- Email: [email protected]
GE Advanced Materials introduces new products for China, EU
August 2004
tend to change significantly during scale-up from development on limited volume equipment”. Contact: Nanophase Technologies Corp, 1319 Marquette Drive, Romeoville, IL 60446, USA; tel: +1-630-771-6729; URL: www.nanophase.com
…used in new additives from BYK-Chemie The nano-alumina material has been jointly developed by Nanophase and Germany’s BYKChemie, and also forms the basis of two new additive products being introduced by the German company. BYK-Chemie is part of the Altana group, Nanophase’s strategic alliance partner for nanomaterial development [Additives for Polymers (ADPO), June 2004]. BYK’s ‘Nanobyk-3600’ and ‘Nanobyk-3601’ products have been developed to improve the scratch and wear resistance of coatings, particularly UV coatings. 3600 is a water-based dispersion of the nano-alumina particles for use in water-based (UV) coatings, while 3601 is a dispersion in tripropylene glycol diacrylate developed for 100% UV curable coatings. At levels of 0.5–5%, the additives significantly improve the mechanical properties of the coatings. BYK-Chemie has also recently launched a new line of stabilizer additives for the production of polyurethane foams. The SILBYK® silicone surfactant range includes about 35 different foam stabilizing additives for use in slabstock, rigid, moulded and microcellular polyurethane foams. The company says the usage of these stabilizers allows the properties of the foam to be adjusted to meet the requirements in these applications. Contact: BYK-Chemie GmbH, Abelstrasse 45, PO Box 100245, D-46462 Wesel, Germany; tel: +49-281-670-0; fax: +49-281-65735; URL: www.byk-chemie.com
Bayer provides plastic pigments in microgranule form The Functional Chemicals Business Unit of the recently established Bayer subgroup LANXESS (see p. 5) is planning to offer most of its range of Bayplast® organic pigments for plastics coloration in microgranule form, as an alternative to the powder form currently available.
Additives for Polymers
Microgranule pigment products Bayplast Yellow 5 G Gran and Yellow G Gran were recently introduced to the market and Bayplast Red 2B Gran, Blue G Gran and Green B Gran are now available. “The response from our customers has been very good”, says Helmut Blaeser, a colorants expert at Functional Chemicals. “We would therefore like to offer microgranules as an alternative supply form for nearly our entire range of organic pigments in the future”, he says. The company’s Macrolex® organic dyes have been available as microgranules for some time, providing the processing industry with plenty of experience with this product form. “Our customers appreciate the fact that the processing of microgranules is easy and clean thanks to their properties, thus offering significant savings potential with reliably high quality,” explains Blaeser. The microgranules are hollow spheres that can be easily compressed and thus quickly, evenly and completely distributed and incorporated into the plastic. A major plus point is their high flowability, which brings with it multiple advantages: they do not clump, thus eliminating the need for more complex mixing processes such as those used with powder pigments. Furthermore, they facilitate precise metering and enable the complete emptying of containers. Granules also reduce dust formation during processing, which benefits occupational safety and reduces the cost and effort required for protective measures. In addition, the Bayplast microgranules have only about one quarter the volume of the same amount by weight of their powder-form counterparts, resulting in a higher net weight for the same size packaging and thus easier storage. Together, these advantages result in significant cost savings, the manufacturer says. Contact: LANXESS Headquarters, Bld K10, D51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214-301; URL: www.colorants.bayerchemicals.com or www.lanxess.com
GE Advanced Materials introduces new products for China, EU GE Advanced Materials is introducing a new line of Visualfx® special-effects colours specifically for the Chinese market. The company has also developed a new LGF masterbatch and new
3
Additives for Polymers
