MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lanxess, German specialty chemicals company, has developed a new polyester material grade based on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), reported the company on its site.
The new material grade - Pocan TP 555-001 - is excellently suited to manufacturing housings, sockets and other components for light-emitting diodes (LED). What makes the product unique is its excellent light reflection, which hardly declines at all over time, and its high heat stability. Besides, it is reinforced with glass fibers and contains special additives.
"This high-tech material represents a new, growing material family that is our response to the global trend in LED light sources. It is designed as an economical alternative to specialty polyamides, materials frequently used to make components such as LED housings thanks to their high melting point," explains Dr. Matthias Bienmuller, head of Pocan Product Development at Lanxess.
Pocan TP 555-001 displays outstanding heat stability for a polyester in its material class. With its high melting point of roughly 260 °C, the material can withstand the temperatures prevailing during vapor phase soldering with lead-free solder. This is one of the methods used in LED manufacturing to solder electronic components.
LEDs are the light source of the future. Their energy consumption is significantly lower than that of incandescent and discharge lamps, and their service life longer. Growing potential for their use exists, for instance, in electronic display backlighting, building lighting and streetlamps. They likewise will continue to become established in automotive lighting.
We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Lanxess' largest production line for the Keltan-branded EPDM synthetic rubber in Sittard, Geleen, The Netherlands, has been successfully converted to the company’s innovative ACE technology. The German pioneer in synthetic rubbers development has invested roughly EUR12 million to convert the production line from conventional Ziegler-Natta chemistry to its innovative ACE-process. The new line - EPT 3 - has a capacity of 95,000 metric tons per year. This is more than half of the total capacity at that plant. It is currently the world’s largest metallocene ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) plant with an annual capacity of 180,000 metric tons.
Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR9.1 billion in 2012 and roughly 17,400 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. Lanxess' first-quarter sales were down by 12% year-on-year to EUR2.1 billion, mainly due to lower volumes and fallen selling prices.
MRC