materials | Polyketones
have experience in adopting PK for new applications. But the company also expects growth elsewhere in the world. “China is an attractive market with a great volume and growing possibilities, and therefore we are actively introducing and promoting Poketone in this region by focusing on the customers who are interested to maximise the value of this new polymer,” says Park. “Hyosung is also developing new applications and trying to discover promising markets in Oceana, the Middle East, South America, South Korea and Japan.” Hyosung is developing applications with official
Above: PK’s good tribologi- cal perfor- mance makes it suitable for polymer gear applications
Promising future Although many projects are in development and a few are close to commercial, it will take some time for many products to be commercialised. “We have new, tailor- made products being qualified, but a typical product takes 1-3 years to become commercial. PK is known to many processors and end-users, but it is a relaunch and customers need to get used to it and want to be sure that the resin will be there,” says Collet at Lehmann & Voss. He says his company is working on antistatic and reinforced PK compounds for automotive, industrial and electrical applications, some of which are reinforced with carbon fibre for high strength and electrical properties and with lubricants for tribological applications. A Schulman has developed its carbon fibre rein-
forced Schulaketon and Schulaketon Flame Retardant compounds. The Schulaketon flame retardant extrusion compounds, for example, may be used in corrugated tubes for cable protection and meet requirements of the new European railway standard, says the company. Hyosung anticipates demand will likely grow first in
the European and US markets, where many customers already understand PK’s properties and features and
business partners (compounders and distributors) as it works to position this “new” engineering plastic in the market. The most recently appointed partner is German distributor K D Feddersen, which is distributing three standard resins (high flow, medium flow, and high impact) in Europe and Latin America. It says its key focus is on the extrusion industry and compounding. The high volume of inquiries into investigating PK for
the first time or in qualifying for applications that had previously used PK has been surprising, according to Watkins, who says the fact that PK promises to solve some long-standing problems with existing resins has been a real boon. “Designers don’t need to make compromises with PK as they do with other polymers because they don’t have to account for any variation in mechanical properties due to moisture changes,” he explains. In an industry where new polymers don’t come along very often, it seems worth taking a look at PK.
Click on the links for more information: ❙
www.poly-ketone.com (Hyosung) ❙
www.polysource.net ❙
www.esprixtech.com ❙
www.lehvoss.de ❙
www.ensinger-online.com ❙
www.akro-plastic.com ❙
www.aschulman.com ❙
www.kdfeddersen.com
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PHOTO: AKRO-PLASTIC
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