Launched ten years ago with pioneering innovation
Structural components encased in plastic have proved the key product that launched the success story of Assyx GmbH & Co. KG. Exactly ten years have passed since the company was founded in the German city of Andernach-Miesenheim. By now, the manufacturer of Assyx DuroBoard – a high-quality production board used in the manufacture of concrete products – has been able to firmly establish itself in the industry.
As early as twelve years ago, the idea of developing high-quality production boards occurred to Manfred Kessler, one of the two of Assyx managing directors. At that time, the graduated engineer and co-owner of the concrete block plant Betonsteinwerk Rünz & Hoffend in Urmitz/Rhine in Germany, faced the problem that the production boards used at that time were most commonly made of solid wood. The boards, also referred to as “pumice boards,” had a relatively short useful life, were prone to damage, and were often the cause of unscheduled downtimes in production. Production boards made of all-plastic Thermoplast or steel were also no real alternative. “Apart from greater productivity, the better quality of the block products manufactured on DuroBoards also especially paid off, beginning on the first day,” recalls Manfred Kessler.
Pioneering spirit as the basis for worldwide success
In 2004 and 2005, Kessler contributed his decades of experience gained in concrete block production to a joint development with the affiliated partners Bayer Material Science AG, today Covestro AG. The laminated wood was inseparably and completely encased in the polyurethane developed by Bayer. The resulting Assyx DuroBoard is a truly innovative production board that is especially resistant to the rugged conditions of concrete block production. The laminated wood core is dimensionally stable, flexurally rigid, and yet light. The enclosure is impervious to air and water, resistant to weathering and temperature changes, extremely impact-resistant, and highly durable.
The production facility necessary for the production of the boards in Andernach-Miesenheim was completed in the spring of 2006 and is, according to the manufacturer, unique worldwide. The first DuroBoards rolled off the conveyer belts at Assyx in June of 2006. Since then, the company has manufactured around 500,000 Assyx DuroBoards and delivered them to all parts of the world.
Future-oriented, environmentally compatible products
Assyx already began to develop additional applications under the brand name DuroConstruct in 2008. They included self-supporting planks and surfacing for pedestrian and cycle bridges, seat-contact surfaces for benches, as well as self-supporting surfacing slabs for stairs, platforms, balconies, and terraces. In this way, the young company succeeded in manufacturing structural wooden protection for loadbearing wooden elements with low impact on the environment, since it replaced the earlier standardized chemical wood protection processes. The environmentally oriented product philosophy from Assyx moreover exclusively uses fast-growing plantation wood for the manufacture of the glued core of the laminated boards.
“We believe that this company anniversary is a good time to reflect on the developments of the past years – and to take a look into the future,” said the Managing Director of Assyx Alfred Rochlus to around 70 invited guests who had come to the company headquarters in Andernach. “Our employees by now manufacture an average of 6,000 production boards per month. And because the demand for our products is continuously growing, an extension of our operating and production facilities is already being planned.”
