Polyurethane – the stuff that foams are made of.

The figures speak for themselves: The Polyurethanes Business Unit (BU PUR) not only holds pole position worldwide, it is also the largest section within Bayer MaterialScience. With a workforce of about 4,400, BU PUR has more employees than any other business unit within Bayer MaterialScience. It contributes around 5.224 billion euros in the year 2007 to the company's total sales – about 50 percent. With its broad range of product brands, BU PUR ensures that its customers always have a tailor-made solution for their projects.

Polyurethanes are used primarily in the automotive, construction and electrical/electronics industries, but also in a number of specialty applications: wheels and tires for forklift trucks, for example, are made from the high-performance polyurethane elastomer, Vulkollan®. The range of application for polyurethane is almost unlimited: mattresses, upholstered furniture, car seats, insulation for refrigerators, car bumpers and leisure shoes, to mention just a few. And other new applications are opening up all the time.

I can hear what you can't see

Have you always dreamed of music coming out of your walls and not out of those bulky loudspeakers that always seem to attract dust? A development team from Bayer Material Science, Puren and Siemens had the same vision. So they got together and turned vision into reality: purSonic®.

At the heart of purSonic® sound technology is a thin soundboard produced from a special polyurethane material made of the Bayer MaterialScience products, Desmophen® and Desmodur®. The 6-8 mm thick loudspeaker boards are simply integrated into the walls, ceiling or floor, covered over with plaster, wallpaper or tiles and – hey presto – the music comes out of the room!