Dupont announces new additions to 3d printing materials portfolio

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers, a global business unit of the DowDuPont Specialty Products Division, is launching at RAPID + TCT 2019, new additions to the company’s portfolio of 3D printing materials, including six new Zytel polyamide and Hytrel thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPC-ET) pellets and two new Hytrel filaments, as per Chemengonline.

DuPont’s new pelletized materials for pellet extrusion modeling were developed to help increase 3D manufacturing agility and cost-effectiveness by allowing customers to switch seamlessly from prototyping to small-series, pre-series and mass production—while maintaining similar polymer properties. The new pellets and filaments offer a range of hardnesses, fiber reinforcement options and colors.

The company’s R&D programs manager, Jennifer L. Thompson, Ph.D., will give a technical presentation on these new materials, titled “High Performance Materials for 3D Printing” on Thursday, May 23, at 10:15 a.m. EDT as part of the Material Development and Characterization conference session. Thompson will highlight new engineering materials for industrial use, describe alternative 3D printing methods such as pellet extrusion modeling and discuss tailored testing programs for printing materials.

"As 3D printing capabilities advance beyond traditional prototyping and small-volume production, the industry is looking to scale up and accelerate production while driving down costs,” said Christophe Paulo, strategic marketer, EMEA, DuPont. “By delivering our products as pellets as well as filaments, DuPont gives customers the flexibility to use the same material across different processes. For instance, they can create prototypes with fused layer modeling and final parts with pellet extrusion modeling – or even injection molding for very high volumes – while maintaining consistent properties. The addition of pelletized materials to our offering supports the trend toward mass customization using 3D printing."

At RAPID + TCT, DuPont is exhibiting automotive ducts and structural components, and a variety of other 3D-printed parts that showcase the diversity and capabilities of its Zytel and Hytrel 3D pellets and filaments.

As MRC informed earlier, rising demand for DuPont’s Tyvek nonwoven materials has prompted DuPont Safety and Construction, a business unit of DowDuPont Inc., to invest more than USD400 million to expand capacity for the materials at its facility in Luxembourg. The expansion will include the addition of a new building and third operating line at the site. The new capacity will come on stream in 2021

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company LANXESS will once again have its own stand at the “Fuse Box Meets Dryer – Plastics in E&E applications” conference of the Suddeutsche Kunststoffzentrum, said Britishplastics.

Marc Marbach, head of the E&E sales segment in the LANXESS High Performance Materials business unit, said: “In terms of topics, this year we are concentrating on cost-effective alternatives to polyamide 66 compounds, the application of our structural materials in the battery, powertrain and charging infrastructure of electric vehicles, and our growing range of halogen-free, flame retardant polyamides and PBT."

“We also want to showcases the extensive services that are customised specifically to the needs of the E&E sector and with which we support partners throughout the entire development chain for components.”

The wide range of halogen-free flame-retardant polyamide 6, polyamide 66 and PBT compounds comprises both unreinforced material variants and those featuring up to 45 per cent by weight glass-fibre reinforcement.

For example, these include polyamide 6 compounds with high tracking resistance and high glow-wire resistance on the finished part, which are very well suited to applications in unsupervised operated household appliances, and metal and halide-free product types for components such as high-voltage connectors near the car battery and the electric powertrain that must not corrode over the long term.

In addition to the automotive industry, laser transmission welding is increasingly establishing itself in the E&E sector in series production of complex plastic components.

HPM has therefore expanded its portfolio to include halogen-free flame-retardant glass-fibre reinforced polyamide 6 and polyamide 66 compounds, which are also laser transparent, to meet increased demand for such specialities.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2017, Lanxess announced the expansion of its Additives segment and plans to acquire the phosphorus chemicals business with a US production site from Belgian chemical group Solvay. Both companies signed an agreement to this effect.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. Through Arlanxeo, the joint venture with Saudi Aramco, Lanxess is also a leading supplier of synthetic rubber.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Ningxia coal Industry (SNCG), a subsidiary of Shenhua Group, one of the largest petrochemical producers in China, has undertaken a planned shutdown at its No. 1 & 4 polypropylene (PP) units in early May, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source China informed that the company has shut the units on May 7, 2019 for a maintenance turnaround. The units are expected to remain off-line for around 3 weeks.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the No. 1 & 4 PP units have a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year each.

