news analysis Polyketone undergoes resurrection
Aliphatic polyketone, the engineering plas- tic that was launched by Shell under the Carilon brand name in the mid-1990s and then unceremoniously axed in 2000, is back in the news. Hyosung of South Korea restarted production of the polymer in 2012. Now it is scaling up production and more international compounders and distributors are signing agreements to help grow its use. When Shell decided to exit polymer
production at the end of the 1990s, it could not find a buyer for its relatively new Carilon aliphatic polyketone business that was taking time to grow. As a result, it donated the technology to the non-profit R&D organisation SRI International in 2002. Hyosung licensed the technology from
SRI in 2003, and it further developed the resin technology, investing KRW50 billion (US$45 million) over 10 years and filing more than 100 patents. It started up its 1,000 tonnes/year pilot plant in Ulsan, South Korea in 2012, and launched the materials onto the market in 2013. The next major step in the resurrection
of polyketone will take place later this year when Hyosung commissions the 50,000 tonnes/year plant that it is constructing in Ulsan. Construction is scheduled to be completed in March with full-scale production expected to start in June/July. It has invested a further KRW125 billion (US$112 million) in this project. Akro-Plastic and A. Schulman were among the first compounders to get their
reinforced materials, and flame retardant formulations. The company highlights the polymer’s excellent resilience and its high tensile strength and elongation at yield. In October last year, Lehmann & Voss of
Lehmann & Voss is the latest compounder to launch grades based on polyketone
hands on the relaunched polyketone from Hyosung. Akro-Plastic of Germany launched its
Akrotek PK grade in 2013. This high-per- formance compound is reinforced with 50% glass fibre and is aimed at demand- ing applications requiring low creep and good chemical and fuel resistance. Akro-Plastic said that its Akrotek PK
compound offers significantly lower creep under load than many alternative high-performance polymers. It also displays high resistance to zinc chloride solutions and excellent barrier to automotive fuels, while good tribological properties allow it to fill the gap between POM and PEEK in gear applications. A. Schulman also introduced its
Schulaketon polyketone compounds in 2013. The global compounder offers a range of compounds based on the resin, including unreinforced grades with different flow properties, glass fibre
Hyosung is constructing a 50,000 tonnes/year polyketone plant in Ulsan, South Korea
Germany and its US-based subsidiary Lehvoss North America both announced that they were launching a new range of Luvocom 70 compounds based on polyketone. The company said that the compounds “fill the gap between com- pounds based on technical polymers, like PA6, PA66 and POM, and high-performance polymers, such as PPS, PEI and PAEK”. The Luvocom 70 line consists of three
grades: 70-9045 reinforced with carbon fibres; 70-9046 lubricated with PTFE; and 70-9113/BK formulated for low wear and friction. Lehmann & Voss will also develop custom polyketone compounds based on customer requirements. Earlier this month, PolySource of
Kansas City, Missouri, USA announced that it had entered an agreement with Hyosung to be the authorized distributor for polyketone in North America, further increasing its availability. Polyketone is highly crystalline with a
compact crystal structure resulting in excellent impact resistance, abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, fuel resistance and gas barrier properties. Bill Feldman, executive vice president of PolySource, said that the material has excellent wear resistance and coefficient of friction performance, plus good hydrolysis resistance. These properties make it a good fit in materials handling, gearing and industrial applications, replacing lubricated nylons and acetals. Feldman added that polyketone should
be viewed as a “true green material” as 50% of the polymer comes from carbon monoxide that would have gone to the atmosphere. ❙
www.poly-ketone.com (Hyosung) ❙
www.akro-plastic.com ❙
www.aschulman.com ❙
www.lehvoss.de ❙
www.polysource.net
14 COMPOUNDING WORLD | February 2015
www.compoundingworld.com
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