Exceed - PE - ExxonMobil Chemical Company

Kunststoffe international, 3D Printing with Pellet Extruded Plastics on Metal
...turing offers advantages in terms of tool maintenance, flexibility, freedom of design and functional integration. However, the simple fact remains that the transfer to mass production is never carried out if the resulting production costs per part exceed the current possibilities of a mold-based process. We also need to break free from the mindset of manufacturing current injection molding designs with a 3D printer. Like any production process, additive manufacturing processes require specific d...

Kunststoffe international, Beyond Human Capabilities
...se of these additional data sets can help to improve process stability even further. Special Algorithms Calculate Usable Information The digital shadow usually contains such a large amount of data that the interrelationships exceed a person’s cognitive abilities. Therefore, IKV, in cooperation with the consortium, will develop algorithms for processing the data into usable information. They will describe the interrelationships for the process setup. Necessary process adaptations for optimal part...

Kunststoffe international, Excellent Resistance at Reduced Weight
...he plant nor the process has to be modified. The density reduction can be adjusted via the hollow glass sphere content. It is important for process control that the shear in the injection molding process does not exceed the compressive strength of the hollow glass spheres. For this reason, the processing parameters vary not only the content of hollow glass spheres (HGS, type: iM30k; manufacturer: 3M Deutschland GmbH, Neuss, Germany) but also the screw speed, the injection speed and the nozzle te...

Kunststoffe international, Foamed and Still Extruded in One Step
...window from 1.0 to 0.9 W/m²K can be obtained. The calculations showed that the energy savings in the use phase significantly exceed the greater outlay during manufacturing in the life-cycle balance. The calculation of the environmental effects of the thermal recovery of the PS foam was included in the substitution of thermal energy, and thereby also produced a reduction in the primary energy demand and greenhouse potential. The aim of the research project was to develop a process technology for ...

Kunststoffe international, Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyphenylene Sulfide Made Weldable
...trategy by means of NGO has a demonstrably positive effect. On the other hand, the laser-welded samples exhibit significantly higher pull-off forces in comparison with ultrasonically welded assemblies and exceed these by up to 40 % for DIC.PPS FZ-2140 with optimally selected parameters in each case. In addition to process engineering advantages such as greater design freedom, very flexible system technology and mechanically gentle material processing, laser welding therefore also offers a signi...

