Ecombine: 'Liquid gold technology open to every rubber maker'

Qingdao, China - Ecombine Advanced Materials Co. Ltd is commercialising its liquid-phase rubber mixing technology on a 'platform' basis, Ian Liu a spokesman for the MESNAC company has explained.

This, said Liu, "means we are completely open to every synthetic rubber (SR) company for cooperation and... develop different product lines with these companies."

Qingdao-based Ecombine, on 10 March, entered a partnership involving Saudi Aramco-owned SR major Arlanxeo and EVE Rubber Institute in China.

Chinese partners Ecombine and EVE are respectively a subsidiary and an affiliate of tire and rubber machinery group MESNAC.

Based in China, the strategic link-up via Arlanxeo High Performance Elastomer (Changzhou) Co. is intended to establish new tire applications for Ecombine's 'liquid gold' materials.

Back in 2015, Ecombine announced a similar tie-up with Italian SR producer Versalis, a cooperation which, Liu reported 3 March, "is still in progress, and everything is going well."

At that time, the partners said they aimed to generate a “joint technology platform”  offering new materials with enhanced mechanical performance and environment-friendly features.

Manufactured by liquid-phase mixing, Ecombine's Evec-branded rubber material 'can be directly used in chemical mixing processes and enable tire makers to avoid multi-stage mixing.'

Moreover, the 'liquid rubber' is claimed to simultaneously improve the rolling resistance, wet braking, and wear resistance of tires.

In 2021, Chinese tire maker Sailun Group reported the incorporation of Evec in its EcoPoint3 tire production technology.

The Sailun tires were claimed to have ‘reached or exceeded’ the performance level of international tier 1 tire brands.

Ecombine is currently building a 300 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) 'liquid rubber' production facility in Qingdao, with start-up scheduled for this year.

In its 2022 annual report, MESNAC said it had started test runs on a 60ktpa production line for the materials at the plant in June last year.

According to MESNAC, the innovative 'liquid gold' material is, so far, mainly being sold to Sailun for the production of high-performance tires.

In July 2022, Sailun unveiled a major project to produce the materials at a production facility in Qingdao.

The tire maker said it had earmarked Yuan 2.3 billion (€334 million) for the Qingdao Dongjiakou materials project.

The facility, it stated, will have capacity to produce 500ktpa of the 'functional materials' once fully on-stream.

Comments by Ian Liu sourced by Tire Business, an associate publication of European Rubber Journal.