In October 2009, the LLC Akrilan plant in Vladimir was opened for production of water-dispersible polymers. The facility produces acrylic dispersions, which are used in the production of water-dispersed acrylic coating materials (paint, varnishes, enamels, clearcoats, putties, adhesive mixtures, etc.), building materials, nonwovens and artificial leathers, detergents, cosmetics, and in the pulp and paper industry.

The main difference from the other Russian facilities is the comprehensive automation of all technological processes. Only two operators run the technical process. It allows the plant to achieve high productivity and also high quality. Today it is the greatest water-based acrylic dispersion polymer production plant in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The whole building process from project design to allocation of the equipment and starting the plant was controlled by European technical experts with vast experience in building analogous enterprises all over the world. The idea of creating a completely European-like production facility in Russia has been realized, and worked out together with Finish experts from Raisio Chemicals.

The facility is situated in the industrial territory of the Vladimirskiy chemical plant. It has its own land, with a total space of 12,500 m2 and several outlying buildings housing reactors, administration and warehousing of raw materials. Planned production capacity is 40,000 tn. per year. The company has two warehouses with finished products: one located directly on the plant in Vladimir, and another north of Moscow near Sheremetevo airport. The main attention is devoted to quality, stability of delivery and technical support. All of these allow the Russian production of products comparable to import analogues.

Currently, imports make up about 80% of the acryl dispersions market. The main reason for this situation is that even though import production has a higher price, it also has better quality. And it is one of the main criteria in choosing a supplier. Now the new Russian product has appeared in the market, which offers quality and low prices that compete with imported analogues. Vladimir plant production is being tested or has already been tested by coating companies such as Predpriatie VGT, Empils, Tikkurila, Lakra-Sintez, Akzo Nobel, Russkie kraski, and Terraco.

In the last few years water-dispersible varnish and paint materials has been growing steadily, and consumption of acrylic dispersions is also growing. The main reason for such growth is expansion of their scope. Another important reason is the increasing cost of raw materials for production of organic-soluble varnish and coating materials. Also water-dispersed coatings are more ecologically friendly, have no odor, and are easy to work with. It is remarkable that even in 2009 when the coatings industry declined nearly 10%, the reduction of the organic-soluble varnish and coatings materials was 20%, and the water-dispersed varnish and coatings was only 4%.

Since 2008 LLC Akrilan has been a member of CenterLak - Association of producers, suppliers and consumers of varnish and paint materials and raw materials for their production.

Akrilan LLC

Akrilan, a limited liability company, was founded in 2002 for the purpose of building a water-based polymer dispersions factory. For this purpose the company bought two buildings in the industrial territory of the Vladimirskiy chemical plant.

Today the company has industrial territory with two production output lines. It uses Japanese, Finnish and Russian equipment and reactors, along with automation capability from Siemens, Germany.  The basic project for creating the new Russian plant was handled by the Finish company Raisio Chemicals (afterward it became part of CIBA Specialty Chemicals, Switzerland). Experts from this company created the new production model, determined the equipment allocation, kept an eye on project documents and the course of the building development and in the end they took part in starting the first production line in 2009.

The basic production of the company is acrylic water-based dispersions, which are used in the manufacture of water-soluble acrylic coatings and adhesives. They are also used as а coupling agent for building cement mixtures, processing nonwovens and artificial leathers, and can be used in the pulp and paper industry.