Materials Products

Speck Plastics perfects clear plastic manufacturing

Speck Plastics has honed its manufacturing process into one that successfully thermoforms clear plastic parts for its clients. When glass can’t be used because of certain conditions, risk of breakage, or other safety concerns, companies have the option of clear polycarbonate plastic.

Polycarbonate, also known by such brand names as Lexan and Makrolon, has applications that vary widely, but it is needed wherever high impact resistance, temperature resistance, and optical quality are desired. The challenge then becomes finding a plastics manufacturer that can create parts out of this finicky material. Many other manufacturers shy away from polycarbonate because of its susceptibility to scuffing, bubbles, and “fish eye” defects.

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Speck Plastics

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PTFE-coated aluminum reduces friction and wear

DeWAL Industries is now manufacturing a PTFE-coated foil that combines a thin layer of PTFE with 0.005-in. thick aluminum foil. The aluminum is coated on the other side with a pressure-sensitive silicone adhesive for a sure grip on metal, glass, or ceramic surfaces.

The result, D/W 351, is a heat-resistant tape featuring PTFE’s chemical resistance, wide operating temperatures, and a low coefficient of friction. The foil backing is comprised of a standard 3003 grade of aluminum. Properties are consistent because of the foil’s uniform thickness with a tolerance of +/- 5%.

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DeWAL

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Plastic chrome mimics all the sizzle, pop, and shine of metal

The power, allure, and sheen of chrome that captivates package and product designers and customers alike has been translated by Ampacet into a chrome-alternative color masterbatch developed for use in extrusion and injection blow-molded bottles used for containers, cosmetic packaging, automotive accessories, appliances, and housewares.

Ampacet’s chrome-alternative colorants eliminate the need in PET and other glossy polymers for corrosive chemical baths, multi-stage processing, and the high cost of fabricating and shipping, without sacrificing chrome’s distinctive aesthetic appeal.

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Ampacet

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High-end Lexan SD films for security apps

Identity theft, border security, and other threats are expanding the use of electronic identity cards that can resist compromise, last for up to 10 years, and incorporate a variety of sophisticated graphic technologies, such as laser marking. To meet these requirements, SABIC Innovative Plastics has developed three new high-performance polycarbonate (PC) film grades for manufacturing electronic ID cards and security documents. These new products are part of the Lexan SD film family and include a laser-markable grade; a bright white, opaque material; and a clear grade for the cover or intermediate layers of the ID card.

The Lexan films use heat and pressure to join all layers into a card that cannot be pulled apart, as compared to hybrid cards that require adhesives.

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SABIC

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Most Requested Materials Products

1. New nanocomposite material for motorsports and aerospace

Accura Greystone Material for SLA Systems is an easy-to-use, easy-to-clean nanocomposite designed for wind-tunnel testing, under-the-hood applications, and the manufacture of jigs and fixtures. It delivers exceptional accuracy, stiffness, thermal performance, and long-term stability. Accura Greystone material resists high temperatures and is intended for tooling and other demanding applications.

Stereolithography users, especially racecar and aerospace development teams, will find the grey-colored nanocomposite material to be a best-in-class material for their development, testing, and preproduction applications.

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3D Systems Corporation

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2. Carbon fiber-reinforced nylon wins praise from dart aficionados

The game of darts is no mere pastime for serious players, for whom it is a sport with exacting rules and high standards of performance. An international supplier of darts to such players reports that it has enhanced the reliability and prolonged the performance lifetime of its products through use of a tough, stiff, carbon fiber-reinforced nylon compound from Chem Polymer.

EVOLUTION Dart-Technologie uses Beetle 66CF4, a 20% carbon fiber-filled nylon 66 compound, to injection mold 34- and 44-mm (1.3- and 1.7-in.) shafts that are lighter than widely used metal counterparts and exhibit greater resistance to breakage than conventional thermoplastic shafts.

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Teknor Apex

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3. Palladium and its alloys available in many forms

Palladium, one of the most reactive members of the platinum group of metals, is available from Goodfellow Corporation as a pure metal or alloyed with other metals. The company offers the pure metal as microfoil (as thin as 0.05 µm), foil, sputtering target, wire, rod, tube, powder, lump, and single crystal. Palladium alloyed with silver is available as foil, wire, and tube; palladium with gold is available in tube form; and a palladium/titanium alloy is available as foil. Palladium has wide-ranging application in a variety of R&D and design engineering endeavors.

