Hottest high performance thermoplastic

High performance thermoplastic

previously, if you wanted a truly outstanding plastic, your choice was limited - greatly limited - and you could only choose thermosetting resin. If epoxy resin and phenolic plastic are not good enough, polyimide and POLYBISMALEIMIDE can be selected, but there is no thermoplastic

in 1981, ICI launched polyether ether ketone (PEEK), a linear, aromatic semi crystalline thermoplastic with unprecedented mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. In 1993, bonamen sold the peek business to its powerful managers, who formed Victrex, which is now a listed company

wiggs is still the leader in the field of high-performance thermoplastics - but it is no longer the only undisputed company. India's Gharda chemical company launched its own peek in the mid-1990s and sold this business to Solvay 3 in 2006 Solvay, Inc. Solvay has the largest variety of high-performance polymers in the world. Another Chinese University has been quietly trying to study its peek technology. It has cooperated with Degussa to become the third competitor in this field. At the same time, an Oxford high performance materials company (OPM), located in Enfield, Connecticut, has recently received financial support from several supporters, including DSM, a Dutch chemical company, to develop its polyketone business. The product of OPM company, polyether ketone ketone (PEKK), is very similar to peek and mainly focuses on the biomedical market

peek's market is still small - only a few thousand tons a year worldwide - in part because these polymers are usually used only for very small parts. However, this market is growing. In 2006, wiggs sold 2339 tons of PEEK and PEK (polyether ketone), an increase of 18.6% compared with 2005, which is mainly dependent on the growth of user demand for oil and gas, chemical processing and industrial machinery

driven by the opportunities of automobiles and new electronic products, all European markets continue to grow, with sales increasing by 23.4% over 2005. In the United States, sales increased by 19.1% over 2005 due to the growth of demand in the oil and gas, chemical processing, aviation and semiconductor industries. Wiggs has just expanded its production capacity by more than 50% on the basis of the original production capacity. In 2008, the production capacity can reach an annual output of 4250 tons

application

80% to 90% of the uses of wiggs peek products are: in this use, the extremely high temperature stability of polymers plays a decisive role. The relative temperature index of Peek (RTI is a specific temperature, and the original value of the characteristics of the material is reduced to 50% after 100000 hours at this temperature) reaches 260 ℃. On the contrary, the RTI of sulfone based resin is far lower than 200 ℃. The HT brand of weggs peek has a maximum operating temperature about 30 ℃ higher than that of standard peek, which makes it very successful in offshore oil and gas applications

Airbus door handle takes advantage of the excellent mechanical properties of weigs peek,

inherent flame retardancy and light weight

commercial aircraft manufacturers are also increasingly interested in peek. Peek injection molded interior trim is lighter than aluminum, which has more advantages in this regard, and the cost of components is also 5% to 6% lower than aluminum. In addition, compared with other non-metallic materials, peek produces very little smoke and toxic gases in fire, making it suitable for cable supports and even cable insulation

"we are now working hard to develop composite materials for structural components." Heinz said. Weggs supplies peek powder to the prepreg company, mainly for the manufacture of carbon fiber reinforced composites. There are signs that the proportion of thermoplastic composites in Airbus aircraft will be significantly increased. "Thermosetting composites will continue to dominate, but the biggest advantage of thermoplastic composites is that they are easier to repair, such as welding." Mr. Heinz said. Similar components include floor structural members, wing ribs, and other stiffeners

when the flame retardancy is very critical, even the less important wire

belt is made of peek

peek blends

last year, viggs launched a series of T-series blends based on peek and polyphenylamine and PBI

according to viggs, they are thermoplastics with the best thermal stability on the market at present, and can work continuously at a high temperature of about 300 ℃. These blends come from the license agreement signed between wiggs and PBI high performance in 2006. PBI is the manufacturer of celazole PBI, formerly a business unit of Celanese (now part of the InterTech group)

