ZEON Europe GmbH – the European subsidiary of ZEON Corporation, Japan, a worldwide leading synthetic rubber producers, focuses on the new development of its acrylic rubber (ACM) products at the German Rubber Conference (DKT) in Nuremberg, 1-4 July 2024.
Acrylic rubber ACM is a specialty oil-resistance rubber for high temperature application up to 180 ?C. It is commonly utilized in the automotive sector for oil sealing, gaskets, turbo hose, fuel hose cover, and air duct achieving a broad range of OEM specifications. Not only for combustion engines, e-mobility is opening new yet challenging opportunities. With 20.000 tons per year capacity from 4 locations in 3 countries, ZEON commits to be the most reliable acrylic rubber supplier and the number one producer of ACM worldwide.
ACM in the e-Mobility
By virtue of the polymer, ACM”s current application is indeed dominated by the usages in the combustion engines. The electrification of mobility has brought new challenges and opportunities to the whole sector. Equipped with its long experience and know-hows, new ACM developments and compound studies, ZEON – with the application technologists in the frontier – is ready to intensify the development partnership to generate tailored solutions. Already now, ACM based gaskets are used in e-axle, the combination of motor, axle, and gearbox in a unity.
Capacity expansion secures the global supply, reduces risks
Considering the full package of functionalities, costs, and the business continuity plan (BCP), especially in the current uncertain market situation when BCP becomes a decisive factor, ACM can be the best choice. ZEON expanded the ACM manufacturing capacity by building a new plant in Thailand, that started to go on stream in 2022. “We are proud, with the additional capacity in Thailand, to become the largest ACM producer worldwide”, stated Dr. Marcus Santoso, Commercial Manager ACM of ZEON Europe. He added, “the supply of our ACM has always been reliable. There has never been a significant disturbance of ACM supply in the past years. In contrary, we were supportive to our partners by providing additional quantities in difficult times.”
Ambitious sustainability target
Dr. Marcus Santoso further explained, “We have been successfully introducing a new grade with a broader service temperature range and an acid resistance type as a potential solution for the so-called Worst Case Oil issue. We aren”t stopping here! ZEON has an ambitious Carbon Neutral target for 2050. By optimizing our production process and by the utilization of biological and sustainable feedstocks, ACM will play a part in achieving this. The CO2-footprint of the elastomer parts can also reduce, by way of new grades in our development pipeline with optimizing the extrudability to reduce energy consumption during processing, and by removing the need for post curing.”
At the DKT, ZEON presents the new development of acrylic rubber and other specialty rubbers on the 1 – 4 July 2024 in Nuremberg, Booth 524 Hall 9.
Keywords:ZEON, specialty elastomer, HyTemp? ACM, DKT 2024, Deutsche Kautschuk-Tagung, German Rubber Conference, acrylic rubber, worst case oil, sustainability, Dr. Marcus Santoso