Establishment of the Polymer Corporation - Canadian National Historic Sites on Waymarking.com

Polymer Corporation, a crown corporation, was established in 1942 in Sarnia, Ontario to produce synthetic rubber using German patents. The product was (and still is) used in everything from tires to chewing gum and much of it was sold to the US as part of the common war effort.

The company was considered a national asset and more efficient than its American counterparts. In 1971 it was incorporated into the Canada Development Corporation. Renamed Polysar in 1976, the rubber component became a subsidiary, Polysar Rubber Corp.

When Nova Corporation purchased Polysar in 1990, they sold the Rubber subsidiary to Bayer AG of Germany. So the original German synthetic rubber patents came full circle.

Bayer reorganized in 2004 and the Sarnia operation is now part of Lanxess, a Bayer spin-off company. The name Lanxess is derived from a combination of "lancer" (French: to launch) and "success”.

The manufacturing facility currently has rubber capacity in excess of 200,000 tonnes of four types of synthetic rubber of which about 75 per cent goes to the automotive industry

Although designated as a National Historic Event in 2005 there is currently no plaque. The coordinates and picture are of the Head Office from a likely location for the plaque.

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