International carbon black (CB) supplier Orion Engineered Carbons (Orion) is to expand its Cologne plant in Germany, for the highly-reinforced Gas Blacks production, in response to global market demands for water-borne and solvent-borne coatings. Orion’s Gas Blacks feature fine and narrow particle size distribution to provide ample tinting and enhanced performance for demanding coatings customers, on top of considerable scorch safety to its rubber compounds.
Orion’s CEO, Corning Painter, explains that the Cologne expansion is in line with rapid realignment of the company’s portfolio toward higher value-added CBs for specialty and technical rubber applications.
Established in 2011, Orion runs 14 global production sites with approximately 1,450 employees – its VP, Business Line Specialty CB, Dr. Sandra Niewiem , adds: “Products from Cologne are shipped globally for various high-end coatings and printing applications, including high jet automotive OEMs/refinishing, antistatic coatings and packaging/UV curing inks. The current initiative reflects the high confidence of our customers in Orion’s products and technical support capabilities.”