BASF celebrates 25th anniversary of ‘Verbund’ pr - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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BASF celebrates 25th anniversary of ‘Verbund’ product

11/09/2008
In September 1983, German chemicals firm BASF brought its first plant used to produce polytetrahydrofuran on line at its ‘Verbund’ (integrated production) site in Ludwigshafen. The product is now marketed under the name PolyTHF throughout the world. With a capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year, the first plant was just the start. It now has an aggregate capacity of 185,000 tons and a world-spanning network of production plants.

A second plant was built in Ludwigshafen and started operations in 1995, before being expanded in 2002. The company also started building additional capacities close to Asian and NAFTA customers. Beginning in 1987 the company began supplying customers from a plant in Geismar, Louisiana, while Asian customers started receiving PolyTHF from the Ulsan site, South Korea, from 1998. The newest addition is the PolyTHF plant at the Caojing production base near Shanghai. Since becoming operational in early 2005 the plant has mainly supplied customers in Asia, which is now not only the largest PolyTHF market, but also the fastest growing.

The textile industry accounts for roughly 70% of the company’s PolyTHF output. The intermediate is used as a raw material for manufacturing elastic fibres, which can be processed with nylon, cotton or polyester fibres. The fibres, which consist of up to 80% PolyTHF, stretch up to  between 500 and 700 times their original length and retain their elasticity without losing their shape. The fibres are also lightweight, smooth and easy to dye.

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