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Goodfellow

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4. New stocks of fire-rated particleboard

The Kerfkore Company now stocks FR (fire-rated) particleboard in response to strong customer demand for this type of core product. Applications are vast and include architectural uses that require some fire-rated material for offices and public buildings, restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, malls, airports, and more.

FR particleboard allows The Kerfkore Company to produce 5/8-in.- and 3/4-in.-thick Kerfkore plus 3/4-in.-thick Timberflex and Flexboard. The Kerfkore product is 100% class A with only the user’s face material to be added. Flexboard enables the user to apply veneer directly to the face while flat with a hot or cold press and then bend down to a 16-in. or 18-in. radius.

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Kerfkore

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5. Clear, colorable TPE helps ease discomfort of earbuds

The new Lobie earbud accessory from Acousticlobe features GLS Corp’s soft, lightweight VERSAFLEX CL30 material. The Lobie, which launched in October, is designed to position earbuds next to the ear so users avoid the discomfort of inserting them into the ear canal. The product’s unique design required a material with a specific durometer for pliability without floppiness, a high coefficient of friction to keep the Lobie in place over the ear, colorability, and clarity — as well as U.S. Food and Drug Agency approval. VERSAFLEX CL30 TPE met all these requirements.

VERSAFLEX CL30 TPE is an easy-processing compound designed for use in injection-molding and extrusion applications where water clarity and excellent colorability are required. In the Lobie accessory, VERSAFLEX provides light weight to enhance the portability of music players and other electronics; pliability that allows the Lobie to be stretched to accommodate different ear sizes without being floppy; high coefficient of friction to provide a secure fit when people are engaged in different activities such as jogging, skateboarding, and cycling; durability for repeated use; and soft touch for comfort.

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GLS Corp.

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Polyurethane foam systems have new portal

Chemline’s new Web portal is an on-line source of information for the company’s CHEMFOAM polyurethane foam, in-mold coatings, and related systems.

CHEMFOAM.NET will allow visitors to quickly access clear and concise information on polyurethane-injection spray and castable foam systems for molders, equipment manufacturers, and specialty fabricators.

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Chemline

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Compound for intricate or multi-cavity parts

A new high-impact nylon 66 compound with flow properties superior to those of similar competing materials provides the flexural strength and low-temperature toughness required for many automotive parts as well as for dunnage.

The high-flow properties of Chemlon 109 make it suitable for intricate or multi-cavity parts such as fasteners, where the flexural strength of the material enables it to withstand the stresses of assembly and end use. The toughness of Chemlon 109 enables it to resist cracking in uses such as protective dunnage or nests for low-temperature storage and shipment of automotive components like fascia and even entire engines. Among the key properties of the compound are a notched Izod impact strength of 4.5 ft-lb/in. (240 J/m) at 40°C, and flexural strength of 7,000 psi (48.3 MPa).

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Teknor Apex

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Outsource your complex medical assemblies to the U.S.

An increasing number of medical companies are outsourcing the manufacture of complex assemblies to experts with combined rubber and plastic molding capabilities. This is particularly true where a medical device manufacturer with a new product concept requires early design assistance, materials engineering, and the molding of many precision components.

Minnesota Rubber and Plastics provides these services and more. The company operates an ISO 13485: 2003 quality-management system. It has Class 10,000 and 100,000 clean rooms and assembly services complementing high-volume molded-part capabilities. These include silicone molding and bonding, high-performance rubber and plastics, rubber-to-plastics conversions, metal-to-plastics conversions, and a full spectrum of materials and compounds including ISO 10993, USP Class VI, and FDA-compliant compounds.

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Minnesota Rubber and Plastics

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Dissolvable spacers for electronic components

Multi-Seals Inc. introduces Wash-Away dissolvable spacers, designed to provide consistent spacing between printed circuit boards and PCB components. These organic polymer spacers locate PCB components during soldering operations. After soldering, Wash-Aways dissolve in water or alcohol solvent baths. This leaves uniform spacing between components and boards, which provides free circulation of air, mechanical protection, optimum filleting, and greater accessibility for inspection, cleaning, and conformal coating.

