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Crop failure raises world shellac prices
Additives for Polymers
The German group now plans to speed up the integration of Silquimica (which has customers mainly in the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean area of Southern Europe and also in South America) into its general European production network. Last year, Degussa increased capacities at its USA plant, at Chester, Pennsylvania, almost twofold and it plans to expand the plant of United Silica Industrial in Ta Yuan, Taiwan. Production of matting agents at Bonn-Beuel, Germany, is also to be expanded. Degussa is the leading worldwide supplier of precipitated and pyrogenic silicas, with a capacity of about 300 000 tonnes a year, in 11 countries. Contact: Degussa AG, D-60287 Fran&rt-amMain, Germany; tel: +49-69 218 2860; fax: +49-69 218 3743
RTP regroups to improve its coloured compounds To improve its already strong position in precoloured thermoplastic compounds, RTP Co, USA, has set up a Color Technology Team, while shortening the lead time for colour matches and expanding its commitment as an independent supplier. The Team is based at the Winona, Minnesota, headquarters of the company, linked with specialists in each of the six plants worldwide, with leading-edge colour measuring and matching technologies. It also evaluates new colourants and develops new formulations, while ensuring product uniformity across all six plants. Contact: RTP Co, PO Box 5439, East Front Street, Winona, MN 55987-0439, USA; tel: + I-50 7 454 6900; fax: f I-50 7 454 8130
Ciba starts work on new QA pigments plant Construction of an $80 million plant to produce quinacridone (QA) pigments has been
6
August 1998
started by Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Newport, Delaware, USA site.
at its
QA pigments are used in plastics, automobile paints and printing inks, where high quality, lightfastness and durable colour are needed. The plant will produce a high performance family of yellow-red to violet pigments, developed and first produced at Newport in the 195Os, adding further capacity for production of an important group of pigments, while reducing consumption of energy and natural resources. It forms part of Project Phenix, a capital project mounted by Ciba to provide its Pigments Division with the tools necessary to manufacture high quality products while continually improving environmental performance. Since 1990, the Newport site has reduced reportable emissions by over 90%. Contact: Ciba Specialty Chemicals (North America), 560 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY IO591-9005, USA; tel: +I-91 4 785 2000; fax: +I-914 785 2111
MARKETING Crop failure raises world shellac prices World prices of shellac, a natural raw material for additives and resins, are rising as a result of poor harvests in India and Thailand. Observers speak of an increase of 24.5%, to 89 000 Rupees per tonne (US$2070), since the beginning of the year. The rise would have been even sharper had it not been for cancellation of many orders from Indonesia, which is the second-largest buyer of shellac, after the USA. Shellac is used in modification of synthetic resins for paints, inks and wood and leather finishing. Indian authorities report a fall of more than 50% in the summer crop and there are fears that the October-November crop will also be lower. The fall in production has prompted
01998 Elsevier Science
August I998
some criticism of the Government agricultural programme, which collects a levy but has done little to promote cultivation. In the meantime, producers in China, Cambodia and Vietnam are moving to fill the gap. Contact: Indian Shellac Export Promotion Council, 14/l B Ezra Street, World Trade Centre, 4th Floor, Calcutta 700 001, India; tel: +91-33 254 556;_fax: +91-33 248 2070
NEW TECHNOLOGY Recent work in barrier materials and polyurethanes Significant progress is being made by several companies in the development and use of nano-scale particles (larger than molecules but smaller than the wavelength of visible light) to alter the properties of homogeneous polymeric materials. Nano-sized particles of suitable materials can be incorporated in a polymer matrix, typically to improve its barrier properties. Literally, they form a ‘labyrinth’ in the matrix, which considerably impedes the passage of substances like gases, oils and greases. Alternatively, they can be incorporated in coatings to perform a similar screening f.$nction, with the significant advantage that, being smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the coating remains transparent.
