At the recent wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London, Lanxess’ Bayferrox played a part in adding color and radiance to the proceedings. In the run-up to the wedding, the roads and footpaths in the area around Buckingham Palace were resurfaced with stone mastic asphalt colored with Bayferrox 130 C iron oxide red pigment from Lanxess. “We were the only local pigment supplier able to deliver the right shade in the required quality. We were also able to provide exactly the packaging the customer wanted,” said Simon Kentesber, sales manager inorganic pigments at Lanzess Ltd., based in Branston near Birmingham, UK. The asphalt was supplied by Eurovia Roadstone Ltd., a subsidiary of Eurovia (SA), which is a world-leading asphalt manufacturer headquartered in Rueil-Malmaison near Paris.

The asphalt on the roads and footpaths outside Buckingham Palace are subjected to enormous stress from millions of tourists and hundreds of thousands of vehicles every year. This wear and tear takes its toll, resulting in cracking, crazing and sometimes even potholes. The specifications on the quality of the new surfacing were correspondingly strict. Eurovia Roadstone was able to comply with the requirements in terms of durability and quality of finish and also flexibility and speed of laying. The company supplied two different qualities of surfacing to distinguish between the footpaths and the roads, but also ensured that the two surfaces blended in with one another. One particular challenge was the very tight timing of the construction work. It had to be carried out with maximum precision as quickly as possible and at night to minimize disruption to the “official” operations at Buckingham Palace, such as the regular Changing of the Guard and the daily flow of visitors.

Bayferrox 130 C is a synthetic red iron oxide marketed as a compact pigment, which means it has excellent free-flowing and low-dusting characteristics, the company said. It is produced in Krefeld-Uerdingen using the Laux process, a manufacturing technology that has been used exclusively by Lanxess for 85 years.