Specialty chemicals company LANXESS will be presenting its portfolio of high-performance plastics for the electrical and electronics industries at the “Light + Building” industry fair in Frankfurt, Germany. The focal points of this year’s appearance are on particularly easily flowing compounds for the cost-effective production of finely structured, thin-walled components and highly flame-retardant polyester blends with a reduced tendency to warp for complex and large housing components. A further emphasis will be placed on non-reinforced compounds based on polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) as an alternative to amorphous thermoplastics for switches.
“As one of the world’s leading industry fairs for lighting and electrical technologies and residential and commercial building automation, it offers ideal opportunities for presenting the latest developments in our Durethan polyamide and Pocan polyester ranges to international partners in the electrical, electronics and lighting industries, and for intensifying customer relations,” explains Marc Marbach, head of the E&E sales segment of the LANXESS High Performance Materials business unit. Considerable emphasis is also being placed on “HiAnt”, the comprehensive portfolio of services specially tailored to meet the needs of the electrical and electronics industries. As Marbach reports, “We will also be presenting a broad spectrum of engineering plastics that satisfy the worldwide standards and tests of the electrical and electronics industries, for instance with regard to flame-retardant properties or electrical behavior.”
Significantly shorter cycle times
Easy-flowing thermoplastics are in great demand due to their significant advantages against standard materials with regard to processing, production costs, and freedom of design. They are particularly suitable for cost-effective lightweight design and the miniaturization of assemblies. Just what savings can be made is illustrated by the example of a switching lock circuit board made from Pocan B3235XF. The easy-flowing PBT compound enabled a 30 percent reduction of the cycle time. Marbach: “We will be showing an inverter housing made from Durethan BG30XFN01 at the fair. Reinforced with glass fibers and glass micro-beads, the halogen-free, flame-protected polyamide 6 exhibits not only an outstanding flowability, but also possesses an extremely low tendency to warp.”
Low tendency to warp and excellent flame-retardant properties
Pocan AF4120 and AF4130 are polyester blends developed for large-scale housing components. They are based on PBT and ASA (Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate), show an extremely low tendency to warp and achieve the best classification of V-0 (0.4 and 0.75 millimeters) in the UL 94 flammability tests of the US testing institution Underwriters Laboratories Inc. In addition, they produce good and simultaneously low-emission surfaces (VDA 278). In applications, they also satisfy the requirements of weathering tests according to ISO 4892-3 due to their resistance to light and moisture. This means that components do not need separate coating with costly UV-protection systems. Possible, in some cases already implemented applications, are housings for battery cells, mechanically-loaded connectors and geometrically complex, large housings for electronic circuitry such as battery management systems.
