LFTs | TECHNOLOGY
Owens Corning committed to LFTs
Glass fibre producer Owens Corning announced in October last year that it was to review strategic options for its thermoplastics dry-use chopped strand business (DUCS), which supplies producers of short glass reinforced compounds. Part of the company’s composites
division, the DUCS business gener- ates sales of around $270m and includes production locations in North America, Europe and Asia. A spokes-
person for the company said the review process, which could involve divestment or repurposing of assets to other product lines, is still ongoing. “We expect to be able to provide substantive progress updates near the end of the first half of 2022; however, this timeframe will ultimately be determined by the path of what is a comprehensive review process,” the spokesperson said. The DUCS review does not extend
Last year, Japan’s Polyplastics launched its first
LFT products under the Plastron LFT brand. Devel- oped by Polyplastics’ parent firm Daicel, the new product line will be available in PP, PA6, PAMXD6 and PA9/T base resins with the option of glass or carbon fibre reinforcements at levels from 40-60%. In line with the growing interest in more sustainable materials, it says it is also offering a long fibre cellulose reinforced LFT PP with a 40% fibre content. The company says key attributes of the Plastron
materials include high stiffness and impact resist- ance, good dimensional stability and creep perfor- mance, and retention of physical properties at elevated temperatures. It claims that, due to the reduction in fibre fracture surfaces in the LFT materials, users will also see a reduction in wear.
Right: Arburg claims its direct FDC LFT process
technology gives proces- sors more flexibility in material
selection and properties, as well as providing potential cost reduction
to Owens Corning’s composite activities in the LFTs sector, which the company supplies with its T30 line of singe end glass fibre rovings. T30 prod- ucts are supplied to a broad range of composite markets, including LFT-G and LFT-D production and continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic tapes as well as thermoset applications such as wind blade, rebar, and pultruded construction profile production. �
www.owenscorning.com
Target application sectors include industrial pump housings, pipe fittings, and automotive components. While most injection moulders use pre-com- pounded LFT materials, there is growing interest in direct technologies where the materials are compounded at the point of use. German injection machinery maker Arburg continues to develop its Fibre-Direct Compound- ing (FDC) process. According to Manuel Wöhrle, lightweight construction expert and Team Manager Technology Sector Sales, the FDC process targets the equally important trends of innovation, light- weight construction, reduced unit cost and sustainability. The FDC process is carried out on the injection moulding machine so it eliminates the pultrusion step used to manufacture LFT pellets. According to Arburg, direct compounding gives the processor maximum flexibility in material selection and tailored properties, as well as providing a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, thermal stress on the resins, and material costs. The FDC process involves feeding a continuous
supply of glass fibre through a cutting device that chops the strands into application-dependant lengths, then via a side feeder directly in to the liquid melt in the injection machine barrel where it is homogenised. The system has a fully integrated control system for key parameters, such as run time, fibres per cycle and weight unit of rovings. Arburg sees the technology being applied to
replace the use of pre-compounded LFT pellets, as well as to substitute other engineering plastics technical materials or to upcycle recycled poly- mers. When substituting technical materials, the company claims up to 60% material cost savings can be achieved, as well as a weight reduction of up to 30%.
34 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2022
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www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: ARBURG
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