Germany-based specialty chemicals company LANXESS is making headway in enhancing its innovation and customer service capabilities, having inaugurated its India Application Development Centre (IADC) in Thane, Mumbai.

The IADC will focus on integrating two key businesses and product development categories in India, namely, lubricant additives and material protection products, enhancing LANXESS’s ability to produce and deliver “high-value, specialised solutions” to the local market.

Some of the lubricant additives and material protection lubricants in focus include high-performance additives, ready-to-use lubricants, antimicrobials and preservation solutions.

“India is a critical growth region for LANXESS, offering immense opportunities for collaboration and innovation,” says LANXESS board chairperson Matthias Zachert.

“The new application development centre represents our commitment to delivering solutions tailored to the needs of our local customers while driving organic, innovation-led growth.”

Customers who enrol at the IADC will benefit from advanced studies, including those focused on lubricant friction and wear, as well as the synthesis and testing of new materials and the evaluation of antimicrobial performance of emulsions, paints and other water-based chemicals.

Additionally, the IADC will ensure that the expertise and services offered by LANXESS are made more accessible to customers.

For example, LANXESS India vice chairperson and MD Namitesh Roy Choudhury says that the IADC will improve the company’s ability to stay abreast of evolving market trends and customer demands.

“By establishing the IADC, we are bringing our expertise closer to our Indian customers. This centre will not only support innovation but also strengthen our ability to address evolving market trends with speed and precision,” says Choudhury.

The establishment of the IADC also aligns with LANXESS’s transformation into a specialty chemicals company, focusing on less cyclical business areas and solutions and instead prioritising critical applications, such as sustainable mobility or consumer protection. India’s growing industrial base and expanding consumer markets make it an ideal platform for driving such advancements.

LANXESS also has a long- standing presence in India, with representation from ten business units and a workforce of about 800 employees.

“I am also thrilled that this important milestone for India [the IADC’s establishment] coincides with our twentieth anniversary as a company; an opportunity to celebrate twice,” says Zachert.

New Additive Benefits Tyre Manufacturers

As a testimony to its premium workmanship and promise to provide efficient solutions, LANXESS has developed a new product – the Vulkanox HS Scopeblue rubber additive – to help tyre manufacturers achieve their sustainability goals, and produce more sustainable, longer-lasting tyres.

The anti-degradant is the “sustainable variant” of the proven antioxidant Vulkanox HS (TMQ), which tyre manufacturers use to protect products from the adverse effects of oxygen and heat. Like its predecessor, the new additive is also characterised by low volatility and low migration tendency.

“With this antioxidant, we extend the [life] of tyres while reducing their ecological footprint,” says LANXESS functional tyre additives business line head Dr Holger Graf.

Further, owing to the use of bio-circular acetone and renewable energy during its production, the Vulkanox HS Scopeblue’s carbon footprint is 30% lower than that of “conventionally manufactured” products.

The LANXESS Vulkanox HS Scopeblue is produced in a German plant certified by independent initiative International Sustainability and Carbon Certification’s (ISCC’s) voluntary scheme ISCC PLUS.

The product can be used as a drop-in solution, as the chemical structure of the product is unchanged from its predecessors and does not alter the manufacturing process.

“With Vulkanox HS Scopeblue, we have developed another product that meets the growing demand for sustainable and [environment-friendly] materials,” he concludes.