materials | Polyketones
use temperatures and chemical resistance plus high resilience make PK excellent for snap-fi t connectors and other structural parts. And in gasoline service station fuel delivery systems, the low permeation of PK to fuels means safer, more environmentally friendly operations with less pollution and contamination risks.” PK’s key to success in fuel-transport systems is its
Above: Hyosung’s 50,000tpa commercial- scale PK facility in South Korea started up in July last year
short moulding cycles, low warpage, good resilience and snap fi t, good impact performance over a broad temperature range, high chemical resistance and barrier performance, hydrolytic stability, and good friction and wear characteristics, says Dr Cary Veith, CEO at Esprix Technologies, which introduced its Ketoprix Polyketone compounds in 2015. This broad spectrum of benefi cial properties makes PK useful in a wide variety of end uses. “For example, in industrial applications, the resistance of PK to most chemicals helps reduce corrosion and improve environmental sustainability,” says Veith. “In high-temperature compo- site parts, glass and/or carbon fi bre reinforcement of PK can create compounds that are good for replacing metals. In consumer machines (for example, printers, copiers, kitchen appliances), PK’s low coeffi cient of friction and high wear resistance make it an excellent choice for bushings, wear rings and the like.”
Barrier to fuels PK’s barrier to fuels opens up a host of potential end uses. “In oil & gas applications, PK can be used as a barrier layer in pipe and tubing to reduce migration of oilfi eld chemicals out of transport systems and/or reduce corrosion of conveying equipment,” says Veith. “In automotive under-the-hood and fuel systems, high
Hyosung can produce PK in copolymer and terpolymer forms but all of its current commercial Poketone grades are based on the terpolymer variant
lower permeation coeffi cient compared to other materials, explains Veith, who published a white paper estimating PK’s performance in fuel transport systems using property values derived from previously published Shell data. Lower permeation results from PK’s dipolar nature, which allows it to resist attack and permeation by aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (for example, in fuels), and its morphology, which results in resistance to swelling and dissolution in all but the strongest polar environments, explains Veith. “A lower permeation coeffi cient for PK versus other materials, for a given thickness, means that there will be less fugitive emissions of fuel from the delivery system into the surrounding environment using PK.” Veith reports that integrated values of fuel lost (g/m2 per day) are essentially nil at 23°C and 0.9 at 93°C for PK compared to 1.4 at 23°C and 243 at 93°C respec- tively for PA12, which is a commonly used liner material. PK also performs much better than PA12 with oxygenated fuels such as E10. “Permeation of E10 through PK at 23°C is about the same (within experi- mental error) as permeation of UL gasoline (no alcohol or oxygenate) through PK at 23°C,” Veith says. Several companies are said to be evaluating the company’s Ketoprix PK as the inner liner in multi-layer pipe and tubing applications for fuel delivery and also in oil and gas transport applications. PK is being evaluated for automotive applications that had used Shell’s PK in the past, as well as for new applications. “When Tier 1 companies and OEMs switched from PK to other materials for fuel handling applications, they had to compromise in mechanical properties, and they are interested in coming back to PK,” says Watkins. “PK’s fuel resistance is approxi-
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COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2016
www.compoundingworld.com
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