COMPOUNDS | THERMALLY CONDUCTIVE
and match fillers to adjust physical properties,” says Funck.
In a presentation at AMI’s Conductive Plastics
conference in Germany last year, PlastFormance described a soft magnetic application made with a PA6 material filled 80% by weight with a metal oxide. A 900mm spiral flow part with a 3mm by 5mm cross section was injection moulded using 500 bar pressure at a melt temperature of 265°C and tool temperature of 130°C. PlastFormance currently provides its TC series in
Above: PlastFormance has developed a novel ‘expansion’ compounding process it says allows high filler levels to be combined with good flow
applications. The compounds, mainly formulated on PA6 and PA12 (and more recently some high-performance polymers), rely on spherical powder fillers with a selected isometric particle morphology, together with certain additives. They are designed for high-flow and injection moulding processability despite having filler loadings typically greater than 50 vol%. Aside from the use of its patented flow enhanc- ing additive systems, a second key contributor to the novel performance of the TC compounds is the company’s use of spherical — rather than flake-form — fillers. “Flaky fillers ultimately lead to a direction dependency of physical properties, for example, the in-plane thermal conductivity can be high whereas the through-plane thermal is low. With spherical particles these properties of thermal conductivity are omni-directional, meaning in all directions of space,” says Funck. PlastFormance does not disclose the exact filler
Right: TC (thermally conductive) grades from PlastFormance are said to be suitable for heat sink applications, as well as sensors and battery cooling
type, source and amounts used but says that the morphology of the filler is optimised for good processability, low abrasion and integral thermal conductivity. Its two patents, authored by the three company founders, involve composition, produc- tion methods and use of the final compounds. The company says its compounding process
temporarily expands the melt containing the polymer, filler and additives, which increases the melt volume and the adhesion between polymer and filler. This results in reduced viscosity during injection moulding, it says. The injection moulding process completes with the material cooling and shrinking to the solid phase, resulting in a com- pound with what PlastFormance describes as the new high loading, high processability attributes. “Our patents are independent of the types of filler used. We own the technology to increase filler content while keeping up a sufficient level of processability in injection moulding. We can mix
18 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2023
www.compoundingworld.com
a TC4 grade with thermal conductivity of 4.5 W/m.K and a TC8 grade with 8 W/m.K. Both are based on PA6. The company also offers TC3-FR, a new compound with thermal conductivity of 3 W/m.K and a UL94 flame retardancy rating of V-0 at 3mm. In addition, the company offers TC3 and TC8 grades based on high-performance polymers. “The TC series is best for heat sinks, sensor housings and battery cooling applications,” says Funck. Future markets and applications, achievable through variation of filler particles, are said to include hotspot cooling, bipolar plate production, magnetic property modification, EMI shielding, high-density compounds, and gamma radiation shielding for parts such as syringes.
Stress testing One of the more recent thermally conductive introductions from SABIC is LNP Konduit 8TF36E, a new specialty grade that helps address the strin- gent demands of burn-in test sockets (BiTS) used to stress-test the latest double-data-rate (DDR) memory integrated circuits (ICs). DDR memory test sockets have to accommodate higher voltages, higher-temperature environments and ever smaller form factors as the number of pins for DDR ICs increases while their dimensions shrink. “Advancements in memory chips are placing new demands on burn-in test sockets. As the
IMAGE: PLASTFORMANCE
IMAGE: PLASTFORMANCE
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