MATERIALS | ENGINEERING PLASTICS
suitable for applications requiring flame retardance. The company is aiming at a range of applica- tions, including parts for visual check, illumination or light design, describing it as a versatile alternative to commonly
used materials such as amorphous aliphatic polyamides, polycarbonate or styrene-acry- lonitrile copolymers. Physical and thermal properties are similar to those of conventional unreinforced polyamide 6 compounds. In addition to the uncoloured base grade, specially coloured grades are available. Alternatively, Ultramid Vision can be coloured with polyamide-based colour masterbatches. Luminous colour effects can be achieved. BASF is not the only company
offering transparent or translucent polyamides. Grilamid TR XE 11501, the
Above: Are metal inserts soon to be a thing of the past? DSM said the very low creep of ForTii Ace means that self-tapping screws can be used in
assembly with injection mouldings
latest addition to EMS Grivory’s Grilamid TR product assortment, “combines the high stiffness of Grilamid TR 30 with the optical quality, ductility and toughness of Grilamid TR 90,” the company said. Compared to TR 90, the new product has a more than 44% higher modulus of elasticity while still achieving the same clarity. Haze is 0.2%, yellow index (YI) is 1.5. EMS-Grivory further notes that, unlike other TR grades, the material exhibits ductile breaking behaviour.
Water management Several suppliers of engineering plastics are increasingly turning their attention to applications in water management. DSM for example has added a glass-reinforced grade of its high temperature-resist- ant ForTii Ace polyamide to its specialty portfolio of materials aimed at this sector. It has also introduced Xytron polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) compounds for water management (as has RadiciGroup).
The ForTii Ace family was launched last year at K
2016, where DSM described it as a game changer in metal replacement for applications that have been too challenging for thermoplastics until now. Initial focus was on automotive, but now, ForTii Ace WX51-FC, a 30% glass-reinforced grade, is avail- able for the most demanding drinking water contact applications: it withstands long exposure to hot water of 100°C and above. ForTii Ace, a polyphthalamide (PPA) based on
C4 (PA4T) chemistry, has a very high glass transi- tion temperature (Tg): 160°C; this is due to its high aromatic content – higher than any other commer- cial PPA. Even though, as with most other polyam- ides, the transition point decreases in the presence of water, the mechanical properties of ForTii Ace remain on a substantially higher level than PPAs based on 6T for the vast majority of the hot water applications. These materials have on average a Tg of around 35°C lower. Processability is another plus factor for ForTii
Ace WX51-FC, DSM said; it has high melt stability and it also crystallises very quickly on cooling, allowing parts to be de-moulded quickly and reducing overall cycle times. DSM also points to the very low creep of ForTii
Ace, which can make it possible to get rid of metal inserts normally required as fixation points in injection mouldings. At Fakuma, the company showed off a new garden trimmer from Husqvarna, in which a part in ForTii Ace, without inserts, has replaced a cast metal part in the engine. “It’s great to go from metal to plastics, but when you need to build tools to allow for automatic metal insert insertions it usually kills the business case because of the price of the tooling and the complexity and cost of the whole operation,” said Joost d-Hooghe, Commercial Director Europe. RadiciGroup is the latest engineering plastics
producer with core business in polyamides to expand into PPS. It launched the Raditeck P family
Properties of various transparent and semi-transparent thermoplastics (BASF) Transparent
Ultramid Vision
Media resistance Optical properties Toughness
Heat distortion temperature Scratch resistance Flame retardancy Processing Price
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