flame retardant compounds to help customers comply with upcoming EU regulations. According to GE, scientific studies have shown differences in the trends and colour preferences of Chinese consumers compared to consumers in other parts of the world. Given the importance of China as the fastest-growing market for plastics, the company has therefore developed a wellresearched range of new, moulded-in colours specifically to satisfy Chinese preferences. Called China Palette, they allow those designing plastic products for China to create highly differentiated items that are more economical than paint and address growing eco-label concerns, the company says. All products in the new palette are available globally. Applications targeted include home appliances, cosmetic cases/packaging, personal care devices, and portable electronic products including mobile phones, laptops, personal data assistants (PDAs) and gaming devices. Eight new families of Visualfx special effects are being introduced: Golden Sparkle – earth-tone effects featuring the look of metallic flakes whose size and concentration can be varied; Porcelain – pale, semi-gloss colours; Opalucent – opalescent and translucent in shades of jade; Optillusion – black and white colours whose shimmering surfaces display other colours via metamerism; Pearlescent – pearlized and translucent earth tones; Vivid – high-impact and edgy, opaque chromatic colours; Polar Light – muted chroma shades; Jellyfish – translucent fluorescent shades with edge glow effects. The new product line, designed for use with GE’s PC and PC/ABS resins, was unveiled at Chinaplas 2004 held in Shanghai in June. GE Advanced Materials has 19 commercial locations in China and says it is planning further investment in compounding, materials, technology, market development, application development and infrastructure in the country. It is currently expanding its plastics compounding and film extrusion facility in Nansha, Guangdong Province. GE has also introduced Verton® MFX-700-14 HS concentrate, a heat-stabilized LGF (long glass fibre) polymer concentrate in a polypropylene (PP) matrix. The new grade functions as a masterbatch to allow processors to achieve almost immediate custom levels of glass reinforcement at lower cost than speciality compounding. It is available 4
August 2004
globally and is aimed at large structural industrial and automotive components, as well as at applications in the sporting goods, marine, materials handling, and building and construction sectors. A homopolymer PP is used as the dilution resin, and the concentrate can be diluted 30–90% further with various unfilled virgin and recycled PP resins. Depending on dilution level, this can offer a significant cost savings over fully pultruded LGF/PP compounds, GE says. Because it is a concentrate instead of a fully pultruded compound, the new product gives moulders the flexibility of tailoring glass-loading at the press, allowing quick fine-tuning of properties for fast part production and delivery, further reducing costs and warehousing requirements. The concentrate pellets are said to exhibit excellent fibre wet-out and glass-to-resin coupling, allowing processors to use low-pressure moulding processes designed to preserve glassfibre length. Verton MFX-700-14 HS concentrate is also easy to colour, has low specific gravity, and is cost competitive compared to most short-glassreinforced thermoplastic, GE says. Elsewhere, GE Advanced Materials’ LNP Engineering Plastics business has added six new grades of Starflam® ECO-FR compounds to help manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment to avoid the cost and administrative impact of upcoming EU legislation, which will impose new rules on the end-of-life disposal of components containing halogenated flame retardants. The new materials are based on glass-fibre reinforced PA6, PA66 and PA66/6 combined with the company’s new X-GEN ECO-FR technology, to provide halogen- and red-phosphorus-free flame retardancy. Each of the new compounds has been developed to provide a wide range of properties that include excellent impact performance, tight tolerance, high modulus and excellent electrical properties together with V-0 flame retardancy. All exhibit UL94 V0 at 0.8 mm thickness (previously only achievable using a halogen formulation), high CTI (600 V), GWFT at 1.5 mm 960°C and HDT from 200°C up to 250°C. Moreover, they offer very good surface finish, are available in all colours and are laser markable. They are compliant with current and anticipated European directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS), the company says.
August 2004
Contact: GE Advanced Materials (Europe), Plasticslaan 1, 4600 AC Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands; tel: +31-164-292911; fax: +31164-292940; URL: www.geplastics.com
Accel Color adds polymer-based blowing agents Accel Color, the North American supplier of colour and additive concentrates for plastics, has extended its offerings with the addition of its first polymer-based chemical blowing agents. The AccelMax™ PBA series is designed for extrusion, injection moulding and structural foam applications. The new blowing agents were developed in response to customer requests, according to Dennis Meade, Accel Color’s specialty products manager. They enable an overall reduction in part scrap rates and costs because they allow producers of plastic parts to reduce part weight, eliminate sink marks, and shorten cycle times, the company says. The polymer blowing agent (PBA) concentrates are supplied in a dust-free pellet form. AccelMax PBA concentrates can be used at a wide range of let-down ratios: from low (0.25–0.75% content) – when used to eliminate sink marks