical products and security cards, announced Covestro. By employing “the latest technology”, the plant will enable Covestro to supply customers “faster and with higher quality,” explained Dr. Thorsten Dreier, global head of Covestro’s film business.

The company, said Dreier, is currently working on several projects and the new manufacturing unit will help bring them to market maturity faster. The multi-layer flat films to be manufactured at the site are increasingly used in identity documents as they can embed security features while offering protection against counterfeiting. Covestro’s Dormagen facility specialises in polycarbonate flat films, and comprises production, a technical centre for film processing, a showroom and research laboratories.

Covestro announced plans to expand its global film business in July last year, which were then said to include investments in Thailand, China, Germany and the US. In Thailand for example, the company is currently building a new production facility in Map Ta Phut, with completion set for the end of the year.

The company is also progressing well with the conversion of its coextrusion line in Guangzhou, China, with first products already being delivered to customers. Covestro expects to build new films capacities in China in the second phase of the expansion plan. In the US, the company said it has already improved efficiency and expanded its film production unit in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.