NEWS Ascend buys Eurostar
Integrated PA66 producer Ascend Performance Materials has added to its global compounding footprint with the acquisi- tion of Eurostar Engineering Plastics, a specialty com- pounder located at Fosses, some 30km north of Paris in France, with a particular strength in halogen-free flame retardant compounds. Ascend Vice President
Europe, John Saunders, said that Eurostar’s experience in compounded PA fits well within its own portfolio and manufacturing capabilities. “Their Starflam [flame retardant] materials are enabling the transitions to clean energy and
transportation, and smarter devices,” he said. Ascend said Eurostar brings a full portfolio of UL yellow card certified flame-retardant, water contact and thermally conductive engineered plastics. It believes such
Steve Manning, Ascend’s Senior Director for Engi- neered Plastics. The acquisition is the
Above: Ascend Vice President Europe John Saunders
materials will play an integral role in future application areas such as e-mobility, as well as smart appliances, industrial automation and consumer electronics. “Combining our portfolio and application develop- ment expertise with Euro- star’s portfolio immediately provides our customers with a bigger toolchest to produce safer, more reliable parts at higher and more constant voltage loads,” said
latest in a series of moves by Ascend to extend its global footprint and technology scope. Last summer, it acquired the compounding operations of NCM (Chang- shu) and Tehe Engineering Plastic (Suzhou) in China, giving it a first production foothold in Asia. Earlier last year, Ascend added a second European compounding location when it bought the Esseti Plast and Poliblend compounding operations from Italy’s D’Ottavio Group. That move provided it with 5,000 tonnes/yr of masterbatch and 35,000 tonnes/yr of engineering plastics capacity. It made its first European move in 2016 with the purchase of Nether- lands-based BTP, which had capacity of 32,000 tonnes/yr. �
www.ascendmaterials.com
SKZ leads conductive research
Germany’s SKZ plastic centre is working with Fraunhofer IKT and Centexbel on a two-year project to develop novel thermally and electrically conductive compounds. The TECMAT (Thermally and Electrically Conductive fibre and plastic Materials) project aims to avoid the usual need for high loadings of functional fillers, which have a knock-on effect on flow and processing properties, in favour of a new ap- proach that uses the basic immiscibility of polymers to modify conductivity. SKZ said this “coales- cence” approach allows areas within the polymer matrix to be deformed to create a conductive network during processing into components or fibres. �
www.skz.de
SABIC extends its radar sensor options
SABIC has introduced two new PBT-based radar-absorbing LNP Stat-Kon compounds for automotive radar sensor applications, easing integration with PBT-based radomes. Radar-absorbing materials are used to shield the field of
radar transmission and attenuate side waves in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), increasing detection range and improving signal resolution. The new compounds provide absorption of 67% at
SABIC’s latest LNP Stat-Kon grades target automotive radar sensors
10 COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2021
77GHz. They are said to complement and extend the company’s radar-absorbing offering, which also includes PC and PEI-based compounds. “A broader choice of radar absorbing LNP Stat-Kon compounds can help manufacturers to increase flexibility in sensor positioning and function and to help design sensors that can be optimised for vehicle size and other variables,” the company said. �
www.sabic.com
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: SABIC
IMAGE: ASCEND PERFORMANCE MATERIALS
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