Kunststoffe international, Influences on Microdamage Strain Limits
... evaluation must be restricted. The temperature ϑ has an effect on the strain limit, but not on the critical strain itself, provided that the temperature does not exceed the continuous service temperature. One approach for an influencing factor that accounts for this fact therefore has the form C1 ≈ 1 + f11(t) + f12(ϑ). It accords with the time-temperature shift principle [23]. Based on the available data, the influencing factor can be estimated with the aid of the following function: (3) whe...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, All-plastic Hybrids: Thermoplastic Hybrid Structures
...slautern/Germany, thus consist of endless fibres oriented in the profile direction embedded in a thermoplastic. Due to the high fibre content of the profiles (up to 55 vol.-% glass fibre) strengths can be achieved in the profile direction that farly exceed those of comparable metal profiles – and this with substantially lower weight [2]. Also the rigidity of comparable metallic structures can be achieved with the use of carbon fibres. Of special importance is the good impregnation of the single ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, All-round Supplier for Polyurethane Systems
... new technology. "We have only just begun", says Engels, "to exploit the synergies between the research projects and research results in the former Lyondell facilities and our own activities. In the medium term, the results are likely to exceed even our present expectations." Acquisition Lifts Sales to EUR 3 Billion The acquisition also includes Lyondell's polyol production facilities in Institute and South Charleston in the US State of West Virginia, in Channelview/Texas, ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Anniversary: Excellence in Compounding Technology
...orldwide for insulation and sheathing of electric cables (the figure for PVC compounds is approx. 4 million t/a). When these materials are produced on the Ko-Kneter, the modified process technology and a temperature programme that does not exceed 180°C, despite a high filler content of 30 to over 65%, allow partly contradictory demands to be met: good flame protection with good mechanical and electrical properties. From Bulk-material Systems to Standard Compact Systems The principal methods for...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, As Good As New
... found under www.polyrema.com. A further field of activity is a sharply defined range of blown-film equipment made by Polyrema that complements Reifenhäuser's extensive production range. Polyrema's sales this financial year will exceed DM 10 million, far above the 1998/99 level of DM 5.5 million. The company says that orders received will boost these sales tremendously in the coming year. Stringent Quality Criteria KHS, the marketing and service division of Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftech...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Behind Bars
... belt buckle cover is installed using a snap connection onto the housing, also this was designed using FEM computations. The basis was the determination of the connection forces and the computation of the necessary snap hook length so as not to exceed the permissible edge fibre stretch of the material used. The support of the bolting device mechanism of the side door locks, that is the pawl and the turning case, is on steel axles injected into the housing. In case of a crash these axles must tra...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Blown Film Extrusion Today
...o match the die more closely to the material being processed (Fig. 4). Spiral Mandrels Spiral mandrel dies are used not only in monofilm extrusion but also as standard in three-layer dies and multi-layer dies with large die diameters that exceed the performance limit of stacked dies. The die design is basically detemined by the number of layers. While monoextrusion dies are all fitted with coathanger predistributors that feed the area of the spiral with predistributed melt fully around the cir...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Bonding of Plastics
...thin-wall polyolefin flanges, which cannot be welded, but can be bonded reliably with EP resins (title picture). PE, PP and POM can also be dependably bonded, with suitable primers and cyanoacrylate adhesives, provided that the thermal load does not exceed 50°C. The high brittleness and low stability of these adhesives in water has now been corrected. These few examples serve to underline the point that there has been intensive work done on adhesive modifications and process developments in ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Carbon Nanotubes
...he thermal vibration of the nanotubes, combined with the classic theory of bending [4]. These measurements yielded a mean elastic modulus of 1.8 TPa for MWNT. Theoretical calculations have shown that the elastic modulus of the nanotubes can indeed exceed the axial stiffness of a graphite layer [5, 6]. The strength of the nanotubes is much more difficult to establish than the elastic modulus. Experimental values here lie between 30 and 50 GPa [7, 8]. The highest strengths measured on graphite whi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Characteristics and Costs in Equilibrium
...ct to the type of notching were performed because they give different values for this material characteristic for different impact strengths. All the profiles fulfil the double V impact strength requirements (> 40 kJ/m2) and sometimes they clearly exceed them (Table 2). On the other hand, the requirements on the Charpy impact strength (> 12 kJ/m2) are not quite met for two profiles. Altogether the values determined for all the requirements on the windows during production and use are sufficientl...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Compounding: The Intelligent Alternative
...termines the quality. The normal requirements are ISO values less than 3, i.e. the particles may have a maximum extension of 60µm. According to GKR, the surface area Fmax of the biggest particle is measured. This must not exceed a certain manufacturer-dependent maximum value, e.g. 0.02mm2. The figure shows three high-molecular non-pigmented particles whose lengths are almost identical (L1 = L2 = L3; approx. 60µm in each case). Each particle therefore has the same ISO rating of 3. The surface are...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Compounds and Masterbatches
...since 1969. Finke is proud of its long family tradition. The colorant content of the Fibasol liquid colours is quoted at about 25 % in the case of organic pigments and up to 70 % in the case of inorganic pigments. The maximum dosing rate should not exceed 2 % to avoid feeding problems with the liquid carrier material in the feeding zone of the extruder. Metacol claims that the effect of the liquid carrier enables additional savings in applications, in which lubricants are used anyway. The good d...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Consumer Protection: Migration Models for the Assessment of Plastic Products
..., which is based on an older Commission Directive from 1990 and the seven amendments to this that have been introduced in the meantime. This Directive contains a positive list of migratable substances contained in plastics which are not permitted to exceed specific migration limits on toxicological grounds. The test conditions for measuring migration are set out in Directive (97/48/EC). Highly time-consuming and costly migration measurements are generally necessary in order to comply with these ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Continued Boom
...ased by 19 %. For the entire year, the Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association in the VDMA (Association of German Engineering Manufacturers) is anticipating a new record result for production. The total profits of nearly DM 8 billions will clearly exceed the last sales record of DM 7.2 billions in 1998. For exports, too, the industry is reckoning with a new record value of about DM 5.5 billions (Table 1). If mould and die making, ancillary equipment and flexographic printing machinery are take...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Cost-efficient Extruder Degassing
...-rotate inside a cylinder. The first generation has a constant pitch. Compression takes place against a control slot which is controlled by a screw front face. This design develops high compression temperatures on the last screw flights, which may exceed 250°C, depending on suction speed. Because of the explosion protection regulations in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, which are becoming European law in the Machine Directive Atex 100a, Busch has recently developed new screw conc...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Ecological Beneficial Composites
...stic natural fibres. Therefore existing procedures and formulations are being adapted to the requirements of natural fibres. It has thereby been possible to achieve the characteristics profile of glass fibre reinforced plastics and sometimes to even exceed it. Especially high quality materials can be produced using domestic natural fibres. Therefore existing procedures and formulations are being adapted to the requirements of natural fibres. It has thereby been possible to achieve the characte...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Effects of E-Business on the Automotive Supplier Industry
...rocess participants to transparent, self-consistent information. With the aid of simple Internet browsers, suppliers can obtain the latest information on, e. g., delivery schedules, deliveries and billing of the customer at any time. When deviations exceed a definable threshold, alerts can also be sent by email or in SMS form. All participants are therefore kept informed in real-time and are able to respond appropriately. The resulting flexibility not only creates scope for the process participa...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Electronic Components and Displays: Intrinsically Conductive Polymers
...ored is considerable. When defects are present in the dielectric as the result of cracks, mechanical short circuits or other leakage currents, local temperature increases can result. If the local temperature exceeds the decomposition temperature of manganese dioxide, oxygen is released, diffuses to the metal and reacts to form metal oxide. This reaction is exothermic and can accelerate the decomposition of manganese dioxide. In extreme cases, the component ignites. This undesirable effect is sup...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Energy Consumption: How Much Energy Does a Drive System Need?
...ower supply system as unused power. Particularly the coils in the motors of electrical drive systems cause inductive reactive energy. In order to prevent the power supply system being burdened with too much reactive energy, it must not exceed a given percentage, otherwise costs are charged for the amount of reactive power generated, or alternatively, a reactive power compensator or “var booster” must be provided. The proportion of reactive energy contained in the total power taken from the suppl...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Exhibition Preview: North American and Canadian Products at K 2004
...specialty elastomers. The resins are made with Exxpol metallocene catalyst technology and a new solution polymerization process. Specialty PE Resins ExxonMobil Chemical Co. is featuring two new low-gel grades of Exceed PE-mLLD for high-quality lamination and converter films. The company is also highlighting the first of its new family of Nexxstar branded film structures for stretch hood packaging. The company is also unveiling a new PE resin for medium-voltage wire and cable insulation and a ne...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Extrusion Technology of the Future
...nue in future. In main window profiles, the current extrusion rate of 6 m/min is more than double that of ten years ago [2]. A further doubling is not feasible, since this would require an increase in the length of the entire cooling zone that would exceed the available space in most extrusion lines. The low thermal conductivity in the plastic extrudate itself limits the cooling rate per unit length. Measures to increase efficiency thereby encounter physical limits, which it will only be possibl...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, FE Method: Design Concept for Stacked-type Spiral Dies
...mum shear rates are found in the narrow overflow gap, through which the melt flows away radially over the flight. In the design for wall-slipping materials, the geometry is determined such that the maximum shear rates and shear stresses do not exceed the critical lower threshold for the stick-slip range. In addition, further parameters are available for the design, such as velocity, shear stress, pressure gradient and shear viscosity. Experimental Results The simulation results that were deter...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Fibre-reinforced Plastics: Naturally Better
... fibre qualities from different growing areas. Likewise, the moisture content of the fibres can fluctuate, so that drying before processing is advisable. Natural fibres are also heat sensitive, and certain temperature limit must therefore not be exceeded during processing, so as to avoid odours generated from pyrolysed vegetable material. Polyurethane technology is ideally suited for the production of natural fibre-reinforced parts. Natural fibre-reinforced PU parts are currently usually manufac...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Fluoropolymer Prevents Flow Instabilities
...tial value even after a prolonged period. At position p4, close to the die exit, however, the pressure does reach approx. 90 % of its original value. The shear stress on the die wall, which is calculated from the pressure difference p3-p4, does not exceed a maximum of 0.12 Mpa. It is clearly recognisable from velocity profiles averaged from several measurements in the slit die at various z positions after 12-hours' extrusion that wall slip occurs at all positions (Fig. 6). Nevertheless, the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, From Operating Point to Operating Window
...n of polyolefins and other bulk plastics the processing machinery downstream of the polymerisation reactor, usually a twin-screw extruder, must be able to handle all material types produced in the reactor equally well. The melt temperature must not exceed a plastic-specific limit value to keep the thermal stress of the material low. However, the melt temperature increases when the specific energy input into the material (the energy input per kilogram material) is increased. An upper limit for th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Functionality is the Key Factor
...ping countries of Africa will continue to stagnate at a very low level. As far as North America is concerned, consumption is expected to grow from 1.55 million t in 1999 to 1.7 million t in 2005 [3]. The US market for medical technology in 2000 will exceed a volume of US$ 44 billion. This means that the US medical engineering industry constitutes approximately 44 % of the world market [4]. Direct Contact with Blood and Tissue Numerous new and further developments in the field of medical techno...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Gas - Not just because of the Cell Structure
...The plastic with the dissolved gas is no longer in thermodynamic equilibrium and strives for a state of lower free energy. The gas precipitates out of the solution and forms initial agglomerations of gas molecules; it nucleates. These clusters must exceed a critical size in order to continue to grow and form stable bubbles. Below this threshold they become dissolved again due to thermodynamic fluctuations. Two types of nucleation occur [1]: With homogeneous nucleation, a critical volume of gas i...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Gear Lever in Hand
...stitution of polyurethane by a more suitable material, - better control of the manufacturing processes regarding Shore hardness, - improved ease of assembly, - optimised damping behaviour as well as - improved economics. It should be possible to exceed the high quality requirements on today’s system. The Material Combination PP/SEBS Makes it Possible The above mentioned goal was achieved in co-operation with A. Schulman GmbH as materials partners. For the drive shafts of some Volkswagen an...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, General-purpose Plastics: Appearance Ever More Important
... hold together the goods that are being packed but also fix them to the pallet. Even barbed wire hardly causes any holes! Nexxstar is a family of three-layer coextruded films in Escorene Ultra ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer combined with Exceed mPE grades. PE-HD HTA 108 from Exxon offers outstanding stiffness and barrier properties vis-à-vis water vapour. It has been specially developed as a blend partner for coextruded film structures and monolayers in order to reduce their layer thick...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, GRP Parts
...anifold overall is above that of the aluminium intake manifold for wide ranges, thanks to the much poorer damping power of the aluminium compared with plastic, very marked peaks appear in the acoustic pattern of the aluminium intake manifold. These exceed those of the plastic intake manifold by about 20 dB in the emitted acoustic power, and the plastic intake manifold is therefore acoustically superior to the aluminium intake manifold. Summary The material model we have developed allows predicti...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High Barrier: Nanoscalar Particles Enlarge Potential Applications
... by the comparison in Table1 of select characteristic values. (These were determined by punching out the test pieces from the same place in the containers.) As measured on both nanocomposite containers, the elastic modulus and the tensile strength exceed the level for the PE-HD container – by as much as 90% in the case of rigidity – and the thermal stability (HDT) also increased from 36°C to 42°C. As expected, both nanocomposite containers show better oxygen permeability values than ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High Growth Rates: Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS)
...omewhat below that of the linear PPS, because this grade is used primarily for traditional PPS applications and less for parts that have to comply with maximum mechanical requirements. Global sales of PPS compounds are expected to exceed 58000t in 2004. The estimated annual growth rates are currently between 7 and 11%. With an average filler content of around 50%, polymer consumption is thus equivalent to around 29000t/a. Conservative forecasts talk of a consumption of over 65000t/a PPS compoun...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, High-performance Applications: Trends in Packaging Technology
.... On account of the short injection stroke, the reproducibility of the injection process and thus shot weight constancy is difficult to realise at the necessary high dynamics involved (injection speed, volumetric flow rate). Where metering strokes exceed 1.5D, however, inhomogeneous temperatures and colours must be expected, since the effective screw length is too short for the plastication process. The screw diameter is therefore determined on the basis of the necessary swept volume. The screw ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Impressive Variety: Polysulfones (PSU, PESU, PPSU)
...led and repelletised without difficulty, and after drying be processed once again together with virgin material. It should be noted, however, that to avoid quality fluctuations during production the amount of reclaimed material should not exceed 25%. Care must also be taken to not mix different resin types. The Authors Dr. Stefan Göttgens, born in 1960, is Market Development Manager Europe for Plumbing and Sulfone Polymers at Solvay Advanced Polymers GmbH, Düsseldorf/Germany; stefan.goettgens@s...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Large Investment Plans: Polyurethanes (PU)
...or Asia. Experts forecast polyurethane growth rates of some 8% in Asia (3% above the world average) and predict that in two years’ time that region will account for one-third of global demand. In all probability, China will even exceed these outstanding figures. Here the experts are predicting growth of around 10% per annum in the longer term – despite the carefully aimed package of measures by the Chinese government to prevent this market overheating. By 2015, this “Middle Kingdom” will be the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Latest Materials and Production Processes: 3D-MID Technology
3D-MID Technology Latest Materials and Production Processes. The use of the MID technology opens up fresh potential for the development and design of three-dimensional circuit carriers. It means, for example, that an electronic device can be manufactured in any desired shape, and it offers maximum integration potential at the same time. Klaus Feldmann Andreas Kunze Whereas thermoset materials are generally used to manufacture conventional printed circuit boards, thermoplastics tend to be the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Logistics Centres For The Polymer Industry
...city corresponds to a production cycle, i. e on average about one month's production or 10 % of annual capacity. According to Table 1 more than half of this amount has to be stored in silos for bulk shipment. The number of silos required should exceed the number of polymer grades by about 50 % to provide sufficient containers for standard grades, excess batches, blending silos and exceptionally large, customer-specific batches: nSilos = ngrades + nlarge batches + nblenders ≅ 1,5 x ngra...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Market and Trends: Nanomaterials: Opportunities and Risks
...bes, which can be organised into carbon nanofibres. With a stiffness of 1000GPa, this material class is stronger than steel and can exhibit thermal as well as electrical conductivities that exceed those of copper by an order of magnitude. As illustrated in Fig.12, carbon nanotubes can exhibit either a single-walled structure (SWNT for Single-Walled Nanotube) or a multi-walled structure (MWNT for Multi-Walled Nanotube). Compared to MWNT, SWNT are more flexible and can be easily organised into fib...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Market for GRP and Thermosets
Market for GRP and Thermosets GRP production will exceed 1 million metric tons for the first time this year. Thermoset moulding compounds have bottomed out. According to the German Reinforced Plastics Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verstärkte Kunststoffe Technische Vereinigung e.V. or AVK-TV), demand for glass-fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP) grew strongly in the third and fourth quarters of 1999 after a weak start in the first half of the year. Overall, the European GRP market grew by 5.9 %...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Material Recycling of Thermoplastic FPC
...it is much lower than 1 DM/kg. The profit margin can rise if the recycler pays for the recyclate. Recycling of parts or scrap by re-pressing in existing processes (Variant 2) becomes an economic alternative once the annual quantity of waste arisings exceeds 20 t. Increasing profitability with rising waste levels is much greater than in Variant 1 since added value is created within the factory in addition to the savings made on disposal costs. Owing to the higher fixed costs and higher proportion...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Measurement Technology: Determining the Coefficients of Friction for Bulk Plastics
...tio of 3. The bulk plastic is fed in from the hopper and conveyed continuously. An annular hydraulically actuated piston at the outflow generates a back pressure that is held constant during the measurement. If the pressure at the outflow starts to exceed the setpoint, the piston retracts. Both the barrel and hollow screw are temperature-controlled in order to ensure controlled thermal conditions. The bulk plastic must not be allowed to melt while the experiment is being conducted, since the obj...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Melt Filtration: Making Nonwoven Fabrics from Bottle Flakes
Melt Filtration: Making Nonwoven Fabrics from Bottle Flakes Impurities disrupt melt spinning processes significantly and reduce the lifetime of the spin packs, particularly when processing reclaim material. This contamination can be reliably removed through the use of a fully automatic filtration system. Monika Gneuss The increasing use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for bottles and the steadily improving collection system are resulting in a growing supply of PET in the form of bottle...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Motor Vehicle Interiors
...al storage capacity, and there is a foldout table for the rear passengers. Besides the aforementioned concept vehicles and studies, there were many other models and ideas to be seen, but to describe them would be to exceed the scope of this article. Further concepts were and are being developed by major automobile suppliers not represented at the IAA. For example, the company Peguform/Venture has scheduled an interior study for later this year that will feature innovative application examples fo...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Mould Management in Injection Moulding Operations
... taking the industry-specific requirements of injection moulding operations into account. The large PPS/ERP market offers an immense abundance of alternatives for this. The goal was to find a suitable software solution that at the same time did not exceed the firm's financial limits. However, many of the software solutions offered failed already because they were impractical or inefficient. After a long search the software solution Evolite (manufacturer: Evo Informationssysteme GmbH, Durlang...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Mould Technology: Better Performance for Two-Component Technology
...logy. High Performance Mould Cooling A further advantage of spin stack technology is increased cooling capacity for the core sides of the mould. With turnover plate moulds the turnover distributor, through which the mould coolant is fed, may not exceed a certain size. With its vertical axle spin stack technology has the advantage that only the force of gravity on the mould acts perpendicularly on the turnover plate. Therefore higher medium throughputs can be realised in the sliding table. Ther...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Multi-layer Composites with Reactive Coupling Agents
...is necessary to increase composite adhesion in this way. On the other hand further improvement is possible by increasing the coupling agent mass flow. This observation confirms the theoretical considerations in [2]. As long as the plastic flow zone exceeds the dimensions of the CA layer increasing the layer thickness leads to improved composite adhesion. If on the other hand for sufficiently thick layers the deformation zone is completely within the CA layer (Fig. 9, left) then a further increas...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Natural Thermosets
... cellulose and compost without composite material. Thus the biological degradability of thermoplastic materials based on gelatine is proven without doubt in accordance with DIN 54900. The tested materials fulfil all required criteria or even clearly exceed them. Conclusion For the first time biologically degradable thermosetting polymers can be made from gelatine-linseed oil blends with suitable phase mediators. They can compete as composite materials with likewise degradable natural fibres wi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Noise-Free
... grade: Victrex PEEK, manufacturer: Victrex, Hofheim). This material displays a good price-to-performance ratio through its specific property combination. It attains a modulus of elasticity in bending (Fig. 2) which, depending on the grade, can even exceed that of aluminium and maintains this up to temperatures of just under 150°C. PEEK still retains its long-term resistance to the full range of oils as well as its enormous abrasion resistance at temperatures higher than this. It was precise...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Online Process Control: Ultrasonic Measurements on Thermoset Moulding Compounds
...fixed by curing when the pressure was terminated. According to the relationship for the ultrasound velocity, an increase in the pressure build-up means that the ratio of modulus to density is increased. The increase of the modulus must exceed the increase of density. The influence of the holding pressure magnitude is demonstrated in Fig.5. In the case of moulding compound MP 4165, the holding pressure was varied in small steps between 160 and 215 bar – measurement series 1 to 15. The results ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Optimisation: Plastic Windows in Profile
...tion with the smallest possible number of chambers. When the width of the chambers is being chosen, heat transmission by convection and radiation have to be considered. Convection inside the chambers will be stopped if the width does not exceed 8mm. Radiation, a major contributor to heat transmission, increases more or less linearly with chamber width. The chambers therefore need to be as narrow as possible. Apart from the number of chambers, their shape is also an influencing factor. The goal h...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Passive house: Successful Energy-saving
...s of all components inside the house and the supply air temperature never drop more than 3.5°C below the indoor air temperature in the house, even under the coldest design conditions, and the maximum heat load based on floor area does not exceed 10W/m². What actually remains today of the initial extra costs for low-energy housing? Windows, external walls and roof structures are cheaper today than 15 years ago. The same will prove to be true over the next few years for passive house componen...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Pellet Conveying: Water Absorption from Polymerisation to Processing
...fact that, when the pellets were heated in the drying oven, not only did the previously absorbed water diffuse out but other constituents of the plastic, such as additives, were also liberated. The gravimetrically determined decrease in mass far exceeded the actual water content and could not be interpreted as the moisture content of the pellets. For this reason, the coulometric Karl Fischer method should always be preferred to the gravimetric method for determining water amounts of a few hundre...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Perfect optical symbiosis
...timates the quantity used might increase to about 550 000 t per year by 2010. However, growth will be much stronger for other exterior parts made of plastic. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium the portion of plastics is expected to exceed that for metal parts for exterior applications for the first time. Paint Systems in Use Which paint systems are presently most often used and what will the future bring? Also for plastic paint increasingly restrictive regulations concerning ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, PET Boom: PET Recycling and Direct Processing
...values for PET packaging: Firstly, no more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of foreign substances may migrate into a foodstuff, and secondly, derived from this, the contamination concentration in the wall of the bottle may not exceed 215 ppb, although this will depend on the nature of the contamination [4]. The aim with the approval process is to obtain a so-called “no objection letter (NOL)”. Since 1990, the FDA has issued 80 NOLs for plastic recycling processes that use recycled products (so-ca...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Plastic/Plastic Hybrids: It Doesn’t Always Have to be Steel
...ng Capacity similar to Steel The tests showed that hybrid structures can also be successfully produced with organic inserts. Their mechanical properties relative to their weight attain those of metal hybrid brackets and considerably exceed them in some cases. Hybrid structures in fibre-reinforced plastics display advantages over steel structures for the same weight, especially in the case of torsional loading. The mechanical properties of the hybrid brackets are a function of the material combi...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Plasticised Thermoplastic Polyurethane: Without Plasticisers
...e for Two Component Processing: Good Adhesive Strength Processing is possible on conventional injection moulding machines that are equipped with the usual three-zone screws. The compression ratio should amount to 1:2.5 and in no case should it exceed 1:3. Also processing by extrusion is possible. To achieve optimal performance characteristics of the finished units it is absolutely necessary to dry the granulates before processing them. The water content of the granulates should be below 0.02%. ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)
...ycling processes are even able to clean PET packaging from the cosmetics sector to such an extent that the recyclate can be reused in new PET bottles. In Europe, for precautionary reasons, the non-food PET fraction in the returns currently may not exceed 1%. As regards cleaning of the recycling feedstock, chemical recycling offers some advantages that are particularly attractive for food packaging. This variant is mainly being pushed by the PET manufacturers because the necessary plants are in p...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Polymer Design and Modification: Polypropylene (PP)
... bottles and PVC bags. In the area of blown film production, two innovations in particular are capturing attention: The two statistical copolymers Borclear RB707CF (Borealis) and Clyrell RC1314 (Basell) represent something new and exceed known processability limits on conventional blown film equipment with an MFR of approx. 2g/10min (Fig. 6). The optical and mechanical properties are excellent. Film made from these custom-tailored products are transparent, relatively stiff and tough, and can be...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Pressure Vessels: A Question of Curvature
...ature of the dome often results, for which the dome no longer abuts at right angles to the conical tube end. Thus not only compression stresses, but also shear stresses develop in the joint area between the dome and the liner, which must not exceed the shear strength of the liner, however. The joint area and thus the wall thickness of the dome in the joint area must be dimensioned accordingly – on the basis of the forces at the joint between the dome and the liner. The necessary values come from...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Process Comparison: Injection Moulding of Long-glassfibre-reinforced PP
...ne and the compounder are therefore the weight of the manufactured parts and the production volume. The injection moulding compounder has the edge if throughput is high because the savings made at the time the starting material is bought soon exceed the higher capital outlay needed to buy the equipment and so the investment soon amortises. Where the parts are small or production volumes are low, processing long glassfibre granules on an injection-moulding machine can be the better alternative be...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Reaching a Critical Size
...ion tonnes worldwide, polyethylene is currently frontrunner among commodity plastics. It is followed by polypropylene at 28.5 million tonnes, PVC at 25.5 million tonnes and polystyrene, including EPS at 13.3 million tonnes. With growth predicted to exceed 10 % p. a., PET is growing significantly faster than other commodity plastics. Its consumption should more than double by 2010 to about 18.5 million tonnes per year. Growth of the other standard polymers is between 4 % p. a. for PVC to over 6 %...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Safe Braking
...rly compact pistons of the eighth-generation ABS. The maximum diameter tolerance of 0.05mm thus requires a reproduction accuracy in a range of one to two hundredths from one shot to the next. The flash height in the parting plan must not exceed 0.015mm, and the coaxiality over the mould planes must be