or as a process aid to reduce cycle times for injectionmoulding applications, to high (1.0–3.0%) – when aggressive cellular expansion is desired. For extrusion, the new agents offer part weight reduction and faster processing speeds. They are particularly well-suited for wire and cable jacketing and insulation, foamed core pipe, foamed plastic lumber, window and door trim, and many other custom profile applications, Accel says. AccelMax PBA additives are available in a range of activation temperatures from 127°C to 182°C. Based on a proprietary polymer carrier, they are offered as an addition to Accel Color’s existing AccelMax family of chemical blowing agents. The base product can be fine-tuned with special formulations. The new concentrates are initially being produced at Accel’s Avon, OH facility, with plans to subsequently extend manufacturing to the Ontario, CA plant. Accel Color also has facilities in Naperville, IL and Knoxville, TN. Contact: Accel Color, 38620 Chester Road, Avon,
Additives for Polymers
OH 44011, USA; tel: +1-440-934-7711; fax: +1440-934-7717; URL: www.accelcolor.com
Wacker presents universal silicone gum processing aid Wacker has succeeded in loading a universal carrier matrix with ultrahigh molecular weight silicone. Designated Genioplast® Pellet S, the new product provides plastics compounders with a single, high-viscosity silicone gum additive that is compatible with a wide variety of thermoplastics, a significant advantage compared to conventional silicone masterbatches, Wacker says. According to Wacker, compounders benefit from efficiency gains due to the high silicone concentration in the novel pellet-form additive and from cost savings due to lower energy consumption. A further advantage is the compound’s enhanced flow characteristic, which improves compound processing in various ways. Genioplast Pellet S is also claimed to improve the finished products by providing greatly enhanced mechanical properties as well as scratchproof and abrasion-resistant surfaces. It is easy to meter, for example, as a dry blend with polymer pellets or together with other additives. Preferred applications for Genioplast include compounds for cable applications and mouldings for automotive parts. Contact: Wacker-Chemie GmbH, Verkaufsbüro Stuttgart, Sophienstraße 41, D-70178 Stuttgart, Germany; tel: +49-711-61942-0; fax: +49-71161942-61; URL: www.wacker.com
COMPANY STRATEGIES LANXESS starts independent operation LANXESS, the future company where the Bayer Group will combine almost all areas of its chemicals business and parts of its polymers activities, began operating as an independent unit on 1 July 2004. The company is scheduled to be listed on the stock exchange at the beginning of 2005 through a spin-off to existing shareholders. Until the stock market flotation, LANXESS will operate under the umbrella of the Bayer AG holding company. Bayer itself will in future concentrate its resources on health care, nutrition and high-quality materials.
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tend to change significantly during scale-up from development on limited volume equipment”. Contact: Nanophase Technologies Corp, 1319 Marquette Drive, Romeoville, IL 60446, USA; tel: +1-630-771-6729; URL: www.nanophase.com
…used in new additives from BYK-Chemie The nano-alumina material has been jointly developed by Nanophase and Germany’s BYKChemie, and also forms the basis of two new additive products being introduced by the German company. BYK-Chemie is part of the Altana group, Nanophase’s strategic alliance partner for nanomaterial development [Additives for Polymers (ADPO), June 2004]. BYK’s ‘Nanobyk-3600’ and ‘Nanobyk-3601’ products have been developed to improve the scratch and wear resistance of coatings, particularly UV coatings. 3600 is a water-based dispersion of the nano-alumina particles for use in water-based (UV) coatings, while 3601 is a dispersion in tripropylene glycol diacrylate developed for 100% UV curable coatings. At levels of 0.5–5%, the additives significantly improve the mechanical properties of the coatings. BYK-Chemie has also recently launched a new line of stabilizer additives for the production of polyurethane foams. The SILBYK® silicone surfactant range includes about 35 different foam stabilizing additives for use in slabstock, rigid, moulded and microcellular polyurethane foams. The company says the usage of these stabilizers allows the properties of the foam to be adjusted to meet the requirements in these applications. Contact: BYK-Chemie GmbH, Abelstrasse 45, PO Box 100245, D-46462 Wesel, Germany; tel: +49-281-670-0; fax: +49-281-65735; URL: www.byk-chemie.com
Bayer provides plastic pigments in microgranule form The Functional Chemicals Business Unit of the recently established Bayer subgroup LANXESS (see p. 5) is planning to offer most of its range of Bayplast® organic pigments for plastics coloration in microgranule form, as an alternative to the powder form currently available.
