www.dupont.com
2018 Nonwovens Sales: $1 billion
Key Personnel
Marc Doyle, president, CEO specialty products division; Kevin Corby, global technology, director
Plants
Richmond, VA; Luxembourg
ISO Status
All plants are ISO 9002 certified including the Luxembourg facility
Brands
DuPont Tyvek, Typar
Major Markets
Construction, healthcare, protective apparel, industrial filtration, absorbents, home furnishings, envelopes, geotextiles, graphics, packaging, footwear, automotive
The big news from the maker of Tyvek flashspun nonwovens is DuPont’s announcement in June 2018 that it will invest more than $400 million to expand capacity of its flashspun Tyvek nonwoven material at its facility in Luxembourg. The production expansion, which will add a new building and a third operating line at the site, is scheduled to start up in 2021.
“Global demand for DuPont Tyvek continues to grow worldwide in all of our key end-use markets,” says Rose Lee, president—DuPont Safety & Construction. “This capacity expansion plan is a critical step in growing the Tyvek business, maintaining our leadership in nonwoven materials, and delivering the innovation customers expect from DuPont.”
DuPont developed Tyvek in 1967. Made of 100% high-density polyethylene that has enabled new dimensions of protection, security and safety in a wide variety of industries and applications, Tyvek is found in a number of key markets including building envelope solutions, protective garments, medical packaging and graphics and protective packaging.
Tyvek has had a tremendous impact across numerous industries, resulting in the creation of new categories of products, such as house wrap, which helped revolutionize home construction; setting new standards for personal protective apparel; enabling advancements in medical device technology; and playing an important role in many other applications. DuPont, along with its customers, continues to develop new Tyvek products and applications to meet evolving marketplace needs. Designers of consumer products for lighting and fashion accessories and apparel are increasingly demanding Tyvek for their products because of its lightweight durability and texture.
Known best for its role in the construction market where it remains an industry leader in the building wrap category, DuPont has received the Third Annual Builder Partnerships Partner of the Year award. This award is presented each year to a manufacturer for demonstrating excellence in supporting Builder Partnerships builder members and their overall base of builder customers. The award was presented during Builder Partnerships’ 13th Annual Networking Reception during the International Builders’ Show.
And, DuPont continues to innovate and add to its Tyvek family of products. This year, the company launched Tyvek® 500HV garments for high visibility applications and is also adding new product line extensions in our Tychem glove product launch.
Additionally, The DuPont Performance Building Solutions systems approach provides a comprehensive product portfolio that addresses the interior and exterior building envelope with solutions for managing air, water and thermal needs.
One new product, DuPont Tyvek® Water Resistive Barriers (WRBs) incorporate unique material science that helps keep air and water out, while letting water vapor escape. As a result, they can contribute to improved building durability by helping to protect homes and commercial buildings against damaging wind and rain that can penetrate the exterior cladding. Tyvek WRBs also help reduce energy bills by controlling air flow and water intrusion, which helps insulation work better, allowing the HVAC system to work more efficiently. Tyvek WRBs are engineered to keep buildings cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and dry all year round.
Additionally, DuPont™ Tyvek® Drainvent Rainscreen is a three-dimensional honeycomb-textured drainage mat that provides advanced protection against moisture damage in exterior wall systems. Ideal for stucco and stone exteriors, Tyvek DrainVent Rainscreen is suitable for use with a variety of other materials, including brick, wood siding, fiber cement siding, metal panel systems, cedar shake and shingles.
While construction continues to be the largest market for Tyvek globally, other markets like medical packaging, graphics and cargo covers continue to grow in importance. In July, DuPont announced a partnership with SkyCell, a Swiss-based manufacturer of temperature-controlled containers for food and pharmaceuticals to collaborate on technical and market development.
Tyvek garments are a leading choice by industrial and controlled environments professionals for protective apparel. Tyvek provides the best combination of protection, comfort and durability to protect workers from contamination and also to protect processes from contamination in the case of cleanrooms. Tyvek continues to be one of the leading materials for sterile medical and pharmaceutical packaging applications as it provides excellent microbial barrier properties, combined with great durability and puncture resistance. For graphics applications, Tyvek continues to be the material of choice for a wide range of applications that require durability and excellent printability, including tags and labels, wristbands, signs and banners, maps, and more. Products made from Tyvek can also be mechanically recycled into products such as underground cable protection piping, automotive parts, blown film, packaging cores and trays.
Customers continue to develop innovative solutions for Tyvek everyday based on its design capabilities along with the durability and functional performance. We see growing use for Tyvek in a broad range of consumer applications, including bags, apparel, home goods, and reusable packaging. We have established a new Instagram channel @Tyvekdesign where we feature many new applications our customers are developing with Tyvek.
In corporate news, DuPont merged with Dow to form DowDuPont in late 2017 creating one of the largest chemical specialty companies in the world. Then, in June 2019, DowDuPnt broke into three spin-off companies, which were each be independent and publicly traded. Each business—agriculture, material science and specialty products.
It is an exciting time at DuPont as we are focused on serving our customers with innovative solutions to their problems NOW. We continue to look for opportunities to collaborate with customers and meet their changing needs. In June, DuPont took a major step toward creating three strong, independent growth companies focused on driving innovation and delivering long-term value as Dow spun off DowDuPont. In doing this, we have combined Kevlar ®, Nomex ® and Tyvek ® brands together under a single Safety Business. Merging these brands’ collective scale and dexterity to deliver and uncover results that make an impact for Personal Protection, Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Defense, Electrical Infrastructure, and the other industrial markets. Our collective global strategic leadership and focus at the regional level will also help us recognize opportunities faster, develop customer-oriented solutions quicker, and hone our competitive edge. Today, we are focused on the future of the DuPont Safety business as we aim on being the preeminent multi-industrial safety company in the world.