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Simulation and Practice
...tion moulding. However, the flow process results in a shear velocity profile across the particular flow cross-section, which affects the melt temperature and the viscosity of the individual layers (Fig.3). These viscosity differences can easily exceed a factor of 100 in small cross-sections. Thus, in all flow processes a melt is produced that is inhomogeneous in its viscosity. In multilayer flow, the low-viscosity melt regions that are partly intensively sheared in the sprue system migrate to th...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Solder-resistant PBT
...ical properties of the polymer. PBT containing this catalyst can be metallised with a high level of adhesion. A typical peel strength would be between 0.9 and 1.4 N/mm, which is also retained after the soldering process. These values significantly exceed other wet-chemical MID metallising processes. The two-shot moulding process is particularly suitable for manufacturing large numbers of 3D-moulded interconnect devices with coarser printed circuit structures. The TSM process is based on the inje...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Sports Equipment: Plastics at all Events
...ts since 1996 and, back in 2000 in Sydney, Team Kunststoff emerged as the most successful German Olympic team. In 2004 in Athens, the team not only succeeded in retaining this title, it even managed to exceed its outstanding success at the previous Games. The team's athletes came home with a grand haul of ten medals: Five Gold, six Silver and one Bronze. Together with the athletes, the sponsor – and with it the field of plastics generally – was subsequently a focus of attention in the intern...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Submicron and Nano
...emselves. The mill can have a two-stage design, which also permits highly effective, straightforward fine milling down to the submicron range (Fig. 3). Nanofillers This term generally describes particle systems whose primary particle size does not exceed several hundred nanometres. Such systems have been around for some time, e. g., carbon black, silica, PCC, whiskers (needle-shaped monocrystals) and diverse pigments (e. g. TiO2). In most cases, however, the primary particles agglomerate to se...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Surface Inspection: Big Brother for Films
...xtrusion of sheet with a material thickness range of 2 to 12mm, where full monitoring of the individual sheet is of crucial importance, because optimisation of the edge trimming can lead to significant raw material savings: sheet which exceed the tolerance levels are cut at a length of 800mm, sheet within the tolerance levels are left at their normal length of 3000mm. Moreover, every sheet can be provided with a quality protocol, while all information on the sheet quality is stored on a central ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, The Journey is the Reward
...would be remiss to omit the other types of costs that need to be included in, e.g., cost estimating: - Quality costs - Risk costs - Development costs - Administration costs - Marketing costs - Storage costs - Disposal costs, etc. However, they would exceed the limits of the DIREMT concept. Some of them can be readily calculated within this concept: test costs, storage costs, transport costs, disposal costs, etc. The others are often fixed costs that bear too little relation to any specific produ...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, The Market for Standard Plastics
...leviate continued pressure on profit margins through cost reductions. According to preliminary calculations global consumption of plastic materials last year rose by about 7.6 % compared to 1998 and achieved a new high of 141 million tonnes. This exceeded the average economic growth of all OECD countries by almost 5 %. The plastics industry thus remains a dynamic and attractive sector in terms of size and growth rate. On the other hand well-known challenges to this industry remained. Despite i...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, TPE Test for Automotive Engineering
...f necessary so that the limit of the initial, predominantly elastic range can be established. Taking the example of a TPE-E material, Fig. 4 shows that the increase in irreversible elongation is small in the low strain range. Only with strains that exceed a specific limit of εkrit does a clearly bigger increase result. This behaviour is also seen with the other TPE materials, with the starting gradients and limit values of εkrit showing marked differences in some cases. Table 2 c...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Transparency through Transmission
...or bolting. This has been made possible not least by rapid development of radiation sources, of manufacturing and process engineering and of specific materials. A number of new developments and very positive results that have sometimes significantly exceeded users' expectations make it realistic to expect fast adoption of the procedure in the future in particular in the areas of the strongly growing markets sensor technology, electronics and microsystem engineering (Fig. 1). Today there is h...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Trends to Watch: Roof Systems: Innovation Generates New Momentum
...brio), Opel (Astra Coupé Cabrio) und VW (Brisa concept) will each join the retractable hardtop fray with their own additional product offensive. With these high-volume models, the market share of retractables will, in our estimation, exceed the 50% mark. Gaps in the Product Offering: The Neglected Diesel While almost all automakers have a presence in the important retractable hardtop segment and convertibles are available in every price range from 12300 to 450000EUR, the trendy engine of recent...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Two-component Injection Moulding: New Hard-soft Combinations of POM and TPU
...ethane C85A, the bond strength in combination with POM S9244 and S27076 was higher than the SCV. It is noticeable that the combinations of hard components with TPU B85A always attain at least the SCV level and sometimes significantly exceed it. For example, the bond strength achieved by the combination of POM S27076 with TPU B85A is three times the level obtained in combination with the Thermolast grades. This can be attributed to the special composition of the selected polyester TPU grades, es...