Additives for Polymers
Microgranule pigment products Bayplast Yellow 5 G Gran and Yellow G Gran were recently introduced to the market and Bayplast Red 2B Gran, Blue G Gran and Green B Gran are now available. “The response from our customers has been very good”, says Helmut Blaeser, a colorants expert at Functional Chemicals. “We would therefore like to offer microgranules as an alternative supply form for nearly our entire range of organic pigments in the future”, he says. The company’s Macrolex® organic dyes have been available as microgranules for some time, providing the processing industry with plenty of experience with this product form. “Our customers appreciate the fact that the processing of microgranules is easy and clean thanks to their properties, thus offering significant savings potential with reliably high quality,” explains Blaeser. The microgranules are hollow spheres that can be easily compressed and thus quickly, evenly and completely distributed and incorporated into the plastic. A major plus point is their high flowability, which brings with it multiple advantages: they do not clump, thus eliminating the need for more complex mixing processes such as those used with powder pigments. Furthermore, they facilitate precise metering and enable the complete emptying of containers. Granules also reduce dust formation during processing, which benefits occupational safety and reduces the cost and effort required for protective measures. In addition, the Bayplast microgranules have only about one quarter the volume of the same amount by weight of their powder-form counterparts, resulting in a higher net weight for the same size packaging and thus easier storage. Together, these advantages result in significant cost savings, the manufacturer says. Contact: LANXESS Headquarters, Bld K10, D51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214-301; URL: www.colorants.bayerchemicals.com or www.lanxess.com
GE Advanced Materials introduces new products for China, EU GE Advanced Materials is introducing a new line of Visualfx® special-effects colours specifically for the Chinese market. The company has also developed a new LGF masterbatch and new
3
Additives for Polymers
flame retardant compounds to help customers comply with upcoming EU regulations. According to GE, scientific studies have shown differences in the trends and colour preferences of Chinese consumers compared to consumers in other parts of the world. Given the importance of China as the fastest-growing market for plastics, the company has therefore developed a wellresearched range of new, moulded-in colours specifically to satisfy Chinese preferences. Called China Palette, they allow those designing plastic products for China to create highly differentiated items that are more economical than paint and address growing eco-label concerns, the company says. All products in the new palette are available globally. Applications targeted include home appliances, cosmetic cases/packaging, personal care devices, and portable electronic products including mobile phones, laptops, personal data assistants (PDAs) and gaming devices. Eight new families of Visualfx special effects are being introduced: Golden Sparkle – earth-tone effects featuring the look of metallic flakes whose size and concentration can be varied; Porcelain – pale, semi-gloss colours; Opalucent – opalescent and translucent in shades of jade; Optillusion – black and white colours whose shimmering surfaces display other colours via metamerism; Pearlescent – pearlized and translucent earth tones; Vivid – high-impact and edgy, opaque chromatic colours; Polar Light – muted chroma shades; Jellyfish – translucent fluorescent shades with edge glow effects. The new product line, designed for use with GE’s PC and PC/ABS resins, was unveiled at Chinaplas 2004 held in Shanghai in June. GE Advanced Materials has 19 commercial locations in China and says it is planning further investment in compounding, materials, technology, market development, application development and infrastructure in the country. It is currently expanding its plastics compounding and film extrusion facility in Nansha, Guangdong Province. GE has also introduced Verton® MFX-700-14 HS concentrate, a heat-stabilized LGF (long glass fibre) polymer concentrate in a polypropylene (PP) matrix. The new grade functions as a masterbatch to allow processors to achieve almost immediate custom levels of glass reinforcement at lower cost than speciality compounding. It is available 4
August 2004
globally and is aimed at large structural industrial and automotive components, as well as at applications in the sporting goods, marine, materials handling, and building and construction sectors. A homopolymer PP is used as the dilution resin, and the concentrate can be diluted 30–90% further with various unfilled virgin and recycled PP resins. Depending on dilution level, this can offer a significant cost savings over fully pultruded LGF/PP compounds, GE says. Because it is a concentrate instead of a fully pultruded compound, the new product gives moulders the flexibility of tailoring glass-loading at the press, allowing quick fine-tuning of properties for fast part production and delivery, further reducing costs and warehousing requirements. The concentrate pellets are said to exhibit excellent fibre wet-out and glass-to-resin coupling, allowing processors to use low-pressure moulding processes designed to preserve glassfibre length. Verton MFX-700-14 HS concentrate is also easy to colour, has low specific gravity, and is cost competitive compared to most short-glassreinforced thermoplastic, GE says. Elsewhere, GE Advanced Materials’ LNP Engineering Plastics business has added six new grades of Starflam® ECO-FR compounds to help manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment to avoid the cost and administrative impact of upcoming EU legislation, which will impose new rules on the end-of-life disposal of components containing halogenated flame retardants. The new materials are based on glass-fibre reinforced PA6, PA66 and PA66/6 combined with the company’s new X-GEN ECO-FR technology, to provide halogen- and red-phosphorus-free flame retardancy. Each of the new compounds has been developed to provide a wide range of properties that include excellent impact performance, tight tolerance, high modulus and excellent electrical properties together with V-0 flame retardancy. All exhibit UL94 V0 at 0.8 mm thickness (previously only achievable using a halogen formulation), high CTI (600 V), GWFT at 1.5 mm 960°C and HDT from 200°C up to 250°C. Moreover, they offer very good surface finish, are available in all colours and are laser markable. They are compliant with current and anticipated European directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS), the company says.
