high temperature plastics | Innovation
Above left: Today’s memory connectors require polymers with high flow and thermal resistance Above right: DSM’s new Stanyl ForTii T11 grade has been developed for SMT THR terminal blocks
A-4145HH (45% glass reinforced) are said to deliver better long-term thermal stability than competitive polyamide-based materials and PPS. They also crystal- lise quickly, resulting in a 10% cycle time reduction versus these rivals. “Tests at OEMs have gone well, and we are now getting some traction in the market,” says Tom Wood, senior vp for crystalline products. Wood also highlights increasing interest in FC (food
contact) grades of Amodel in equipment such as coffee machines, where resistance to hot water needs to be combined with good organoleptics. He says Ixef FC grades of polyarylamide are also being considered for parts requiring mechanical strength and good surface finish. “We are working on achieving close to a mirror finish on plated items, even with high levels of rein- forcement,” he says, adding that Solvay’s ability to offer solutions based on numerous different polymers is proving advantageous. The company also offers various sulphone-based polymers for such applications. Arkema says its Rilsan HT, the first flexible thermo-
plastic from the PPA family available on the market, is well suited to replace metal and rubber in under-the- hood tubing applications. It recently launched a grade for applications requiring hydrolysis resistance at very high temperatures, such as in engine cooling and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) circuits. The company points out that selective catalytic reduction is becoming a crucial part of diesel engines, and the Euro 6 engines coming out this year will need components resistant to the Adblue aqueous urea diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) solutions that run in SCRs.
Increasing competition As can be seen, PPS is facing increasing competition from polyamides, but PPS developers still have a few tricks up their sleeves. A new family from Celanese, Fortron ICE (Improved Crystallisation Evolution), has modified crystallisation behaviour that makes it possible to use injection moulding tools heated to as
66 COMPOUNDING WORLD | June 2014
low as 90°C, rather than the 140°C that is normally required for processing PPS and that typically requires hot oil to circulate through the mould. Cycle time reductions average around 25%. Carsten Romahn, in global product marketing for Fortron, says the new grades also provide more flexibility in setting param- eters.
The platform technology can be applied to all PPS
grades. Celanese is currently applying it to grades with glass and glass/mineral filler loadings of 40-65%, and will soon also incorporate it in grades with less filler. Celanese has performed tests with parts weighing between 15 and 350g produced using hot moulding, with tool temperatures of over 135°C. Cold moulding (90-135°C) is most beneficial for smaller parts, weighing less than 150 g. It highlights one grade, Fortron ICE 504L, with a UL94 V-0 rating at 0.38 mm.
Flexible PPS Celanese is also readying a “flexible” PPS for full commercial launch in the very near future. The new version exhibits elongation at break of up to 100% (regular PPS normally breaks at around 8% elongation). Modulus is around 1,300 MPa, compared to around 4,000 MPa. Romahn says this opens up new applica- tions for PPS, such as for cable ties used in the oil and gas industry that need to have high temperature and chemical resistance. Such ties are normally made from polyamide, PEEK or steel. There is a good deal of development activity among
suppliers of ketone-containing aromatic polymers (or polyaryletherketones, PAEKs) such as polyetheretherk- etone, PEEK, and polyetherketone, PEK. Victrex remains the clear market leader in PEEK, with significantly more capacity than any rival (possibly more than all its rivals put together). And it is in the process of further raising capacity, from 4,250 tonnes/yr to 7,000 tonnes/yr. It recently introduced a new glass fibre-reinforced PEEK – Victrex PEEK 90GL30BLK EU -
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PHOTO: DSM
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