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].

Lanxess A.G. showcased materials used for the electrical/electronics industry at the recent Plastics in E&E Applications Congress in Germany.

The specialty chemicals company highlighted its halogen-free flame-retardant Pocan BFN grades, the highly reinforced polyamide 6 structural materials from the Durethan range and the Pocan HR polybutylene terephthalates developed for use in unnatural climatic conditions.

The firm also showcased new polyamides and polyesters for LED chip sockets, LED housing components and thermally conductive parts, according to Alexander Radeck, application development expert in the Lanxess High Performance Materials business unit.

The glass fiber content of the Pocan BFN halogen-free flame-retardant PBT compounds can be up to 30 percent, according to the company, which said it can provide a real alternative to PBT compounds with a halogen-based flame retardant package. The material demonstrates better thermal stability and higher tracking resistance and dielectric strength, Radeck said. With the glass fiber content, it is possible to attain a level of mechanical properties almost comparable to those of their equivalents with halogen-based flame retardance.

Highly reinforced polyamides offer several attributes, Lanxess said, in the design of very strong and stiff components for highly stressed applications. Despite their high degree of reinforcement, Radeck said, the materials are as free-flowing as standard polyamides that have a lower filler content, which is why they can also be used in thin-walled designs.The high-modulus products include low-distortion grades reinforced with glass microspheres and flame-retardant grades with a UL 94 V-0 classification, Lanxess claimed.

Materials used for LEDs and other lighting technology were highlighted, including one innovation for LED chips that comprises compounds based on polycyclohexylene dimethylene terephthalate, Lanxess said. The firm claimed these hardly age when subjected to thermal stresses, so compared to high-temperature polyamides, they retain their high reflectivity. Another benefit is a polyamide 6 that not only has high light reflectivity and thermal conductivity, but is also very flame-retardant, Radeck said.

Lanxess also unveiled its flame-retardant grade Pocan BF 4232 HR for safety-related components that need to remain functional in a hot and moist environment, such as under the hood. Their glass fiber contents range from 15 to 45 percent, Lanxess said, and it complies with fire safety standard UL 94 of the Underwriters Laboratories test institute in the U.S. in all the colors tested, with the best classification of V-0 for a test specimen being achieved from 0.4 millimeters thickness. The firm claimed the compound demonstrates its high hydrolysis resistance in climatic aging tests at 85°C and 85 percent relative humidity.

Details on the properties, applications and processing technologies of Durethan and Pocan can be found at www.durethan.com and www.pocan.com, or at lanxxess.com.

Sick Inc.'s microScan3 has received the Red Dot Award, an international accolade recognizing outstanding design quality. According to Sick, approximately 5,200 products and innovations from some 57 countries were submitted and assessed by a jury.

The Red Dot jury of 41 experts from around the world lauded the device's “clear distinction between functional areas and the control panel,” as well as “its clearly arranged design.” Sick said these factors are what give the product its intuitive user handling and combination of design and function.

The award examines three different disciplines in order to recognize the variety of approaches that are taken to design and assess them as appropriate: Product design, communication design, and design concept.

The microScan3 safety laser scanner provides reliable protection for hazardous areas, Sick said, and its scan technology combines a compact design and a wide sensing range in one device. The firm said the instrument is very reliable in dusty environments and with ambient light, and its connectivity saves costs during cabling.

The award will be presented July 4, in Essen, Germany.

For more information about Sick, a producers of sensors and senor solutions, go to www.sick.com.

Smithers Rapra is releasing a new hardback book this month, “Recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate,” written by Martin Forrest.

This review, with up-to-date referencing, covers all aspects of PET recycling, from its world market to the many technologies and processes that have been developed to separate, decontaminant, recycle and manufacture the material into both food-grade and non-food-grade products, according to Smithers.

One objective of the book is to describe the range of sorting and separation techniques that can be used to isolate post-consumer PET from other plastics and contaminants in the recycling stream, Smithers said. Another is to review the recycling techniques that enable it to be reprocessed into high quality products, according to Smithers, and the wide range of food contact products and other materials and articles that can be manufactured from recycled PET are also described.

The regulations, testing methods and analytical procedures essential to ensuring that PET recycling can take its place today are covered, the company said, as is a using post-consumer PET to generate energy, and monomer-type intermediates capable of being manufacturing into new materials, such as thermosets.

For more information, click here.