As MRC informed previously, SNCG brought on-stream its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant on January 19, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The unit remained off-line for around one week owing to technical issues.Located at Ningxia province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- France-based robots and industrial automation maker Sepro Group is partnering with Fanuc Corp. – which is also headquartered in France – to expand the Cartesian robot technology available in Fanuc’s injection molding machines (IMMs), as per Canplastics.

Fanuc’s all-electric Roboshot IMM can now be equipped with Cartesian robots made by Sepro Group and integrated into the molding machine controls via Sepro Visual control. “This partnership aims to meet increasing demand for robot/IMM packages and will allow Fanuc to benefit from Sepro’s know-how in the fields of Cartesian robots especially designed for the plastics industry,” Sepro and Fanuc said in a joint statement.

Sepro’s partnership with Fanuc is the twelfth of its kind for Sepro.

"The Visual system delivers one unique control platform that is open to different technologies and open to integration with injection molding machines,” the statement said. “Visual is an easy-to-use robot control, which was developed…especially for injection molding. It makes easy, open integration possible with features and capabilities like an open system [that is] transparent to users and to different robot technologies; simplified programming and operation; and is common to Sepro’s entire portfolio."

In May 2019, Sepro Group appointed Raul Scheller as its managing director of Sepro operations in North America.

The Sepro Group designs and integrates 3-axis, 5-axis and 6 axis robots with a unique native control platform to equip injection molding machines of all brands.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The production processes of the most important basic chemicals are responsible for around 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the chemical industry, said the company.

BASF experts are working intensely on new technologies to substantially reduce emissions in these processes. Partial aspects of the new CO 2 emission-free methanol process were tested in a pilot plant at BASF subsidiary hte GmbH in Heidelberg . Project manager Maximilian Vicari and hte expert dr. Nakul Thakar are pleased with the challenges that have been solved, such as activating the catalytic converter and operating the system.

Partial aspects of the new CO 2 emission-free methanol process were tested in a pilot plant at BASF subsidiary hte GmbH in Heidelberg . Project manager Maximilian Vicari and hte expert dr. Nakul Thakar are pleased with the challenges that have been solved, such as activating the catalytic converter and operating the system.
The company has bundled all of this work under the roof of its ambitious Carbon Management Program. One of the first visible successes in this area has been achieved by a project team which has applied to patent a process to produce methanol without any greenhouse gas emissions. If it can be successfully implemented at an industrial scale, the entire production process – from syngas production to pure methanol – will no longer release any carbon dioxide emissions.

Typically, methanol is made from syngas, which until now has been primarily obtained from natural gas via a combination of steam and autothermal reforming. Using special catalysts, this can then be turned into crude methanol, which can be further processed after purification. In the new BASF process, the syngas is generated by partial oxidation of natural gas, which does not cause any carbon dioxide emissions and has proven to be advantageous in a study jointly conducted with Linde Engineering. The subsequent process steps – methanol synthesis and distillation – can be carried out nearly unchanged.

Ingenuity was required to address the merging and processing of the waste gas streams that arise during methanol synthesis and distillation and which cannot be avoided even with optimal process management. These waste gas streams consisting of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen are incinerated in an Oxyfuel process with pure oxygen. This results in a small volume of flue gas with a maximum carbon dioxide content. The flue gas is then scrubbed using BASF’s proven OASE process for full recovery of the carbon dioxide.

To ensure that the carbon contained in the carbon dioxide is not lost and that it can be used again for methanol synthesis, the captured carbon dioxide is fed back into the beginning of the process. This does, however, require additional hydrogen, which BASF also aims to produce without any carbon dioxide emissions, for example, via methane pyrolysis, which is also being developed in the Carbon Management research program.

“We are optimistic that our climate-friendly approach will better adapt methanol synthesis to the requirements of the 21st century,” said project manager Dr. Maximilian Vicari from BASF’s Intermediates division. “Nearly 100 years after the first industrial-scale production of this important basic chemical using BASF’s high-pressure process, we are now taking a leading role in writing the newest chapter in the history of methanol.” Vicari expects it will be around 10 years before this new process is carried out in an industrial-scale plant.

The basic chemical methanol is an important starting material for many products in different BASF value chains. Derived products such as formaldehyde, acetic acid and methylamines are very important in terms of volume. Other important derivatives include methyl tert-butyl ether, methyl methacrylate, polyalcohols and silicones. Methanol also serves as an energy supplier and can be used as a raw material for chemical conversion into other fuels or fuel additives.

As MRC informed before, in December 2016, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
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