I had the pleasure to be invited by Jan Helmig and Jochen Hardt at Covestro HQ located in Chempark, Leverkusen.
Chempark is covering a 11 km2 total area, including 85km pipe bridge, 45,000 employees, 102 km factory roads, 102 km tracks and 500 enterprises. And it is obviously the historic location of Bayer
Covestro is a key player in the automotive lighting industry, as one of the main player in optical plastic raw material supply. Without any polycarbonate, we would still have glass lens, rectangular headlamp shape and most of all the latest innovation in our field would not have been possible.
Company started in 1863, founded under the name “Friedr. Bayer et comp.” in Barmen, today a district of Wuppertal. Company started to manufacture and sell synthetic dyestuffs from coal-tar. In 1937, Otto Bayer discovered Polyurethanes and in 1954 Hermann Schnell invented Polycarbonate and from this time, Covestro has built a reputation as industry pioneer.
In 1980s, Covestro delivered Makrolon© for the first Automotive headlamp lens. In 1993 the polycarbonate headlamp lens of Opel Omega was the first one in Europe.
On September 1st, 2015, Bayer MaterialScience became a separate legal entity operating under the name Covestro, with Headquarter remaining in Leverkusen.
Covestro generated sales of EUR 14.1 billion in fiscal year 2023. At the end of 2023, the company had 48 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 17,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
Covestro is still on the top of the innovation with remarkable innovative products they have revealed in the last few months:
- Recycled Polycarbonate from old tires
- PU coating for front grills (BMW iX), including film integration
- PC-Heatsink as alternative to aluminum heatsink
- Diffusive EL polycarbonate for edge light design
- Imagio® OMD
At the same time, Covestro is investing in optical lab to be able to support lidar measurement (and lidar integration behind PC-lens) and has just released an optical database with all their PC optical properties to accelerate the work for tier1 and OEM for optical simulation and testing.
To read more, you need to log in as a DVN Lighting member.
Not a DVN member yet? Contact us now to join the DVN Community!