Anniversary: 25 Years of Tego - Chemistry with Imagination

In March of this year, Evonik Tego Chemie GmbH celebrates an important anniversary: For 25 years, the firm has offered its know-how in the field of additives and speciality resins for coatings and printing inks. During this time, Tego has risen to become a leading supplier of speciality products for the coatings and printing inks industries.

In October 1984 Th. Goldschmidt AG established Tego Chemie Service GmbH in Essen. Operations started on January 1, 1985. Even at that time, major products included the silicone resins still used today for heat resistant coatings for saucepans and frying pans, etc. In addition, organomodified siloxanes with their outstanding surface activity rapidly became increasingly important as additives for coatings and printing inks.

From the early years, the Essen company enjoyed continuous growth. Parallel to the activities in Europe, the first regional sales team and a technical service laboratory were set up in the USA. At the end of the eighties, Tego entered the Asian market which, alongside the USA, has become a mainstay for the company. China, in particular, continues to be a growth area.

Today, Tego products are available from numerous subsidiaries. We are thus able to supply our customers almost everywhere rapidly and provide competent technical support through our Technical Service Centers. Detailed product information, interactive solutions to problems, technical background information and numerous technical articles by our experts supplement the service for our customers at www.tego.de. Evonik Tego Chemie GmbH also facilitates routine work for customers via its comprehensive Tego Journal: 200 pages of products, services and data sheets from Tego. New editions of the Tego Journal will continue to be published regularly for the benefit of customers.

Tego products are internationally renowned as innovative, effective raw materials for coatings and printing inks. This is clearly reflected by the comprehensive range of Tego’s high performance additives. Suitable choice of additive enables the paint manufacturing process to be optimized and the application characteristics and/or cured paint film properties to be precisely tailored as required. Tego’s expertise in selectively influencing interfaces combined with an in-depth understanding of customers’ requirements enables the company to offer tailor-made products which meet many requirements of the coatings and printing inks industry. Regardless of the interface, Tego has the right technology:

TEGO® Dispers wetting and dispersing additives promote pigment wetting and stabilization thus preventing floating and flooding and settling out of pigments.

TEGO® Foamex defoamers prevent foaming during production and application of waterborne coatings and printing inks. Existing foam is destroyed and entrapped air is avoided. TEGO® Foamex defoamers are available as emulsions, solutions and concentrates.

TEGO® Airex deaerators prevent formation of air inclusions and pinholes in coatings. This is particularly important in high viscosity or high solids formulations and indispensible when using Airless-/Airmix application methods.

TEGO® Wet substrate wetting additives permit uniform wetting of coatings and printing inks even on low energy surfaces. Good wetting is a prerequisite for optimum adhesion. Surface defects such as cratering or poor flow and leveling are avoided.

TEGO® Glide & Flow surface additives improve the flow, slip and scratch resistance of coatings. They also prevent cratering and floating of pigments.

Tego’s range now comprises some 200 products. Around 120 employees in Essen together with colleagues all over the world continuously strive to develop and improve innovative technologies in the field of additives and speciality resins to provide the products of tomorrow for our customers.

Since September 2007, Tego has been part of the Evonik Corporation and has exploited the synergy created to pursue its continued development.