Interview with Dr. Boris Jakobi, Senior Vice President Components & Purchasing Direct Materials Division about the planned construction of the new raw mixing plant in Weinheim.
In Brief
Approval and Construction: At the end of 2025 and after two and a half years of intensive planning, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies received approval to build a new mixing plant and state-of-the-art warehouse.
Temperature control: The new warehouse will have perfectly temperature-controlled rooms for finished compounds to ensure their high quality by maintaining a constant temperature.
Increased efficiency: The new building will enable a quantum leap in material flow, technologies, and automation, including increased efficiency.
Space utilization: The new raw material mixing plant will span 37,000 square meters (398,268 square feet), with 22,000 square meters (236,806 square feet) allocated for mixing lines and 15,000 square meters (161,459 square feet) for the warehouse.
Automation: Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) will be used increasingly to automate manual loading and unloading processes, relieving employees of physically demanding work.
Boris, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) is starting a major project in Weinheim. What is this about?
At the end of 2024, following two and a half years of intensive planning, we received approval to build a new mixing plant and state-of-the-art warehouse. This means we will have a customized environment to produce compounds that will make our seals even more high-tech! The new facility will not only enable us to store all raw materials there, but also provide perfectly temperature-controlled areas for our finished compounds.
Temperature-controlled because the materials are sensitive to temperature fluctuations?
Correct. Since finished compounds do not have an infinite shelf life, professional storage at an ideal and consistent temperature helps us ensure their high quality. We will be able to precisely regulate and monitor the room temperature and provide a consistent indoor climate all year round.
But don’t you disrupt the “cold chain” anyway when you transport the compounds from temperature-controlled rooms to the individual locations on trucks?
Good question. We actually use refrigerated trucks for temperature-sensitive compounds.
Will the new warehouse only hold raw materials and compounds?
We will also store coils for the stamping plant and finished metal parts there. In other words, all the precursors that we manufacture in Weinheim and the corresponding raw materials.
Which factors prompted the decision to construct a new building in Weinheim?
Our current mixing plant is spread across several production halls, some of which are over 60 years old. They are simply at their absolute limit in terms of construction and safety. We also have to upgrade our technology to stay competitive. We will make a quantum leap with the material flow, technologies and automation, which will make us a great deal more efficient.
How large will the new raw mixing plant be compared to the current one?
We will have 37,000 square meters available in the future. 22,000 square meters of this are for the mixing lines and 15,000 for the warehouse. The production footprint is roughly comparable to what we have now, but without the current limitations. For example, we were spread over three buildings and also had five different storage sites for raw materials, which means that our compounds production doesn’t make optimum use of the space. Once everything will be arranged according to the material flow, the new building will greatly enhance efficiency.
This probably added up to many kilometers in transport logistics, right? Some time ago, a study showed us that a single means of transport travels 3,600 kilometers per year in the Weinheim Industrial Park. We will substantially minimize exactly these transport routes in the future. We will also automate them.
You have already used AMR, or autonomous mobile robots. What else can be automated?
We’re working with different technologies, which means that a considerable amount of AMRs are still loaded and unloaded manually. This will be automated in the future and relieve employees of physically demanding and time-consuming work. The warehouse will also function autonomously. The bottom line is: short distances and automated support.
You said that the size of the new plant will be comparable to the current one. Does this mean that the number of production lines will stay the same?
In the new building, we will also have four mixing lines for elastomers. In addition, we will produce our own silicone rubber on up to three lines. Due to the inefficient use of space, this has not been possible so far. We will also set up a new area where we will produce special materials for fuel cells.
Does this new arrangement also improve flexibility in case of small batch sizes, as required for general industry?
Yes, it will definitely help us react more flexibly.
How significant is the raw mixing plant in Weinheim for FST on a global scale?
We currently produce almost half of the elastomers manufactured by the Group worldwide in Weinheim. So this is a significant building block for our success.
Where else does FST manufacture compounds?
In India, we just constructed a new mixing plant in Morinda and one in Chennai. In North America, we produce in Bristol, Shelbyville, LaGrange and Queretaro. In Germany, we have additional compounding lines for elastomers in Oberwihl and Berlin, while PTFE is produced in Biere, Findlay and Taicang.
What do the political changes in the U.S. mean for FST’s American and Mexican mixing plants?
For now, nothing in our strategy is changing – we are continuing to modernize our plants and adapting them to new market requirements. The U.S. plant in Shelbyville, for example, is already making very good progress with its silicone production. We are currently investing in an automatic weighing system there, like the one we already have in Weinheim. Shelbyville supplies the FST sites in the U.S. with precursors. A new mixing plant is planned in Querétaro and a new stamping plant was already launched in Cuautla in 2020. The Static Sealing division is gaining traction in Mexico, which means that we will expand our activities there as well.
Does that mean local production in the regions?
Yes, we are producing for the Mexican market in Mexico, such as for VW. At the moment, I don’t see that the changes in North America are critical to business. Of course political changes also bring turbulence, especially at the beginning. However, nothing is as bad as it first appears. Mexico continues to be an important production site for us.
Let’s get back to Weinheim: When will you move?
2025 is the year of detailed planning. Our construction site is being prepared and there are still a few hurdles here and there. To name an example: In the middle of our construction site, there is a fiber optic cable as wide as an arm that has to be relocated. Our project benefits from an excellent collaboration with Freudenberg Real Estate, which is giving us the best support.
When is the construction scheduled to start?
If there are no unexpected obstacles, we will start at the beginning of 2026. We plan to move in at the start of 2028.
This move will probably be challenging – not unlike open-heart surgery, right?
That’s a pretty good way to put it. Since finished compounds don’t have an infinite shelf life, there are limits to what we can produce and stock up on in advance. That is why we are first finishing the temperature-controlled warehouse, which should be ready for the move by the end of 2027. Furthermore, we are only moving one of the identical production lines at first. This means that we are temporarily keeping one line at the old site intact and continuing to produce there. At the same time, we will set up the comparable one in the new plant. This has to be running solidly before we relocate the second one. For the move, we also need the customer approvals for the compounds produced at the new site.
How many FST locations do you supply with compounds from Weinheim?
We supply around 30 molding plants from Weinheim. It will certainly be a challenge to ensure that these plants will receive the necessary materials without any disruptions while we are in the process of moving.
FST has always described the materials as its DNA. Do competitors have a similarly deep material competence?
Not yet. But the competition isn’t sleeping either and is buying up compound manufacturers. That makes it all the more important for us to be at the cutting edge of technology. Our employee team with highly qualified material experts also continues to be a crucial factor.
Have you ever faced such an enormous project at any point in your career?
Oh no. This is a once-in-a-lifetime project, not only in terms of size but also complexity. It also involves a number of other issues. For example, we are planning the construction of a large solar energy system with Freudenberg Service, we are discussing energy recovery and much more. Our processes are very energy-intensive. In view of the substantially rising electricity costs, this is another area where we have to increase our efficiency. We want to reduce our energy consumption by 30 percent – and produce part of our electricity requirements ourselves. The risk assessment also brought up challenges. Two branches of the Weschnitz river flow through the Weinheim Industrial Park. Consequently, we also have to protect ourselves against possible flooding in case of high water.
