Extrusion International 6-2023

34 Extrusion International 6/2023 FAKUMA 2023 in Germany serves the technical support needs of its growing customer base in Europe. “This investment reaffirms our continued commit - ment to the engineering plastics market in Europe,” said Yohei Iizuka, managing director of Polyplastics Eu- rope GmbH. “The new technical service operation will support application development work and enable our customers to shape their innovations from concept to commercialization.” DURACON ® , LAPEROS ® , and PLASTRON ® are regis- tered trademarks of Polyplastics Co., Ltd. in Japan and other countries. TOPAS ® is a registered trademark of TOPAS Advanced Polymers GmbH in Germany, the United States and oth- er countries. Polyplastics Co., Ltd. www.polyplastics-global.com Fluoropolymers and their Alternatives At Fakuma 2023, Dreyplas showcased a variety of op- tions for replacing fluoropolymers caught up in the con - troversy around PFAS with melt-processable UHMW-PE at their booth. UHMW-PE can be used for molded parts as well as for profiles, sheet products, films and coatings in applications where very low friction and abrasion, de- pending on the case in conjunction with high chemical resistance, are of primary importance. Dreyplas bases its advice about this versatile resin on Mitsui Chemi- cals’ products, which are available both as pellets and as powders and micropowders and are also suitable for 3D printing. Dreyplas will continue to offer an extensive range of fluoropolymers for those applications which si - multaneously require high temperature resistance. Highly abrasion-resistant molded parts, extruded sheets, profiles and hoses are some of the applications for LUBMER™ pellets, a self-lubricating, high-impact grade of UHMW-PE suitable for injection molding in both hot runner and tunnel gate systems. Thanks to its food safety and acoustic and electrical insulation properties, potential applications include automotive, electronic, and industrial parts, together with use as a friction-reducing additive in other polyolefins. MIPELON™ with its spherical, particularly readily dispersible fine particles can be produced with diam - eters of 10 to 30 µm, whereas the usual dimensions of UHMW-PE powder are 150 to 200 µm. It can thus be an alternative to PTFE for formulating lowwear, chemically resistant coatings, where it not only increases abrasion resistance but also reduces the coefficient of friction even more than does PTFE. A further typical application is use as a friction-reducing additive. Another spherical UHMW powder grade with par- ticle diameters in the range from 120 µm to 160 µm is HI-ZEX MILLION™, which is mainly used for electronic or industrial materials, medical devices, food manufac- turing, etc. Its wide range of applications extends from screws, slide rails and gears to battery separators and prostheses. As a friction-reducing blend component, its low density of 930 to 950 kg/m3 helps to reduce product weight. As Norbert Hodrius, Technical Marketing Director at DREYPLAS explains, “Numerous collaborative projects with customers have demonstrated that, where elevat- ed thermal stability is not essential, it is often possible to do without fluoropolymers In such cases, our alter - native is UHMW-PE, which has up to twenty times the abrasion resistance of conventional PE, combined with good chemical resistance, high flexibility and low-tem - perature impact strength as well as further advantages such as acoustic and electrical insulation and compliance with food safety requirements. In addition, UHMW-PE has good sustainability since all grades are suitable for the PE recycling loop, while its melt processability means low levels of manufacturing waste.” Sales Manager Markus Geister adds, “If specific re - quirements mean there is no alternative but to use fluoropolymers, we can supply a wide range of high- performance polymers including PTFE, FEP, PFA, etc. together with comprehensive application engineering know-how to ensure successful use in our customers’ applications.” DREYPLAS GmbH www.dreyplas.com At Fakuma 2023, Dreyplas will show where UHMW-PE-based thermoplastics can replace fluorine-containing polymers (© Dreyplas)