Kunststoffe international, 2005-11-21, Waste Policy: Ways, Goals and Conflicts
...y, because the dealer network did not satisfy this demand. Austria had a more sensible solution: There, the average distance between the place of residence of the last owner and the collecting point must not exceed the average regional distance to the dealer. As a result, only three licensed recycling firms actually dealt with the scrap vehicles in Austria that were returned to more than 60 collection points (BMW dealers). For Prof. Dr. Gunter Zimmermeyer from the Verband der Automobilindustrie ...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-15, Mouldmaking Technology at Fakuma und EuroMold: Engineering Lights Comes Out from Under the Bushel
... solution: an electromagnet (Fig. 11). “However, the temperature at the magnet must not exceed 80°C, and the maximum stroke is limited to about 4mm. An adequate flow cross-section is assured by three lateral openings. In this way, the needle tip can always remain centred,“ explained Dirk Paulmann, Manager of the hotrunner systems division at Hasco. In contrast, Peter Braun, Engineering Manager at Ewikon Heißkanalsysteme GmbH, Frankenberg, prefers the motorised version (Fig. 12): “In many applic...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-26, Structuring and Ablating: Manufacturing Medical Products with Laser Technology
...range, energy transport by conduction does not play a role and an absorption coefficient of 104cm-1 corresponds to an optical penetration depth of just one micrometer. Thus, in a matter of nanoseconds, energy densities can be generated that far exceed the decomposition energy (density) of the materials, a fact that leads to rapid decomposition with explosive-like material ablation. Moreover, only a small fraction of the incorporated pulse energy remains in the work piece as heat; the preponderan...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-01-30, Plastics for Medical Technology: Long Life Ensured
... GmbH proved the safety of its HumiCare 200 medical gas humidifier took around one year, and longer periods are not unusual. The cost of one single testing procedure, from the prototype to the end product, can thus easily exceed 10000 euros. The Problem of Long-term Deliverability. These high costs must, of course, be recouped. The long life of the products – as a rule, we can work on the basis of a service life of around ten years – also raises other problems, because even medical technology...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-22, Carbon-fibre-reinforced Plastics (CRP): The Black Gold of Lightweight Building
...under 300°C have been adapted for liquid processing [6, 9]. Optimum fire safety is achieved with RTM parts based on phenols resins [6, 10]. From a mould point of view, allowance has to be made for the high curing temperatures, which sometimes exceed 180°C. Flying Lighter than Ever. Rising sales in recent years for the CRP industry’s most important customer have been the motive force behind advances in new processing technologies. Vast quantities of fuel can be saved in civil aviation, where mat...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-22, Mathematical Model: Economic Stabilisation
... only be achieved through the use of additives. Light stabilisers and antioxidants are the most important additive classes. They frequently cost far more than the plastics they stabilise. Although the amounts in which these products are added rarely exceed the single-digit percentage range, their high price makes the quest for more economic use of additives worthwhile. The aim of economic stabilisation could be, for example: - to match expectations more closely, - to achieve the existing perform...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-02-23, Silicone Elastomers: An Attractive Alternative
...ne elastomers are stable in air to service temperatures of around 180°C and, with the addition of heat stabilisers, even to around 250°C. At high temperatures, their mechanical properties (tensile strength, tear strength and elongation at break) exceed those of many organic elastomers. Silicone elastomers remain flexible down to about –45°C – or even lower, depending on the cooling rate. They have excellent aging and weathering resistance. They are electric insulators with good dielectric proper...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-03-23, Food Packaging: To Each Yoghurt Tub, Its Own Polystyrene
...cal design. FFS tubs are primarily used for mass-produced articles and small portions, such as those for coffee cream. Nevertheless, both processes are fighting over the same market: as soon as normal segment growth for polystyrene is exceeded, growth in one segment comes at the expense of the other. Among the strongest consumer markets are Germany, France, the Iberian peninsula and Italy. The European market for the production of FFS films shows that 75% of the market is in the hands of a few m...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-04-21, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA): Thermomechanical Application Limits for Plastics
... can be seen that specification of thermal limits for an application are meaningful only when the associated stress is taken into consideration. Below a glass-transition temperature of about 50°C, relatively large stresses are possible without exceeding the maximum overall deformation. In the region of the glass-transition temperature, the magnitude of the permissible stress values drops noticeably and decreases further with increasing temperature. Viscous deformation hardly increases at all in ...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-06-27, Light Sources: OLED – Light of the Future
...The requirements that must be met by materials being considered for OLED encapsulation are very demanding. The limits for permissible water vapour diffusion through the substrate are 10-6g/m²d and the permeation of oxygen should not exceed 10-5ml/m2d [5]. Commercially available transparent polymer films are far from achieving these values. The transmission rates of moist polymers for water are greater than 10-1g/m2d and for oxygen over 0.1ml/m2d. Long-lasting flexible OLEDs on films thus represe...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-08-02, Thermal Balance: Conformal Cooling on the Advance
...roduced into the mould insert, the average thermal conductivity of new steel/copper composite is considerably higher than the tool steel conventionally used. Depending on the design of the mould insert, such steel/copper elements can reach or even exceed the thermal conductivity values that are usually only achieved by the copper-based alloys also used in mouldmaking. Steel-copper composite solutions are not subject to the disadvantages of known copper-based alloys, such as low flexural strength...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-09-27, Profile and Pipe Extrusion: Precise, Flexible and Fast
...erally leads to an increase in melt temperature, which can damage heat-sensitive raw materials such as PVC. For example, with the formulations currently conventionally used for window profile extrusion, the screw circumferential speed should not exceed approx. 0.11m/s [6]. If faster rotating systems can be used, that is associated with a range of advantages. Besides the low plant costs, smaller drives and higher performance density per unit area, residence times are also reduced, and the melt ho...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-27, Pedestrian Protection: Crumple Zones for Pedestrians
...equirements (Fig.5). This in turn obliges manufacturers to adhere to strict geometric specifications and demonstrate through precisely defined impact tests that front end protection bars, too, will not exceed certain limit values in collisions with pedestrians. Although such “front end protection bars” will degenerate into pure styling elements as far as their functionality is concerned, they will offer wide scope for material substitution in what were previously stainless steel applications. G...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-27, Reliable Design: Multi-layer Tubing for Fuel Lines
...it satisfactory minimum values even after storage at elevated temperatures, exposure to flowing fuel and assembly of quick connectors. SAE J2260, for instance, requires at least a value of 1N/mm, a value that according to some OEMs should clearly be exceeded. Further requirements relate to the chemical resistance, the mechanical properties (above all, the low-temperature impact resistance) and the easy assembly of the system. For applications in the USA in particular, electrically conductive inn...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-27, Styling: Headlight Components Made from Thermoset Material
...demould. Removal from the mould can only be facilitated by providing sufficient demoulding tapers, of which there should be at least two. For the same reason, the total component offset is limited by component height. Components here should not exceed a defined wall thickness/height ratio. Consequently, their height coordinates should, if possible, be planar. Fig.3 shows this schematically on a component. The degree of “clefting” in the injection mould must therefore be minimal. Mould release a...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-30, Development Project: A Concept that Fits
...d the release key were loaded in lower and upper positions. In the first iteration loops the evalua-tion indicated areas where the permissible stress in the planned polyamide PA-GF 15 reinforced with 15% strengthened glass fibres was exceeded. After the third optimisation loop, in which the wall thicknesses and con-struction unit geometry were changed in the context of the given design, is was sure that all components would withstand the forces and the chair shows the dynamics that promotes ergo...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-30, Hot-Runner Solution for End Caps: Pulling the Strings behind the Scenes
...propylene with an MFR of 20, which terminate two spring tensioning elements. The caps (Fig.2) are 4mm x 4mm x 3mm in size, 0.5mm thick and weigh 0.03g. They are produced in a 16-cavity hot-runner mould with direct gating. The cycle time must not exceed 10s. The shot volume per cycle is thus 0.48g. Special attention was paid to precisely maintaining the low plastication volume and the short residence time of the material in the process. Abaloid Plastics manufactures around 30 million caps per yea...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-10-30, Laser Sintering: Functional Prototypes Produced from PEEK
...iable operation at such a high temperature. In addition, based on experience with laser sintering polyamide, the temperature deviation from the setpoint value over the temperature field produced by preheating should not exceed ±2°C. This will ensure homogeneous crystallisation during the cooling phase after component generation [3]. It is also important to ensure that the temperature of the powder bed during the processing cycle does not drop below the onset of melt crystallisation temperature (...

