MATERIALS | ENGINEERING THERMOPLASTICS


Parts designed with honeycomb or “top hat” structures in SABIC’s unfilled Xenoy HTX can absorb significant energy and withstand plastic deformation in the event of a crash. An impact test of two parts, run through the e-coat process, demon- strates the material’s high degree of energy absorption at a wide temperature range. The part to the left, subjected to -30°C, shows good ductility and energy absorption and compares favourably with the part to the right, which underwent testing at room temperature


high temperatures. Solvay is also targeting E&E, automotive,


PHOTO: SABIC


and wire coatings. KetaSpire PEEK XT has very good electrical properties. For exam- ple it has 50% higher dielectric strength than standard PEEK and its volume resistance is an order of magnitude


better. Victrex, meanwhile, still the clear market


leader in PEEK, was talking at K2019 about how to get perfect bonding in parts produced by injection moulding PEEK over a continuous carbon fibre-reinforced PEEK preform – using a new PEEK with a lower


Stephan Eltink, Director for Automotive, EMEA,


says that at temperatures around -30°C, many competitive engineering plastics tend to become brittle and fracture under load. He says Xenoy HTX can deliver low-temperature ductility and a very high elongation that enables stable performance. SABIC also showed a new Land Rover Defender


at K2019. Eltink says Jaguar Land Rover came directly to SABIC for cooperation on development of numerous parts. In fact, the vehicle contains around 70 parts made in SABIC materials, mostly in the interior (many in various PP-based materials), but also in structural components and lighting.


PEEK Doug Brademeyer, Head of Solvay’s Ultra Polymers Business, says customers have been telling the company that they wanted a material with high temperature performance without sacrificing key polyether ether ketone features, such as process- ability and chemical resistance. According to Brademeyer, other polyaryletherketones such as PEK, PEKK and PEKEKK only gain high temperature resistance at the cost of poorer processability and chemical resistance since they have a higher proportion of ketone groups, which are less stable than ether linages. He says that Solvay has devel- oped a true high temperature PEEK (without divulging how the new PEEK is different from the existing one in terms of chemistry). He also points out that the more aromatic content a polymer chain has, the greater its rigidity. In fact, the Tg of the new PEEK is 20°C higher than Solvay’s standard PEEK, and melting temperature is 45°C higher. The material exhibits significantly higher


strength and stiffness at elevated temperatures than standard PEEK, with a 400% higher tensile modulus and nearly 50% higher tensile strength at 160°C. A key application area for the new polymer is the oil and gas sector where components used in down-hole applications are exposed to acids at


56 INJECTION WORLD | November/December 2019


melting point for the preform. Rather than 343°C, the new grade has a melting point of 300°C. The over-moulding process involves pre-heating the insert and then injection moulding with a PEEK with a higher melting point. The surface of the insert softens, improving the bond between the insert and the melt. Typical application is aerospace brackets. In another development, Victrex is cooperating with a UK company that has a technology for providing highly precise pinpoint mould heating to reduce the level of voids in injection mouldings. UK-based Surface Generation has developed a tooling design and processing technology called PtFS (Production to Functional Specification), which uses patented hardware and proprietary software to actively manage multiple part areas during processing and drive reductions in the energy consumption, injection processing pressures and cycle times required to make even the most complex material and part combinations. “We believe that the advantages of PtFS


processing, where crucial controls can be applied to temperature levels in real time in the tool, could be a major advancement for our parts pro- grammes, such as medical or automotive gears and potentially in aerospace composite solutions,” says Jakob Sigurdsson, CEO at Victrex.


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.covestro.com � www.m-ep.co.jp/en � www.sabic.com � www.dsm.com � www.ascendmaterials.com � www.dupont.com � www.solvay.com � www.basf.com � www.radicigroup.com � www.lanxess.com � www.polyplastics-global.com � www.victrex.com


www.injectionworld.com


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