Additives for Polymers
incorporated into polyamide films. As a result, the gas permeability of the film is sharply improved, a very important feature, for example, in packaging films. The principle used is that the routes taken by gas molecules, during diffusion through the film, are lengthened by up to 50%, like a path through a labyrinth of obstacles - hence the name: ‘labyrinth effect’. Since the particles are so small, they are invisible. Describing current development, Dr. Pol Bamelis, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, disclosed that nanoparticles also play a significant role in another major development: the so-called ‘hard’ coatings on plastics glazing for automobiles. Plastic screens can be protected from scratches and ultraviolet radiation in this way. The Bayer/GE Plastics joint venture the Exatec company which is headquartered in Detroit - is working on the use of this type of screen in light-weight cars and is very close to an economic breakthrough in the coating of a transparent polycarbonate windscreen.
The key to understanding the success of such nanoparticles is their size, or more accurately their minuteness. The particles are in the range lo-’ m - much larger than atoms and molecules, but smaller than the wavelength band of visible light. They are therefore not affected by light and so remain invisible while the matrix materials containing them are transparent. Nanoparticles are also characterized by a large surface to volume ratio, so that small quantities will frequently exhibit a large effect.
Incorporation of somewhat larger particles provides another interesting technology being developed by Bayer, in the field of polyurethanes. The company, with its machinery subsidiary Hennecke, has developed a new mixing head which enables expanded graphite in the form of millimetre-sized particles to be processed as a filler for rigid foams. The graphite particles must not be physically damaged during mixing, even under high pressure, and also have to be uniformly distributed in the foam, which is a real challenge to chemical engineering. A process has been developed and patented which could make it possible to produce flame-retardant polyurethane rigid foams without the use of halogenated additives. This new development will be especially important in the thermal insulation of buildings.
The matrix of a polymer can be modified by adding nanoparticles. For example, nanoscale, anisotropic particles can be
Contact: Bayer AG, D-51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214 30 1; fax: +49-214 30 8923
0 1998 Elsevier Science
The German group now plans to speed up the integration of Silquimica (which has customers mainly in the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean area of Southern Europe and also in South America) into its general European production network. Last year, Degussa increased capacities at its USA plant, at Chester, Pennsylvania, almost twofold and it plans to expand the plant of United Silica Industrial in Ta Yuan, Taiwan. Production of matting agents at Bonn-Beuel, Germany, is also to be expanded. Degussa is the leading worldwide supplier of precipitated and pyrogenic silicas, with a capacity of about 300 000 tonnes a year, in 11 countries. Contact: Degussa AG, D-60287 Fran&rt-amMain, Germany; tel: +49-69 218 2860; fax: +49-69 218 3743
RTP regroups to improve its coloured compounds To improve its already strong position in precoloured thermoplastic compounds, RTP Co, USA, has set up a Color Technology Team, while shortening the lead time for colour matches and expanding its commitment as an independent supplier. The Team is based at the Winona, Minnesota, headquarters of the company, linked with specialists in each of the six plants worldwide, with leading-edge colour measuring and matching technologies. It also evaluates new colourants and develops new formulations, while ensuring product uniformity across all six plants. Contact: RTP Co, PO Box 5439, East Front Street, Winona, MN 55987-0439, USA; tel: + I-50 7 454 6900; fax: f I-50 7 454 8130
Ciba starts work on new QA pigments plant Construction of an $80 million plant to produce quinacridone (QA) pigments has been
6
August 1998
started by Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Newport, Delaware, USA site.