Kunststoffe international, 2006-11-28, Damage Limitation: Temperature Load During Drilling
...everse case presented here can also be explained by the tool temperature recordings illustrated. At a depth of 10 mm, the tool temperature generated in the drilling of PEEK is still much lower than that generated for PET. Only when the depth exceeds 30mm, does the tool temperature in PEEK exceed that in PET. If the workpiece temperature were thus to be measured at a drill depth greater than 13mm, it would be higher for PEEK than for PET. Influence of the Reinforcing Fibres on the Temperature Ch...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-03-15, Modular Concepts for Lighter Engines
...les. This will result in even more plug connections. The same applies for the number of pins/contacts per connector. Today’s connectors for engine control units already have 154 pins. In future, this figure will exceed 200 pins per connector. The Author Dr. Michael Römer, born 1954, works for Robert Bosch GmbH, Waiblingen/Germany, as Marketing Manager of the Business Unit Connectors and Plastics Parts for Gasoline Systems; Michael.Roemer@de.bosch.com. User Robert Bosch GmbH Gasoline Systems P...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-05-14, An Adventure Park for Injection Moulders
...the consolidated accounts of the Hehl Group were not available at the time of going to press (sales at the twenty-one legally independent national companies are still being calculated), it is more or less certain that Arburg will exceed the value for 2000 – the record year to date, with sales of EUR 356 million. As Helmut Heinson, Managing Director of Sales, explained, a fair proportion of the growth is due to the "Golden Edition" series introduced to celebrate the company’s anniversary ...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-05-14, Give Leaks No Chance
... the same time and leading to micro-fine cleaning. The nozzle systems employed can be integrated in-line into new or existing production lines. The process of surface discharge means that the open-air plasma system offers cleaning effects which far exceed those of conventional systems. Here, the user is benefiting from the high electrostatic discharging effect of a free plasma beam. This effect is additionally boosted by the very high emission speed of the plasma, as a result of which loosely ad...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-05-14, Mould Design from Pole to Pole
...al necessary field strength is generated in the cavity. This value depends on the type of filler. Injection moulding trials with different aligning fields show, for instance, that strontium ferrite particles (SrFeO) exhibit degrees of orientation exceeding 90% at aligning fields greater than 200mT. In contrast, a samarium cobalt filler needs aligning fields in excess of 1,000mT in order to achieve adequate orientation. Since aligning fields with a strength of 1,000mT can be achieved only with d...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-08-14, New Structure Bears Fruit
...ies in their branch-offices in the USA, India, China and Manila. In the last business year, their 400 employees achieved sales of EUR 90 million or a growth rate of 9% over the previous year. This year, sales are expected to grow by 24% and exceed EUR 100 million. Reimotec. Reimotec’s portfolio includes lines for manufacturing PET strapping tapes, monofilaments, synthetic turf monofilaments as well as for extruding 2- and 3-layer monofilaments (Bico, Trico). The company was founded in 2001 speci...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-10-19, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
...roducer in 2006 was 0.105 million t/a. Here it is expected that seven producers will arise by 2011 disposing of a capacity of over 0.5 milliont/a. These companies will, however, still be supplemented by over 50 companies whose capacities do not exceed 0.1million t/a. Consumption and Exports PVC is the third largest polymer worldwide. Global PVC consumption in 2006 was 33.6million t (Fig.3) and has been growing by 6.3% p.a. since 2003. At 45%, almost half the additional requirement is accounted...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-10-21, Polystyrene (PS)
...02. New application areas in coming years should ensure some growth in consumption, albeit slight (approx. 1.8% p.a.). Annual consumption is expected to reach 12.2 million t by 2011. Wolfgang Glenz Growth rates for polystyrene have failed to exceed growth in gross national product since the late 1990s. Global installed production has not run at full capacity for years (Fig. 1). Average utilization rates of just about 70% have led in recent years to trimming of capacity and restructuring meas...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-11-21, Pipe Systems in the Engine Compartment
...lding grades from Lanxess are not only impact modified but can also be processed with a high regrind content without significant property losses. This is necessary for economic reasons because the scrap ratio in blow molding can sometimes exceed 50% owing to the need to cut off the parison waste. As Fig.3 shows, the tensile stress at break of the PA66 Durethan AKV 325 H2.0 decreases by less than 20% with a 90% content of material that has been repelletized four times. With this polyamide, the in...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-11-21, Vacuuming in Style
...that cover different hygiene requirements and are also suitable for people with allergies, and - Five nozzles by way of special accessories. The German-made vacuum cleaners are delivered eight weeks after orders have been placed. Where orders exceed 5,000 units, customers can opt to have their own designs printed. This kind of diversification has never before been available for vacuum cleaners. It has been made possible by the development of an interchangeable chassis in collaboration with Eio’...

Kunststoffe international, 2007-12-17, Designing Film Hinges for Strain
...epsilon;zul = permissible strain) ((formula 1)) The permissible strain is determined therein by the applicable strain threshold eG and a safety factor S. Both values depend on the film hinge function. At high bend numbers, it is advisable not to exceed the polymer’s tolerable strain amplitude εA(N) as determined in bending fatigue tests and dependent on the frequency and number of stress cycles N, plus a safety factor of S Ž 1.2. For lower bending values up to a maximum of approx. 10...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-01-15, Elastomer Industry Has Understood
...ources, achieve the same high level of properties as their petroleum-based counterparts. The proprietary technology (patent pending) developed by Merquinsa gives the product ranges property profiles which in some cases even exceed those of TPUs produced by conventional methods based on petroleum chemistry. Products in the ECO range are used for a broad spectrum of applications, from consumer electronics through shoes, sports and leisure articles, and industrial products to the automotive industr...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-02-17, Acquisition Poker and Dramatic Upswings
...facility in Germany (see Kunststoffe international 10/2007, pp. 10–11), is pursuing new heights. As Michael Hehl, managing partner and management spokesman, announced at K already, the company will clearly exceed its record sales of last year (a consolidated EUR 363.7 million for the Hehl Group as a whole) in the financial year that has just ended, with an increase that is just into double figures. The precise figures will doubtless be announced at the Arburg Technology Conference at the start o...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-02-17, New Thermoplastic Powder for Selective Laser Sintering
...s thermoplastics. Amorphous plastics soften over a wide temperature range, whilst partially crystalline plastics have a far narrower melting range and their viscosity curve drops more sharply after the crystallite melting temperature is exceeded [9, 10]. Decisive hereby is that the molten particles form a cohesive layer, which is why melt viscosity should be as low as possible [8]. An ideal buildup process reaches the exemplary state of quasi-isothermal laser sintering. The laser then only suppl...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-02-29, Cycle Time Reduction through Targeted Cooling of Hot Spots
...ponents for the cooling, but does not place large demands on the user. To change the mold only the hose connectors as well as the plug connectors for the measurement and control cables have to be disconnected. The effort required for this does not exceed the steps that have to be gone through for a water cooled mold. Controller Gives Injection Signals for the Coolant Now that there is the opportunity to achieve a very high level of cooling in a small space the second task is to control the pro...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-04-14, Better Hearing with Polymers
...ogical) materials became established. Even so, there remains considerable room for improvement in middle ear implants. From a clinical point of view, implantation can be considered to be a success if the postoperative reduction in hearing does not exceed 10dB compared to normal hearing. A reduction of 10dB, however, is the equivalent of a 50% reduction in hearing perception compared to that of a healthy ear. The decisive factors for the success of such an operation are the operative skill of the...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-05-10, Testing Gets Tougher
...stant. Water Destroys the Polymer PBT is formed by polycondensation of terephthalic acid or dimethyl terephthalate and 1,4-butanediol, with the release of water. However, the polycondensation reaction can be reversed by hydrolysis at temperatures exceeding 100°C and 100% relative humidity (Fig. 1). In the reaction between PBT and water, the polymer chain is cleaved and fragments, ranging from small chains right through to the starting materials terephthalic acid and 1,4-butanediol, are formed....

Kunststoffe international, 2008-09-23, Blow Molding in the Injection Mold
...on of the Two Process Variants If we take the ratio between the maximum channel cross-section that forms from a certain pressure level and the cross-section of the external geometry, we see that conventional fluid-assisted injection processes do not exceed a quotient of 0.6 [3, 4]. The GITBlow processes can easily produce cross-section ratios of well over 0.9 (Fig. 6). Examples include water or air-ducting parts, such as automotive ventilation channels, air supply and exhaust connectors ...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-09-23, Set for Special Applications
...s fiber-reinforced PA66 whose CTI is almost twice as high as that of comparable standard types. In the case of Zytel HTNFR52G30NH a flame-retardant polyphthalamide has been developed whose ductility, thermal stability and tracking current resistance exceed those of standard types. The product additionally provides high resistance to chemicals, moisture and heat. The material is ideally suitable for use in lead-free SMT soldering processes. A new PET flameproofed with halogen, Rynite RE19041, has...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-10-17, It’s the Cycle Times that Dictate the Profits
Anew generation of process-controlled sheet processing machines has made it possible to considerably exceed past performance limits once again in respect of the number of cycles and the product quality achieved (Fig. 1). The different forming areas and facilities available to the user permit production to be run on the basis of economic considerations. The modular structure of this concept allows combinations ranging from the basic machine through to configured, process-controlled high-p...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-10-17, Polyarylsulfones (PSU, PESU, PPSU)
The permanent service temperature of polyarylsulfones can exceed 200°C. This class of materials thus acts as the amorphous counterpart to semicrystalline high-temperature plastics, such as LCP, PPS and PEEK. Added to which, the materials possess very good dimensional stability, which is accompanied by low creep and can be further increased by fiber reinforcement. The properties of PSU, along with PESU, which offers comparable chemical and hydrolytic resistance and is more heat resistant, and the...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-10-17, Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS)
...ousehold machine tanks and blow-moldable, is used in slightly modified form as Fortron 1115L0 in the automotive area to produce charge air pipes for small, extremely efficient diesel engines. The temperature requirements in this area clearly exceed the capabilities of other thermoplastics, such as the polyamide normally used there. The minimal installation space beneath the engine hood these days demands a degree of integration that can be achieved in series use only by plastics. The manufacture...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-11-20, Heavy Duty Stack Molds
...ing the same mold clamping area offers a second parting plane, parallel to the first parting plane, for accommodating additional cavities. This arrangement does not require extra clamp force, provided that the projected molded part surfaces do not exceed those in the first parting plane. In other words, the forces in the two parting planes, which act towards the mold center block, cancel each other. This allows even very large parts to be molded under high injection pressure without the holding ...

