Bayer AG

According to Bayer AG Management Board Chairman, Werner Wenning, 2005 was one of the most successful years in the company s history. Net sales of Bayer MaterialScience, which represents Bayer s largest business sector, were 10.695 billion, up from 8.597 billion in 2004 with an EBIT of 1.369 

Electronic applications for Bayer s Desmopan thermoplastic PU film include a solar cell encapsulation process. In November 2005, Bayer revealed that its new manufacturing process for the innovative carbon nanotubes had reduced their manufacturing cost. Bayer has also introduced formable PC films which incorporate EMI/RFI shielding. This is obtained by printing them with conductive ink or by dispersing the ink into the cap layer of the sheet. 

Other innovations include the smart surface technology process which Bayer has developed in conjunction with Lumitec of Switzerland and which involves the production of flat light sources. These electroluminescent elements, whose smart outer skin is a printed Makrofol/Bayfol (PC/PC + PBT blend), do not dissipate any heat and are maintenance free. The light is produced in the multilayer printed system beneath the skin and shines through it. The system itself is an electrode, Baytron P for example, with a counter-electrode underneath The two electrodes are separated by a non-conductor. The mouldings used are produced by a single step process and require minimal assembly work. Bayer has recently invested 24.5 million in a start-up company to produce electroluminescent films. 

The strategy of Bayer is to base its growth strategy on innovation and it reported that around 20% of the revenues of Bayer MaterialScience resulted from new products and applications introduced during the course of the past five years. The Bayer Group places an emphasis on R D on which it plans to spend around 1.9 billion in 2006. 

Underlining its commitment to PC of which it is, along with General Electric, one of the world s leading manufacturers, Bayer has constructed a world-scale Makrolon production plant at Caojing in China designed to come on stream in 2006. Bayer plans to invest around US 1.8 billion in worldscale polymer facilities in the period up to 2009. 

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The above batch process has undergone numerous refinements to improve yields, processing characteristics, purity, and storage stabiUty, but it remains the standard method of manufacture for these products. Recentiy a continuous process has been reported by Bayer AG (6) wherein the condensation is carried out in an extmder. The by-products are removed in a degassing zone, and the molten polymer, mixed with stabilizers, is subsequendy cracked to yield raw monomer. 

Beyer Pocket Book for the Plastics Industy, 3rd ed., Earbenfabtiken Bayer, AG, Leverkusen, Germany, Oct. 1963. 

Makrolon CD 2005, Bayer AG (Germany) and Mobay Corp. (United States) (193). 

PC-cocondensates (BPA-PC, bensyl-substituted PC, four-ring bisphenol-PC, PC with lateral phenyl Bayer AG... 

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