August 2004
Contact: GE Advanced Materials (Europe), Plasticslaan 1, 4600 AC Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands; tel: +31-164-292911; fax: +31164-292940; URL: www.geplastics.com
Accel Color adds polymer-based blowing agents Accel Color, the North American supplier of colour and additive concentrates for plastics, has extended its offerings with the addition of its first polymer-based chemical blowing agents. The AccelMax™ PBA series is designed for extrusion, injection moulding and structural foam applications. The new blowing agents were developed in response to customer requests, according to Dennis Meade, Accel Color’s specialty products manager. They enable an overall reduction in part scrap rates and costs because they allow producers of plastic parts to reduce part weight, eliminate sink marks, and shorten cycle times, the company says. The polymer blowing agent (PBA) concentrates are supplied in a dust-free pellet form. AccelMax PBA concentrates can be used at a wide range of let-down ratios: from low (0.25–0.75% content) – when used to eliminate sink marks or as a process aid to reduce cycle times for injectionmoulding applications, to high (1.0–3.0%) – when aggressive cellular expansion is desired. For extrusion, the new agents offer part weight reduction and faster processing speeds. They are particularly well-suited for wire and cable jacketing and insulation, foamed core pipe, foamed plastic lumber, window and door trim, and many other custom profile applications, Accel says. AccelMax PBA additives are available in a range of activation temperatures from 127°C to 182°C. Based on a proprietary polymer carrier, they are offered as an addition to Accel Color’s existing AccelMax family of chemical blowing agents. The base product can be fine-tuned with special formulations. The new concentrates are initially being produced at Accel’s Avon, OH facility, with plans to subsequently extend manufacturing to the Ontario, CA plant. Accel Color also has facilities in Naperville, IL and Knoxville, TN. Contact: Accel Color, 38620 Chester Road, Avon,
Additives for Polymers
OH 44011, USA; tel: +1-440-934-7711; fax: +1440-934-7717; URL: www.accelcolor.com
Wacker presents universal silicone gum processing aid Wacker has succeeded in loading a universal carrier matrix with ultrahigh molecular weight silicone. Designated Genioplast® Pellet S, the new product provides plastics compounders with a single, high-viscosity silicone gum additive that is compatible with a wide variety of thermoplastics, a significant advantage compared to conventional silicone masterbatches, Wacker says. According to Wacker, compounders benefit from efficiency gains due to the high silicone concentration in the novel pellet-form additive and from cost savings due to lower energy consumption. A further advantage is the compound’s enhanced flow characteristic, which improves compound processing in various ways. Genioplast Pellet S is also claimed to improve the finished products by providing greatly enhanced mechanical properties as well as scratchproof and abrasion-resistant surfaces. It is easy to meter, for example, as a dry blend with polymer pellets or together with other additives. Preferred applications for Genioplast include compounds for cable applications and mouldings for automotive parts. Contact: Wacker-Chemie GmbH, Verkaufsbüro Stuttgart, Sophienstraße 41, D-70178 Stuttgart, Germany; tel: +49-711-61942-0; fax: +49-71161942-61; URL: www.wacker.com
COMPANY STRATEGIES LANXESS starts independent operation LANXESS, the future company where the Bayer Group will combine almost all areas of its chemicals business and parts of its polymers activities, began operating as an independent unit on 1 July 2004. The company is scheduled to be listed on the stock exchange at the beginning of 2005 through a spin-off to existing shareholders. Until the stock market flotation, LANXESS will operate under the umbrella of the Bayer AG holding company. Bayer itself will in future concentrate its resources on health care, nutrition and high-quality materials.
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