Kunststoffe international, 2008-11-20, System with Unlimited Adhesion
... with large elements (Fig. 4). Each 47 mm pole develops full holding force of 2.2 kN per pole when fully covered by the mold. The EAS magnetic systems are always designed with enough poles for the magnetic force to exceed the theoretical opening force of the injection molding machine and the holding force for the maximum mold weight. Because the arrangement of small poles is so flexible, the magnetic plate can be sturdily connected to machine plate with an adequate number of bolted conne...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-01-26, Burden or Opportunity
...ber 2008 deadline the ECHA will publish a list of preregistered substances. Consortia will then be formed and the actual registration process started. All substances considered to be CMRs (carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproductively toxic) [5] exceeding the one ton per annum threshold will have to be registered. The same applies to environmentally hazardous substances (N, R50/R53) [6] > 100 t/a and other substances > 1,000 t/a. These registrations will have to be completed ...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-02-17, Extruded Wood
...is about 120 bar. The extrusion line shown can achieve outputs of up to 250 kg/h, which, with the decking shown, results in a relatively high profile extrusion rate of 1.5–1.8 m/min, according to Reifenhäuser. The melt temperature should not exceed 190–200 °C to avoid thermal degradation of the wood. An interesting feature of this extrusion line is the intensive cooling of the melt before it leaves the die to give the extruded profile relatively high dimensional stability at an early stage. In c...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-06-16, A Coexistence of Unequals
... from the centrifugal forces). The acceleration depends on the washing machine model, with a figure of 10 g (approximate upper value, g = 9.81 m/s2) being assumed (Fig. 5). After a certain time, the amplitude of the dynamic load (FA) could exceed the safety threshold of the connection, and the necessary clamping force might no longer be achieved. This manifests itself as greater rattling and stronger vibration during use. Moreover, on prolonged use, it could cause the joint to fail. Summary When...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-06-16, Plastics in the Fast Lane
...mes, reduction of decoration costs, rapid finishing, lower space requirement (e.g. paint spraying booth no longer required), reduction in electric power requirement, and fast time to market. The use of special grades, which sometimes exceed metals in price on a kilo per kilo basis, pays off through lower total costs. Generally speaking, replacement of metals by plastics is sensible if a 20 % saving is achieved with the finished component. Cutting Costs but not Performance With a 30 % reduction i...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-06-16, Throwing Light on Electronics Encapsulation
...haracterization Polymer encapsulation using transfer/compression molding has advantages over injection molding due to much lower loads on the embedded electronics. Polymer viscosity runs around several hundred Pascal seconds, pressures rarely exceed 100 bar and maximum temperature is generally lower than 200 °C. To detect loads occurring during the encapsulation process, it is useful to integrate several glass fiber sensors in the cavity (e. g., the electric window lifter module with integrated ...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-10-14, Engineering Plastics from Renewably Sourced Materials
...ering polymers manufactured by this procedure can be checked for their renewable carbon content using the C14 isotope method. The term polymers from renewable raw materials is already defined by an ASTM standard, whereby the renewable content has to exceed 20 %. Engineering polymers based on renewably sourced materials represent a new class of thermoplastics whose renewable resource content can be measured in percentage weight by their content of the renewable molecular weight. Not all materials...

Kunststoffe international, 2009-11-19, Continuous Production of Curves
...le. The process has since won several awards. It is not only interesting for radii over 30 cm, but, for small radii, is often a better alternative to batch processing or winding. In most cases, it can be presumed that radius pultrusion can exceed the production rate of a batch process. Another advantage is that not only solid profiles, but also hollow profiles with multiple chambers can be produced without using core materials or silicone tubing, which is not possible with a typical batch proces...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-01-27, Cool More Efficiently
... and environmental protection have increased in their significance, and this applies to every individual link in the cold chain. For this reason, materials today are justifiably being required to offer characteristics and performance that far exceed what is called for by the standards. With their insulating ability and innovative technologies, materials such as the specially developed polyurethane systems Elastopor, Elastopir and Elastocool ensure greater efficiency when chilling. Longterm and e...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-01-27, Gliding Boat
... density, a drive with high efficiency and power density, and a suitable lightweight design of the hull and hydrofoils. If it is to be transported and launched by one person, the hydrofoil craft, including drive and rechargeable battery, must not exceed a total weight of 35 kg. Hydrofoils can be classified into fully and semi-submerged types. Fully submerged hydrofoils are arranged horizontally and crosswise to the travel direction. Lift can be controlled by actively regulating the angle of atta...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-03-17, Complex 2-Component Process Hits the Roof
...sprue than away from it would cause the mold to tilt open. The installation must compensate for these forces in the mold, so as to prevent mold opening. The difficulty is that fluctuations in wall thickness over the entire part must not exceed 0.02 mm. This requires the use of high-precision, smooth-running, mold platens with a parallelism in the range of 0.01 mm and so the machine must be equipped with a parallelism control unit. KraussMaffei favors recording the compression stroke, as measured...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-04-20, Hot and Cold Molds
... the given heating powers, the ceramic heating elements can reach temperatures of over 1,000°C without damage. The aim of rapid mold heating must not be at the cost of the stability of the mold properties; the annealing temperatures must never be exceeded. Second, how should the thermal coupling between the heater and mold be performed? If we consider that the heater itself is also a relatively good heat conductor, the heating element should be located equidistant between the cavity wall and coo...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-04-20, Square Meters in CD Quality
...ctional lines would be separated. Great attention was also paid to the conveying process itself, which takes place very gently. With dilute phase conveying according to the vacuum principle used here, the velocity must not exceed 20 m/s, since the pellets can plastify on the inside wall due to the high friction, and the molecular chains could be damaged, or “angel’s hair” could even occur. Conveying, too should be as far as possible dust free, since this can also have a negative effect on the ...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-08-19, Dynamic Testing Beyond the Standard
...erforming tests according to DIN 53442 and 50100. The test is available in-house as a standard method. The subsequent service temperature is taken into account in every test. As soon as the temperature of the samples is found to exceed this, the employees discontinue the test and repeat it with a reduced test frequency. The expanded sensor technology allows the material manufacturers to define new failure criteria. In addition to complete failure, incipient failure is now analyzed. This allows t...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-08-19, Profitable and Faster than the Market
...segment of BASF, along with the entire plastics industry, suffered from low demand and falling prices, above all, for standard products. Sales dropped by more than 20 % to EUR 7.1 billion. In contrast, the income from operations (EUR 554 billion) exceeded the previous year's figures slightly. Nevertheless, the company continued to develop its portfolio of products further – as in previous years – and increased the efficiency of its value-added chains. For instance, overcapacities in the cas...

Kunststoffe international, 2010-11-25, Less Odor and Emissions
... of unreinforced as well as short fiber and long fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymers. Due to their high stiffness and strength long fiber-reinforced polymers can easily replace metallic materials. Indeed the specific strengths actually clearly exceed that of metals (Table 1). The matrix/fiber combination of the TechnoFiber L H E range is aimed in particular at injection molding. This manufacturing technique gives designers particular freedom in part geometry and functionality. The combinatio...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-02-21, Expedient Combination instead of Wasteful Installation
...e mold temperature being controlled to different nominal values. The local demolding temperatures of the parts are measured using a thermal imaging camera and the cycle times of the processes controlled in such a way that the moldings just do not exceed a previously defined maximum demolding temperature (Table 1). The results show clearly that with the same nominal temperature of the control system, shorter cycle times can be achieved if a discontinuous temperature control system is employed (Fi...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-02-21, Nanocomposites as Biomaterials
...rowth takes place to a greater or lesser degree, which is assessed after 3 and 7 days. For the composites produced from PEEK and TiO2, it can be shown that, with increasing filler content, cell growth is improved and the results match or even exceed those obtained with pure Ti6Al4V, PEEK, and titanized PEEK samples. Electron-optical images of the populated test samples were also obtained to assess the appearance of the cells (phenotype) on the material surface, an important criterion of biocompa...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-02-21, Targeted Reduction in Consumption
...a power grid, resonances are very likely to occur at relatively low frequencies. These resonances are excited by the harmonics associated with the rectifiers. With an unfavorable grid structure, the harmonics can be amplified severalfold and exceed permissible limits. Heating Energy Represents the Lion’s Share Advances in drive concepts – both hydraulic and electric – have led to continuous reductions in overall energy consumption. If, however, the heat energy used is compared to the overall ene...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-04-25, Controlling Pipe Wall Thickness around the Circumference
... 10 %. For instance, according to EN 1401-1 the permissible wall thickness for foam-core PVC pipe with a diameter of 110 mm lies between 3.2 and 3.8 mm. Of course, all pipe manufacturers strive for tighter tolerances. Frequently, however, they still exceed 5 %. The tighter tolerances found in film production are achieved by using closed-loop control for the wall thickness around the circumference or, in the case of film, over the width during production, which for some time has now been the sta...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-05-12, Lofty Heights in the Black Forest
...h single part below the mixing head with the nozzle, scans the gasket contour, and places the finished parts on a conveyor belt. Injection molding and foaming processes are precisely tuned to each other here, so as not to exceed the two components’ pot lives inside the PU mixing chamber. In addition, attentive visitors could see highlights from the K2010 trade show again, e. g. the large hybrid Allrounder 920 H high-performance machine with 5,000 kN clamping force producing a plastic bag with a ...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-08-24, Looking for the Right Polymer
...ting point of 290 to 300°C, which is a little lower than that of Vestamid HTplus based on PA6T/X. The glass transition temperature of Vestamid HTplus is about 20°C higher, at 125°C. Operating temperatures in various application areas often exceed 100°C, e.g. under the hood. Vestamid HTplus is the ideal material for longterm exposure to these temperatures, maintaining a high strength level over a wide temperature range. Another known limitation of conventional polyphthalamide is its relatively hi...

