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Dow Chemical Co. has introduced a more efficient and sustainable polyurethane for pultrusion composites, the Voraforce TP 1200 series to the North America market.
Dow said the polyurethane solution enables fast, energy-efficient pultrusion composite fabrication with low volatile organic compound emissions and helps create the strongest and lightest composite infrastructure materials.
Dow's new solution supports the fabrication of strong composites for a number of applications, the company claimed, including building profiles such as pilings and panels, window manufacturing, electrical infrastructure such as utility poles and civil engineering. Additionally, Voraforce has such versatility it can be used to create heavy-duty polyurethane pallets for logistics and transportation applications, as well as ladder rails for consumer use, Dow Chemical said.
The Voraforce technology enables the same toughness as traditional composite materials, Dow Chemical said, but requires less resin to fabricate, thus making it a more cost-efficient solution than polyester or vinyl ester resins. The Dow pultrusion system, previously released to the EMEA market, also provides especially low pull forces during processing and enables higher productivity for fabricators, the company said.
This polyurethane technology offers a number of sustainability benefits, such as emitting lower amounts of VOC during the pultrusion process, the ability to lightweight to create thinner composite profiles, as well as improve transportation and logistics efficiency, according to Dow Chemical.
To trial Voraforce TP 1200 Pultrusion Systems and other technologies by Dow Polyurethanes, visit www.dowpolyurethanes.com.