Schill+Seilacher

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Schill+Seilacher
Company typeGmbH
IndustryChemical industry
FoundedNovember 1, 1877; 146 years ago (1877-11-01) in Heilbronn
FoundersChristoph Seilacher and Karl Schill
Headquarters
Böblingen
,
Germany
Key people
  • Rüdiger Ackermann
  • Jürgen Heck
Number of employees
407[1]
Websitewww.schillseilacher.de

Schill+Seilacher, also known by its brand name Struktol, is a German chemical company. It was founded in 1877, and produces chemicals for the textile and paper industry.

Struktol-production site in Hamburg, Germany (2022)
Schill+Seilacher production site in Böblingen, Germany (2019)

History[edit]

On November 1, 1877, the brothers-in-law Christoph Seilacher and Karl Schill founded the company in Heilbronn as a chemical factory for the manufacture of specialty products for the leather industry. Due to rapid growth, four years later they decided to relocate the business to Feuerbach, now a district of Stuttgart.[2] In October 1886, Schill+Seilacher applied for a patent for a process for the production of dégras tanning fat under the patent number D.R.P. 39952. Because it combined the properties of a fat and an emulsifier, it was one of the most important products in emulsion technology, but was not used outside the leather industry.[3] At the turn of the century, chrome tanning became more important in leather processing, and eventually replaced dégras-based products altogether.[4]

Christoph Seilacher feared a loss of sales for his dégras products, and, therefore developed a photo gelatine as well as the necessary pouring, cooling and application machines.[5] The product was supplied to firms such as Kodak, Lumière in Paris and Agfa. The company later expanded its production of process additives. Schill+Seilacher opened a branch office in Hamburg in 1925 to benefit from the port's international trade routes. Meanwhile, the company began producing more chemicals for textile finishing. In the late 1920s, the first additives for rubber processing were produced. During World War II, the plant facilities in Feuerbach and Hamburg were destroyed in a bombing raid. Afterwards, it was decided to relocate production to Böblingen, southwest of Stuttgart.[6] After the end of the war, the plant in Hamburg was rebuilt almost on the same site. The Böblingen plant was enlarged and modernized as business expanded. It produces chemicals such as sophorolipids, and amino acid surfactants.[7] After World War II, the company was handed over by Christoph Seilacher to his granddaughter Ingeborg Gross, who managed it until shortly before her death in 2019.[8]

In the early 1950s, the company developed a process for tanning and fatliquoring animal hides with the salts of sulfonated fatty acid amides.[9] In the 1960s, Schiller+Seilacher began producing leather softeners at its Hamburg plant.[10] In 1977, the company expanded into the USA and founded the Struktol Company of America in Stow, Ohio.[8] It produces various chemicals, e.g. additives for the tire industry, such as compatibilizers.[11]

In 1997, Schill + Seilacher opened a new plant in Neundorf, near Pirna[6] where it produces chemicals such as the flame retardant 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene 10-oxide.[12] On December 1, 2014, 5 metric tons of trimethyl phosphite exploded there during an Arbuzov reaction, killing one worker and causing injuries to four.[13] According to the Saxon State Office for the Environment, the cause of the explosion was the addition of too little solvent toluene, i.e. human error.[14] After controversies about the reconstruction, the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology developed a new safety concept for the plant. It was reopened in August 2019.[15]

Company owners[edit]

From its foundation in 1877 until 2019, the Schill+Seilacher group was family-owned. The last owner of the founding family was Ingeborg Gross. Before her death in 2019, she transferred the group to the Ingeborg Gross Foundation based in Hamburg, and the Pro Humanitate Foundation based in Liechtenstein, which she had established specifically for this purpose.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Northdata: Schill + Seilacher GmbH, Böblingen, retrieved May 4th, 2022
  2. ^ Röpp, Hermann: Chemie-Lexikon, Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1953, p. 1587 (in German)
  3. ^ Lange, Otto (1929). Technik der Emulsionen (in German). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer. p. 353. ISBN 978-3-662-28184-0.
  4. ^ Graßmann, W. (1939). Handbuch der Gerbereichemie und Lederfabrikation - Zweiter Band: Die Gerbung 2. Teil: Mineralgerbung und andere nicht rein pflanzliche Gerbungsarten (in German). Vienna: Julius Springer. p. 177. ISBN 978-3-7091-5275-1.
  5. ^ Sauer, E. (1927). Leim und Gelatine (in German). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer. p. 49. ISBN 978-3-642-49537-3.
  6. ^ a b "Nach Explosion: "Schill & Seilacher" feiert Richtfest für neue P1-Anlage". www.dnn.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  7. ^ Hayes, Douglas G., and George A. Smith. "Biobased surfactants: overview and industrial state of the art." Biobased surfactants (2019): 9-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812705-6.00002-2
  8. ^ a b c Thomas Möckel: Pirnaer Chemiewerk ehrt Firmengründerin, Sächsische Zeitung, August 25th, 2021, p. 17
  9. ^ Graßmann, W (1960). Handbuch der Gerbereichemie und Lederfabrikation - Vierter Band: Bibliographie der gerbereichemischen und ledertechnischen Literatur 1700-1956 (in German). Vienna: Springer. p. 381. ISBN 978-3-7091-8061-7.
  10. ^ Wandel, Martin; Tengler, Hubert; Ostromow, Hermann (1967). Die Analyse von Weichmachern (in German). Berlin/Heidelberg/New York: Springer. p. 170. ISBN 978-3-642-52105-8.
  11. ^ A. M. Alakrach, N. Z. Noriman, L. I. Alrawi, O. S. Dahham, M. M. Mohammed, M. N. Al-Samarrai, and B. Betar, "Use of Struktol as a compatibilizer for SMR L/EPDM blends: Cure characteristics and physical properties", AIP Conference Proceedings 2030, 020054 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5066695
  12. ^ Perret, Birgit, et al. "Novel DOPO-based flame retardants in high-performance carbon fibre epoxy composites for aviation." European Polymer Journal 47.5 (2011): 1082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2011.02.008
  13. ^ "Schill + Seilacher: Mitarbeiter stirbt durch Explosion im Werk Pirna". KunststoffWeb (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  14. ^ Umweltbundesamt - Zentrale Melde- und Auswertestelle für Störfälle und Störungen in verfahrenstechnischen Anlagen (ZEMA), Jahresbericht 2012–2014 (Federal Environment Agency - Central Reporting and Evaluation Point for Incidents and Faults in Process Plants (ZEMA), Annual Report 2012-2014), pp 223-225, pdf
  15. ^ "Schill & Seilacher nimmt neue Anlage nach Explosion in Pirna-Neundorf in Betrieb". www.radiodresden.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-01.
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