"we realize that this is an opportunity to expand our high-end product line," said Tim Herr, head of American market development at wiggs in West Conshohocken. "It can be melt processed, which makes it more advantageous than polyimide. Most polyimides cannot be melt processed. Therefore, from the perspective of manufacturing, our cost performance is much higher. At the same time, we also have excellent wear resistance and strength, as well as long-term creep and fatigue resistance." Pure PBI has no melting point and is non flammable

the end actuator gasket is one of the original uses of the peek/pbi blend of wiggs company

viggs' product series has recently added a new variety - vicote coating. Its brand can be supplied in powder form during electrostatic spraying, and in liquid suspension during spraying or dip coating. Many early uses of vicote were related to food, such as industrial kitchens. Vicote coating is more reliable than fluoropolymer, with high wear resistance and scratch resistance. Of course, it also has good high temperature resistance. Its anti adhesion is not as good as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), but it can be improved by blending vicote and PTFE

Degussa

the German chemical company Degussa, located in Dusseldorf, is the second company to produce peek on a large scale. It holds 80% of the shares of a Chinese joint venture Changchun Jida Degussa high performance polymer company, which mainly produces peek and polyether sulfone (PES). At present, the production capacity of PEEK is 1000 tons (PES will be put into production later). Changchun Jilin University holds the remaining shares of the company. As a technology provider and research partner, they have been studying this polymer for 20 years

what Degussa brought to this joint venture was not only their knowledge and experience in engineering thermoplastics, but also the information about polyetherketones obtained by its acquisition of tecona in 2005 (Ticona was part of Hoechst in Hearst and briefly supplied PEK in the early 1990s). Degussa currently has 13 peek based compound brands vestakeep series on the market, including unfilled, carbon fiber and glass fiber reinforced

Degussa currently produces peek in China

Degussa believes that with the increase of the number of suppliers in peek market, with their different abilities and experiences, it will help accelerate the development of new achievements and application areas

"in terms of multi-layer extrusion and multi-component injection molded parts, the development of new compounds will provide new opportunities to obtain outstanding material properties by combining some high-cost and low-cost polymers." Responsible for Degussa's high-performance polymer business plastics is Electromechanical loading; Metal is divided into click loading and hydraulic cylinder loading, said Christian bierhaus of the Department (HP) strategic project

Solvay

located in Brussels, Solvay has occupied an important position in the field of high-performance thermoplastics (mainly by acquiring the BP business unit of Amoco and union carbide), and in 2005, it acquired Gharda chemical polymers India branch. Gharda has production facilities in panoli to produce Peek (including polysulfone and polyethersulfone), and has been a market-oriented brand for many years, mainly in Asia. Solvay is also expanding and upgrading its production capacity, and a new 500 ton plant will be put into operation in early 2008

the new plant will not use Gharda technology. Instead, it will use Solvay's own technology, which began in the laboratory of Union Carbide in the 1960s. At the same time, ICI is also developing its own peek. Chris Wilson, global business director of Solvay's ultra polymers business department, said that in fact, Solvay has been experimenting with PEEK for many years, and now it produces materials in a semi commercial factory in Alpharetta, Georgia. Wilson also said that due to the existing infrastructure and real estate, the commercial chemical plant will be located in India

Solvay's primospire polyphenyl plastic is considered to be the world's most

hard non reinforced thermoplastic

Solvay's ketaspire basic polymer has basically the same properties as weigs' peek, but Wilson quickly added that the company wants to "make a big cake", rather than "share a piece" of the current cake. He said, "now all competitors in the industry have space, and we don't need to compete for market share. "

in addition to ketaspire, Solvay also provides avaspire brand. According to Wilson, avaspire focuses on the price performance ratio that distinguishes peek from other polymers. It uses a patented formula based on peek, and its products currently include two series: av750 product line includes glass reinforced and carbon fiber reinforced brands, while AV600 product line can work at a higher temperature than ketaspire, with improved ductility but weak chemical resistance. It Including filled and unfilled lubricants extreme pressure performance measurement method (4 ball machine method); Models

wilson mentioned in April that Solvay plans to launch a series of wear-resistant compounds based on Solvay polymers, including ketaspire, avaspire and TORLON polyamide imide. He said that the maximum working temperature of the wear-resistant materials provided in this way can be any temperature between 120 ℃ and 265 ℃, and there are brands for drying and lubrication purposes