at its
QA pigments are used in plastics, automobile paints and printing inks, where high quality, lightfastness and durable colour are needed. The plant will produce a high performance family of yellow-red to violet pigments, developed and first produced at Newport in the 195Os, adding further capacity for production of an important group of pigments, while reducing consumption of energy and natural resources. It forms part of Project Phenix, a capital project mounted by Ciba to provide its Pigments Division with the tools necessary to manufacture high quality products while continually improving environmental performance. Since 1990, the Newport site has reduced reportable emissions by over 90%. Contact: Ciba Specialty Chemicals (North America), 560 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY IO591-9005, USA; tel: +I-91 4 785 2000; fax: +I-914 785 2111
MARKETING Crop failure raises world shellac prices World prices of shellac, a natural raw material for additives and resins, are rising as a result of poor harvests in India and Thailand. Observers speak of an increase of 24.5%, to 89 000 Rupees per tonne (US$2070), since the beginning of the year. The rise would have been even sharper had it not been for cancellation of many orders from Indonesia, which is the second-largest buyer of shellac, after the USA. Shellac is used in modification of synthetic resins for paints, inks and wood and leather finishing. Indian authorities report a fall of more than 50% in the summer crop and there are fears that the October-November crop will also be lower. The fall in production has prompted
01998 Elsevier Science
August I998
some criticism of the Government agricultural programme, which collects a levy but has done little to promote cultivation. In the meantime, producers in China, Cambodia and Vietnam are moving to fill the gap. Contact: Indian Shellac Export Promotion Council, 14/l B Ezra Street, World Trade Centre, 4th Floor, Calcutta 700 001, India; tel: +91-33 254 556;_fax: +91-33 248 2070
NEW TECHNOLOGY Recent work in barrier materials and polyurethanes Significant progress is being made by several companies in the development and use of nano-scale particles (larger than molecules but smaller than the wavelength of visible light) to alter the properties of homogeneous polymeric materials. Nano-sized particles of suitable materials can be incorporated in a polymer matrix, typically to improve its barrier properties. Literally, they form a ‘labyrinth’ in the matrix, which considerably impedes the passage of substances like gases, oils and greases. Alternatively, they can be incorporated in coatings to perform a similar screening f.$nction, with the significant advantage that, being smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the coating remains transparent.
Additives for Polymers
incorporated into polyamide films. As a result, the gas permeability of the film is sharply improved, a very important feature, for example, in packaging films. The principle used is that the routes taken by gas molecules, during diffusion through the film, are lengthened by up to 50%, like a path through a labyrinth of obstacles - hence the name: ‘labyrinth effect’. Since the particles are so small, they are invisible. Describing current development, Dr. Pol Bamelis, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, disclosed that nanoparticles also play a significant role in another major development: the so-called ‘hard’ coatings on plastics glazing for automobiles. Plastic screens can be protected from scratches and ultraviolet radiation in this way. The Bayer/GE Plastics joint venture the Exatec company which is headquartered in Detroit - is working on the use of this type of screen in light-weight cars and is very close to an economic breakthrough in the coating of a transparent polycarbonate windscreen.
The key to understanding the success of such nanoparticles is their size, or more accurately their minuteness. The particles are in the range lo-’ m - much larger than atoms and molecules, but smaller than the wavelength band of visible light. They are therefore not affected by light and so remain invisible while the matrix materials containing them are transparent. Nanoparticles are also characterized by a large surface to volume ratio, so that small quantities will frequently exhibit a large effect.
Incorporation of somewhat larger particles provides another interesting technology being developed by Bayer, in the field of polyurethanes. The company, with its machinery subsidiary Hennecke, has developed a new mixing head which enables expanded graphite in the form of millimetre-sized particles to be processed as a filler for rigid foams. The graphite particles must not be physically damaged during mixing, even under high pressure, and also have to be uniformly distributed in the foam, which is a real challenge to chemical engineering. A process has been developed and patented which could make it possible to produce flame-retardant polyurethane rigid foams without the use of halogenated additives. This new development will be especially important in the thermal insulation of buildings.
The matrix of a polymer can be modified by adding nanoparticles. For example, nanoscale, anisotropic particles can be
Contact: Bayer AG, D-51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214 30 1; fax: +49-214 30 8923
0 1998 Elsevier Science