Development

We regard ourselves as an international company in the truest sense. Hence we carry out research and development in our markets throughout the world - in short, as close to our customers as possible.

In 2005 ALTANA Chemie AG invested € 47m in research and developement, equivalent to 5% of sales.25% of all the people employed at ALTANA Chemie are involved in either research and development or application technology.

In the field of additives we focus our R&D activity at our central site in Wesel. In addition, we maintain technical service labs throughout the world.

These facilities do generally not carry out product development, but concentrate on providing technical support and developing individual solutions for our customers.

In the divisions of Coatings & Sealants and Electrical Insulation, product development is carried out on a decentralized basis, close to our customers, in the laboratories of the other every group companies, in order to support the application technology needs of our customers.The intensive exchange of information and the close cooperation between the company labs guarantee that know-how is transferred efficiently within the particular division.

In the area of wire enamels we maintain extensive laboratories at our international sites to carry out product development and provide application technology support for our customers. In addition, we maintain a central research facility in Hamburg, which coordinates product development and supplements it with selective basic research.

New technologies like UV technology and nanotechnology, are of increasing importance in our target markets which is why we step up our effects in this area also on a group level.

We actively promote collaboration and the exchange of information between our different R&D facilities that are conducting the same technology projects. In this way we ensure that knowledge available in one area of business is made accessible to other areas.