Specialty Acrylics

(now aligned with Coatings & Colorants: Coatings & Additives)

The Degussa Business Unit Specialty Acrylics is a specialist in the field of custom-made functional polymers based on methacrylate. This unit, which is subdivided into the business lines Pharmapolymers, Oil Additives, Binders & Additives, occupies the first, second or third on the respective global markets with its products. With a workforce of 860, production plants in five countries and a global network of applications engineering service centers and sales staff, this Business Unit generated sales of € 501 million in 2005.

For over 50 years, pharmapolymers based on EUDRAGIT^® products and technologies have been setting the benchmarks for controlled drug release and drug delivery systems in connection with functional pill coatings. They make a decisive contribution towards improving the effectiveness and patient compatibility of drugs. The VISCOPLEX^® brand, too, has been synonymous with highly developed products in the field of viscosity index and pour-point improvers for 50 years.

They give lubricants and oils improved flowing properties over a broad temperature range. Special bonding agents based on methacrylate are used for food packaging, road markings, heavily used industrial floors, lacquers and many other applications.

The main focal points of our work are innovations and the continuous further development of our production processes with regard to their efficiency, environmental compatibility and resource preservation. At the Pharmapolymers, we are currently developing new drug delivery technologies for the targeted release of active substances in the digestive tract: this is opening up new therapy possibilities, for example for chronic intestinal diseases.

Flow improvers for biodiesel, compatibility agents for polymer blends and bonding agents for plastisol applications in automobile manufacturing are other research focal points in the Specialty Acrylics business unit. The Functional Binders business segment produces a new alternative PMMA-based polymer, sold under the brand name DEGALAN^®. Together with leading automobile manufacturers, the company is working on new formulas for spray-dried emulsion polymers for this growing market of PVC-free underseal compounds.