ASSESSE, Belgium (Dec. 5)—PolyOne Corp. and Spain's Merquinsa Mercados Quimicos S.L. have signed a partnership and development agreement to jointly develop and distribute new specialty thermoplastic polyurethane compounds.
The range of halogen-free, flame-retardant thermoplastic elastomer compounds will be marketed under the OnFlex-U brandname, according to a company announcement. Production of the compounds will begin in Europe and Asia during 2004, the companies said. The new materials could be available in North America by late 2004. Under the agreement PolyOne will develop OnFlex-U TPU compounds based on Merquinsa's Pearlthane TPU specialty elastomers.