Kunststoffe international, 2011-11-18, Designing Lighter Cars
...luding ones with automobile manufacturers. Good agreement between simulations and experiments could be shown throughout. Conclusion Vehicle safety is an important factor in purchase decisions. As a rule manufacturers therefore aim to exceed rather than simply meet legislative requirements. The technical challenge in doing so is to find a balance between the safety requirements and lightweight construction or CO2 emission. At present optimization of the bodywork and component design uses traditio...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-04-20, Lightweight and Flame-Retardant
...ical equipment (IEC/DIN EN 60335-1) with current flows > 0.2 A specifies that a glow wire flammability index (GWFI) of 960°C and glow wire ignition temperature (GWIT) of ≥775°C must be achievable. The required temperatures are reached or exceeded by Rialene P 100 SGF ST F..V-0 all Colors with all glass fiber contents. The mechanical properties of the new PP compounds are also excellent, even in the conditioned state. The ductile material properties of PP offer advantages over halogen-free fla...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-08-22, Accelerated Humid Aging of Polyurethane Moldings
...es had been hydrolyzed, which is responsible for this 65 % compression hardness loss. From the above described calculation it became clear that the amount of available water during the steam aging by far exceeds the amount which is necessary to attack the urea/urethane linkages. Obviously the water vapor pressure does not play a role in that mechanism. Under the conditions of humidity saturation only the temperature determines the degradation rate. Estimation of Foam Lifetime There are no data a...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-09-17, Critical Strain as a Parameter in Failure Determination
...ibly recognizable first damage (“yield strain”) approaches a yield-strain limit εF∞ (or “critical strain”) asymptotically with an increase in the duration of tensile loading [2, 4] (Fig. 1). As long as the strain in the sample did not exceed “critical strain”, no damage occurred at a molecular level, in their opinion [5, 6]. With the aid of the ball-pressure hardness test, it turned out that, even under short-term loading, first crazes developed precisely when critical strain was exceeded. Howev...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-09-17, Lighter and Cleaner Cars
...y be reduced still further in the years to come. Manufacturers who fail to comply are threatened with severe financial penalties. In specific terms, from 2012 in the EU, the average CO2 emissions of a manufacturer’s new passenger car fleet may not exceed 130 g CO2 per kilometer. This requirement will be phased in so that in 2012 an average 65 % of the manufacturer’s newly registered cars must comply with the limit, rising to 75 % in 2013, 80 % in 2014, and 100 % from 2015 onwards. The penalty pa...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-11-26, Injection Molding or Reaction Technology for Vehicle Components?
... to produce RTM systems in two minutes or less, within a certain period of time to come. LFI (editor’s note: Long Fiber Injection) allows for cycle times of between three and four minutes, and even for very large parts, cycle times barely ever exceed seven to ten minutes. Such parts may be several square meters large, and cannot be produced economically by injection molding, in any case. As an example, Beyl points to the 4.5 square meter roof module of an American harvester a US manufacturer cur...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-11-26, Lighter in the Air, in the Wind and on the Road
...th a pot life which is sufficiently long to allow complete impregnation of the fibers. This requires an extremely low initial viscosity, at the given injection temperature, in the region below 10 mPas, and the viscosity should not exceed 200 mPas during the injection period. Injection temperatures are typically between 80 and 100°C. Thermosetting systems possessing such crosslinking characteristics are currently in development [13, 14]. The purpose of the aforementioned internal mold release age...

Kunststoffe international, 2012-11-26, Scratch-Resistant and Anti-Reflective
... a low viscosity of 22 mPa s at room temperature and therefore in the injection compression molding process is in a better position to penetrate the texture depth than conventional amorphous thermoplastics. The melt viscosity values of the latter exceed those of the reactive system by a factor of around 105 to 106. The micrographs of the surfaces clearly confirm that that the surface texture reproduced on the cover in the CoverForm process corresponds visually with the pre-etched microstructure ...

Kunststoffe international, 2013-01-28, Injection-Compression Molding Unsuccessful
...vent the melt from escaping. In injection-compression molding, the locking force or compression force acts directly on the plastic melt through the compression stamp. If this is not properly programmed, the cavity pressure can in some cases easily exceed the permissible surface pressure of the mold steel – in the worst case this can result in deformation of the mold inserts or of the supporting mold platen. If the cavity frame contains projected areas such as runners or partial cavity surfaces, ...

Kunststoffe international, 2013-01-28, Is the Future of Plastics Green?
...he case of biofuel consumption, however, these calculations include 50 % of the imports from neighboring countries, with strict monitoring of sustainability [5]. Since the expected rapid rise in bioenergy demand worldwide far exceeds the biomass supply, the linkage between agricultural and energy prices, already evident today, will make food more expensive. The first signs of this worrying trend were seen in the “tortilla crisis” of 2007 in Mexico. The rising demand for bioethanol in neighboring...

Kunststoffe international, 2013-04-19, Wear Protection on Twin Screws
... some regions (Fig. 3). A dominant influence on the level of the abrasive wear, however, is the particle size of the filler which is characterized by the “top cut” (D98). From experience we know that this should not exceed a value of 8 μm. In addition to premixed dryblends, coarse to finely ground PVC regrind and PVC pellets are also processed on the machines. The use of these materials can also increase the wear. In this case, too...

Kunststoffe international, 2013-05-16, Electrifying Secondary Movements
... to the high precision of their movement and targeted path control, electrically driven ejectors afford plenty of scope for process optimization that has yet to be fully explored in practice. With hydraulic ejectors, operators often deliberately exceed the predetermined stop by a few tenths of a millimeter to ensure that the mechanical end position is safely reached. However, this must normally be expressly prevented in the case of electric ejectors because mechanical “start-up” shortens the lif...

Kunststoffe international, 2013-06-19, Power on Demand
...ome limitations, e.g., in the production of thin-walled packaging. But it is also true: With the linear motor we achieved technical data which, when seen from today’s perspective, clearly exceed what we need for injection molding. We built a couple of these injection units, but haven’t had a breakthrough yet. Price is the main reasons for this, and floor space is also an issue. Here we are talking about a unit that is 600 millimeters in diameter and nearly a meter long. Kunststoffe: Are energy c...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-02-20, PET Recycling: Exploiting Molecular Mobility
After over 30 months of development work, an Austrian machinery manufacturer presented a process for improving PET recycling. The first tests exceed the high expectations regarding increased intrinsic viscosity (IV) and higher decontamination performance and process stability. After the polyolefins (PE and PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most widely used polymer in terms of volume. In contrast to the polyolefins, PET can be very readily recycled thanks to the specific way in which i...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-04-14, Trend Report (Part 2): Fiber Composite Systems for Lightweight Construction
...of 14 %. The highest growth rates according to this report will be seen in the automotive sector and in wind power, whereby the absolute consumption of carbon fibers in the automotive sector will not (yet) exceed that of the aerospace industry. This above-average increase in the fiber composite shares in the market segments described can only be achieved, however, through a significant reduction in the cost structure of the materials and the production processes. According to [11, 13], a global ...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-07-22, Brilliant Looks
...r pigments provide a marked glitter and twinkle effect together with strong brilliance.Pearlescent pigments based on synthetic mica substrates exhibit the greatest depth of color and exhibit an intense luster effect. They exceed their archetype, pigments based on natural mica. This is especially true of the pearlescent pigments developed by Eckart GmbH of Hartenstein, Germany. Their luster and color intensity are based on a special coating technology. Thus these pigments are suitable not only fo...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-08-19, Further Increases in Heat Resistance
... bar to currently over 3 bar. As a result, the charged air temperatures have risen as high as 230 °C. In coming years, operating temperatures of 250 °C and peak temperatures of up to 270 °C are expected. These operating temperatures significantly exceed the performance range of aliphatic polyamides, and even conventional high-​performance materials reach their limits. With the product line Grivory HT High Heat, consisting of the injection molding grades HT2VS-3HH (30 % reinforcement) and HT2VS-4...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-10-10, Polycarbonate (PC)
... of 60,000 t/a in Lijin near Dongying, Shandong Province. No new PC plants are planned in Europe, North & South America, and the Middle East at present.In the short or medium term, the recent vigorous increase of PC capacities in Asia will exceed local demand. Already a few years ago, Asian manufacturers started exporting PC to Europe and into the NAFTA region, which – in the long run – is likely to reverse the established sales flows for PC. Moreover, several Asian producers are trying to get a...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-11-26, Does Size Matter?
... be determined in terms of adhesion.This is of particular interest, as it might happen that certain hard/soft combinations cannot be produced in miniaturized form, because demolding forces are relatively high and exceed the adhesion strength. Demolding forces are less important with standard samples, as their larger interface area exhibit significantly higher adhesion forces. Therefore, it is possible that some material combinations with "large" dimensions provide good adhesion, whereas small pa...

