A weekly look at new products, innovations

Editor's Note: Each week, Rubber & Plastics News will take a look at some of the rubber industry's new products and innovations on www.rubbernews.com. Does your company have a new product or new innovation? To be considered for inclusion in this recurring feature, email [email protected].

Finite Fiber is offering standard and custom Varamix aramid fiber options to replace both rubber carrier fiber masterbatches and non-fiber partitioned aramid pulps.

The company said Varamix products provide increased versatility and lower cost-use solutions, are highly efficient and are 100 percent fiber.

Finite Fiber said the products' benefits in various viscous elastomers include: No prior mechanical stresses associated with rubber carrier masterbatches; no chemical interferences; static reduced with 100 percent fiber partitioned systems; excellent dispersion characteristics; improved damping and resilience properties in high strength reinforcement applications; no disassociation of component fiber materials;and average specific gravity of 1.45.

The product can be packaged in batch inclusion bags or boxed.

For more information, visit www.finitefiber.com or contact Todd Johnson, vice president technology at [email protected]; or Doug Terry, sales/marketing manager, at [email protected].

APS Elastomers has developed proprietary thermoplastic elastomer products for suspension and drive train components used in the automotive, light truck and off-road industries.

The firm said the formulations have the proper mix of softness, strength and durability needed for off-road applications; supplying polycaprolactone-based thermoplastic polyurethane grades with good processability and compression set at elevated temperatures.

The Zythane 3000 polycaprolactone series of TPEs has a shore hardness range of 80A-64D. The line has been expanded to meet diverse demands of high temperature industrial applications such as heavy-duty engineering equipment and hydraulic systems where working conditions range from -40⁰C to 130⁰C, the company said.

APS claims that the product offers excellent wear resistance against oils, grease, water and extreme temperatures, making it ideal for high performance injection molding of seals, gaskets, wheels and rollers. The firm said it's available in pellet form, and the polycaprolactone range has been broadened to include high flow and soft grades.

For more information go to www.apstpe.com or email [email protected].

PolyOne Corp. has launched two specialty thermoplastic elastomers for automotive applications.

The company launched OnFlex LO TPEs, which it said features reduced levels of volatile organic compounds for vehicle interiors.

PolyOne said OnFlex LO specialty TPEs help automotive original equipment manufacturers improve the driver experience by reducing the number of VOCs in vehicle interiors by up to 50 percent and minimizes fogging and odor in interior automotive components.

According to the company, OnFlex LO is suited for a broad range of automotive applications including heating/ventilation/air conditioning seals, buttons, controls, coin trays and drink holder mats. It can be overmolded onto polyolefin substrates using two-shot injection molding processes, the company claimed.

PolyOne tested OnFlex LO TPE against its existing TPEs according to VDA 278 standard for VOCs and fog, and VDA 270 standard for odor. The company claimed the results showed OnFlex LO TPE cut VOC emissions by approximately 50 percent and fog emissions by 40 percent, while maintaining low odor performance.

For more information, visit www.polyone.com.