It’s All in the Mix

Dr. Boris Jakobi is Senior Vice President of the Components Division and, among other duties, responsible for all mixing, PTFE and stamping plants at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and has been with the company for 20 years.

We produce a tremendous variety of elastomer compounds at our Weinheim, Germany, mixing plant. They are the basic material for all sealing products. That makes our plant one of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ core operations. We mainly mix rubber with cross-linking materials, fillers and one or more special ingredients to give the products the desired characteristics. We have long been known in the market for our uniformly high quality. Our development of special compounds has given us a unique selling point. Our material developers regularly create tailored solutions for our customers. At our mixing plant, we have the expertise to industrialize specific developments, that is, to move them into production. We are experts – and we are the market leader – in the field of elastomer production and are well-equipped to handle the most demanding products on our own.

We had previously adopted the classic structure of a mixing line, consisting of a kneader, a rolling mill and a batch-off system. Among other changes, the trend is now greater automation, the integration of other process steps in-line with the help of extruder technology. We are also striving to automate more of the processes that are still manual. That’s why we are turning to digitalization at all of our locations. We are networking machines and taking advantage of the opportunities for remote support. We also want to move toward apps and process controls that will facilitate our global transparency.

At Weinheim, a great many employees from a range of countries are integrated into our production processes. Our mixing plant requires more than one skill set. A whole range of qualifications is needed since the facility and the chemical processes taking place inside them are complex. In 2021, we produced about 9,000 tons of elastomer compounds in Weinheim. Our compounds end up in each of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ elastomer parts. We also supply other Freudenberg companies along with select external customers.