Kunststoffe international, 2014-11-26, Keeping a Clear View
... The molding compound has also passed a mandatory heat-resistance test of the ability of polymers approved for road vehicles to retain their original shape over a certain temperature range. After all, temperatures in parked cars can exceed 80 °C in certain circumstances. The new impact-modified PMMA molding compound has a Vicat softening temperature of 105 °C – a figure that puts it on a par with conventional standard PMMA grades.Good FlowabilityAside from offering properties which are crucial f...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-02-28, Maintaining Stable Pressure Limits
...he higher the injection rate, the longer the braking phase. That means that melt flow has to be slowed down before reaching the set limit value. This makes it a challenge to select the best possible point in time. If slowed down too late, pressure exceeds the specified limit; if it is slowed down too soon, cycle time is longer, and/or the cavity is not completely filled. Many of the injection molding machines on the market still use methods of pressure limitation that are incapable of limiting i...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-03-17, Cockpit Module for the Jaguar F-Type
...s: The global regulations regarding head impact in a vehicle due to an accident are basically defined by the European ECE No. 21 and the US-American FMVSS specifications. Hereby, loads acting on the human head may not exceed an 80-fold deceleration (g) during a period of 3 ms. During simulation, the permissible limit can be reduced e. g. to 72 g, to provide a safety margin for possible uncertainties between the CAE model and the actual components (Fig. 6). The PP-LGF30 supplied by Borealis has t...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-03-17, Electronics Set the Pace
...ection station. Here, the components are inspected to ensure the contacts are correctly positioned. In order to subsequently achieve the assembly and solder-free connection of the push-in contacts onto the board with ease, their position must not exceed a defined tolerance range for each contact, known as the swash circumference.Multiple Quality ChecksA sensor optically measures the overmolding of the contact and at the same time indirectly checks whether the contacts are correctly inserted. The...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-04-20, Steady Growth through New Manufacturing Processes
...ucts are particularly complex and often highly time-consuming, medical technology is one of the most innovative and rapidly growing sectors in Germany. Industry association Spectaris is expecting growth of 1.6 % for 2014. Overall sales would then exceed the 25 billion euro mark for the first time. These sales are achieved by some 124,000 employees in 1,200 companies with more than 20 on the payroll. According to the German Medical Technology Association (BVMed) 15 % of all those employed work in...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-05-21, The Task of Managing Complexity
...ocess and uninterrupted to the extent possible. Injection molding processes must run constantly, because the material could degenerate if not. Cycle times during the inspection instances, for example, must never be allowed to exceed the total time allowed for the take-out and insertion process, including molding. The cycle time of 30 s was marked as the upper limit, so only 7.5 s remained for the four inspections sequences that each followed one after the next. Because the comprehensive leak tig...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-07-20, Clear Sight with New Light
...le pass on the other side. As those measures are interlinked by the length of the welding contour, they have to be adapted for each specific length. In practice the contour length of plastic parts such as microfluidic devices can easily exceed one meter, thus requiring very high beam velocities and powers to attain a specific irradiation regime. As those parameters are principally high in quasi-simultaneous welding, the ideal irradiation regime might be restricted by the welding system to a cert...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-09-18, Variety of Lightweight Construction Processes
...in large quantities. High-pressure injection permits highly reactive resin systems to be processed. This reduces cycle times significantly compared to conventional RTM processes. Depending on the application, the fiber-volume content of the part may exceed 50 %.In HD-RTM, the reactive components are brought together in the mixing head at high pressure. The mixing head injects the material into the closed mold, which already contains a carbon fiber or glass fiber preform (Fig. 1). The matrix resi...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-10-12, Ready for Series Production
...h corresponds to the component length. If the force flows in the component are transmitted mainly via the continuous fibers, the high stiffness and strength values typical of fiber-reinforced plastics are obtained. Tensile strength can significantly exceed that of steel or pressure diecast aluminum, zinc or magnesium. Designers therefore try to ensure that the force flow in the component is transmitted fully via the continuous fibers. Load-Specific Design for Lighter ComponentsThis task will be...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-10-12, Trusting Is Good, Checking Is Better
...n situation. This is the reason why the certifier of testing personnel and application-oriented investigations on the subject of "effect of defect" are becoming more and more important.Accelerated Tests The useful lives of plastic components often exceed the development times considerably, which means that there properties can be determined only on the basis of accelerated tests. At the same time, the challenge facing testing technology is the trend toward longer useful lives while development t...

Kunststoffe international, 2015-12-17, More than just Protection
...ayers have very good adhesion to the fluoropolymer films ETFE and PVDF. The bond strength values (measured according to standard IPC-TM-650) are higher than 10 N/cm for both the selected Ormocer coatings and the ZTO [5]. They considerably exceed the bond strength values of other frequently used layer materials, such as aluminum oxide, which has a bond strength of less than 1 N/cm on ETFE.The rough surface of the ETFE film can be planarized by applying an Ormocer coating. Even with a coating of t...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-02-17, Gas Injection Molding with Carbon Dioxide
...real conditions. A direct comparison between carbon dioxide and nitrogen revealed the same high quality levels with an approximate 36 % reduction in cycle times.Gas detectors are required to ensure that carbon dioxide rates do not exceed a certain threshold (for detailed information on CO2 and gas detectors, see Info box). For Klaus Engel, it’s a simple cost/benefit analysis: "If the increase in efficiency due to shorter cycle times exceeds the additional costs, we have cost optimization – it’s ...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-05-18, Clean Water
... challenge in the case of hose applications is the surface area/volume ratio, which is specified in the different regulations (Table 1). The larger the surface area is, the greater the potential for migrating substances and so the higher the risk of exceeding limit values. These compounds have good extrudability with no tendency to break off (Table 2). The materials do not just fulfill the requirements for use in contact with drinking water. They also open up a number of new potential applicatio...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-07-20, Safety Glasses with Style
...ield: Not only are the high-end coating lines developed and produced in-house, but the coatings themselves as well. The mechanical and optical properties of the safety glasses are continuously tested in the company’s own test laboratory and must exceed the requirements of the relevant quality standards by a considerable margin.The same applies to the frame. Here, key factors are a good and secure fit as well as high wearing comfort. In many models, these are ensured by TPE components in the nose...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-07-20, Tracking down the Causes
...Ox in a test sample within a closed vessel, e. g. an exicator. The differences between the test methods lie only in, for example, the different NOx quantities, test temperatures, and test times. In these tests, the NOx concentrations far exceed any usual or real emission. In some cases, the discoloration can only be produced with an NOx content that exceeds the maximum actually measured air values on busy streets by a factor of 106.Reactions by phenolic constituents: Discoloration of paints and ...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-10-17, Polyethylene (PE)
...82.7 to 86.3 %. The current nominal PE capacities are met by worldwide PE demand of 88 million t in 2015. This positive trend is expected to continue in a similar fashion over the coming years. According to current estimates, global PE demand should exceed the 100 million ton limit as early as 2018. The plastics industry will have available nominal PE capacities of around 125 million t by the year 2020. Organically based polyethylene remains a niche product compared to these figures. HDPE is the...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-10-17, Polypropylene (PP)
...roduction. Compared to conventional glass fiber materials, carbon fibers significantly improve stiffness. Fibremod carbon materials have a stiffness of up to 20,000 MPa, together with a low density (Fig. 5). They thereby exceed the lightweight metals such as aluminum or magnesium, where they can save more than 60 % weight compared to steel. For structural parts, the geometry can be modified to ensure that the improved stiffness is suitably exploited, offering potential for weight savings. Compon...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-11-30, Avoiding Unplanned Downtimes
...aves and their reflections can pass unhindered through the cylinder wall and plastic melt. It measures the clearance between the screw flight and the inner wall of the melt cylinder, which increases as the manufacturing time progresses, and must not exceed a particular value (Fig. 2). The tolerance value depends on the requirements of the injection molded part, the material used and the surface finish of the screw. In general, abrasion of the screw flight is the type of wear that most impacts th...

Kunststoffe international, 2016-11-30, Performance-Increasing Variation of a Classic
If the material requirements for a component exceed the capabilities of polyamide 6 and polyamide 66, then polyphthalamides are the logical material of choice. They are conquering new applications that were previously the sole preserve of metals. New polyphthalamide ranges have now been developed for applications in the automotive, electrical & electronic as well as the industrial sector. Polyphthalamides (PPA) are highly heat-resistant, semi-aromatic, semi-crystalline members of the polyamide f...

Kunststoffe international, 2017-03-27, Eye-Catchers Under the Hood
...al application.Although PP appears to be very attractive for the application case selected, the temperatures that develop in every engine room depending on the vehicle and aggregate have to be given close consideration in order not to exceed the resistance temperatures of PP. Thus in view of the thermal framework conditions, the experience collected in this project can in no way be generalized, but will have to be revalidated for each project. W Properties Standard UnitHostacom ERG 393F BlackBef...

Kunststoffe international, 2017-05-22, More than Hot Air
...eatment, the temperature of the substrate surface and layers close to the surface is briefly increased [4]. Here the great dynamics of heating the surface followed by very rapid cooling are especially interesting. The heating/cooling rates can exceed 5000 K/s at travel speeds of 100 mm/s. Beyond a certain threshold, the phase change temperature of the polymer is exceeded in this layer. However, both the heating and the cooling phases are limited to this thin layer and to a short time. Therefore ...

Kunststoffe international, 2017-07-19, Disquiet before the Storm
...-styrene (ABS) under the trade name Precite. In this way, Akro-Plastic’s range of engineering plastics is being systematically extended. The compounder’s production volume is increasing overall. Whereas last year the 70,000 t mark was exceeded, the amount that will be produced in 2017 is expected to reach 75,000 t. If the good economic situation continues, "we could even exceed the 80,000 t mark," according to Managing Director Stuber. Despite the many forecast changes and uncertainties, confere...

Kunststoffe international, 2018-02-21, Naturally Non-Flammable
...igher elongation at break (about 12 %) than that of natural fibers (hemp fibers, jute, sisal, etc.) are obtained. However, regenerated cellulose fibers can be decomposed by the higher processing temperatures of engineering plastics, which can exceed 250 °C, thereby reducing their strength [2]. Moreover, the typical application areas of (reinforced) PBT achieve a V0 classification.In the European Union, a classification system for the fire behavior of construction products plus the associated tes...

Kunststoffe international, 2018-03-09, Efficient Heat Dissipation
...nge of consistencies and their robustness, silicone-based thermal interface materials prove indispensable in this field. Most experts agree: tomorrow’s cars will be electric. In 2016, the number of electric vehicles on the world’s roads already exceeded two million, up 58 % on the prior year. The Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has calculated that new electric car registrations in China, the country with the largest electric fleet, have risen six-fol...

Kunststoffe international, 2019-09-17, Energy-Efficient Use of Drives
...circumstances, no longer be approached because the drive slows down. Contrariwise, if the indicated torque is too low, the transmission and the processing unit may be overstressed too much. The deviation in torque should therefore not exceed 2 % [3]. Speed accuracy does not present a challenge in practice due to speed feedback. Speed deviations of less than 0.1 % are feasible and common. Extruders tend to be used in continuous operation. High energy efficiency is therefore absolutely essential...