Wash-Aways are available in a wide range of sizes and shapes to accommodate a variety of PCB components, including resistors, capacitors, transistors, potentiometers, and integrated circuits. Wash-Aways contain no ionizable material, salts, sugars, metals, or soaps, and they are non-corrosive, non-conductive, and non-toxic.

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Multi-Seals

New coatings chosen for mobile phone slide hinge design

When Simula Technology, Taiwan, a manufacturer of mobile phone components, wanted a coating for the slide hinge component of its mobile phones, PDA phones, and smart phones, it chose VICOTE Coatings, based on VICTREX PEEK polymer, for its wear resistance, lubricity, bonding strength, and ease of processing to strengthen the durability of the slide hinge component. The innovative design passed the EU’s strict RoHS certification and helped Simula Technology successfully expand into the European market.

VICOTE Coatings, based on VICTREX PEEK polymer, offer exceptional scratch and wear resistance, high-temperature performance, strength, and durability. Eco-friendly VICOTE Coatings were developed to fill the performance gap found in many existing coating technologies today. VICOTE Coatings, powder and liquid dispersions, can be applied using electrostatic or conventional dispersion spray techniques.

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Victrex

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Adhesive seals automotive and appliance components

Dow Corning 7091 Adhesive/Sealant is a high-performance, neutral-cure silicone that cures at room temperature to a tough, flexible rubber. It is designed for applications that demand a strong but flexible bond, such as automobile headlamp assemblies, fog lamp bonding, and electrical parts cases.

Dow Corning 7091 remains flexible and stable from -55ºC to 180ºC (-67ºF to 356ºF), making it ideal for bonding materials with differing thermal expansion rates, such as glass to metal or plastic. A one-component, non-sag sealant, it is easy to apply and provides unprimed adhesion to commonly used materials including enameled and painted steel, aluminum, ceramic, and glass, as well as to certain plastics used in appliance applications. It is also used as a Formed-in-Place Gasket (FIPG) material.

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Dow Corning

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5 million lb of plastics for sale

The Plastics Marketplace is a listing of more than 5 million lb of spot-market resins for purchase from quality, reputable suppliers.

At The Plastics Marketplace, resin buyers can view a wide range of plastics, from virgin prime, with certifications, to scrap. Information on each material includes the listing date, generic family, product name and description, forms, packaging, color, lb, price per lb, and geographic location including city, state, and country.

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IDES

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Bendable, pliable tempered steel offers greatest flexibility and strength

Tempered steel available from Blue Blade Steel provides consistent, bendable, pliable materials to offer time- and cost-saving performance characteristics that eliminate product failure resulting from deformation, stress cracking, and brittleness.

The highly controlled hardening and tempering process enables Blue Blade Steel to selectively modify the internal steel structure to produce material with specialized performance characteristics. Pre-tempered materials for parts, wear plates, spring washers, and brackets are more flexible, easier to work, retain flatness, and produce less waste from deformation during forming and shallow drawing.

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Blue Blade Steel

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Heat-resistant coatings stand up to chemicals, lubricants, and weather

A line of high-performance, two-component silicone copolymer coatings for products exposed to harsh environments and extreme weather conditions is available from Dampney Company.

Dampney Thurmalox 8886 Series Heat Resistant Coatings provide long-term protection in weathering conditions and create a barrier against attack from glycol cooling agents and synthetic lubricants at temperatures up to 450°F. Recommended for use on valves, castings, pumps, sumps, compressors, pipes, exhaust systems, and related equipment, these durable two-component silicone copolymer coatings are available in clear, black, and custom OEM colors.

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Dampney

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Bulk melters provide high degree of precision for demanding apps

Nordson Corporation has a new line of VersaPail bulk melters designed to provide outstanding precision in the application of hot-melt adhesive from 20-l or 5-gal pails. Particularly well suited for reactive adhesives such as moisture-cure polyurethanes, VersaPail bulk melters only melt the top surface of adhesive allowing the remaining material in the pail to stay solid, reducing thermal stress and protecting bonding characteristics. The system’s hydraulic passages are also designed to eliminate dead spaces where undesired curing could result.

Available with a variety of pump types and sizes, VersaPail melters can be customized to accommodate a wide variety of adhesives and meet manufacturers’ specific requirements. A powerful industrial PC provides operators with full control of the adhesive system via an easy-to-use graphical touch-screen interface, with messages and indicators for each activity and machine status condition.

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Nordson

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