SABIC Highlights Material Innovations for Key South American Growth Sectors at BrasilPlast 2011
May 9, 2011 - At BrasilPlast 2011, SABIC highlighted expanded regional capabilities, new technologies and strong customer relationships. The company showcased the four facets of its Culture of Innovation theme, which emphasizes sustainability, growth, technology and customer focus. The SABIC booth featured an impressive array of materials from the company’s broad and growing portfolio, which enables breakthrough applications across Brazil’s major growth sectors including automotive, healthcare and building & construction.
“Participation in BrasilPlast 2011 gives SABIC a great opportunity to show our steadfast, long-term commitment to customers in South America and to their continued growth and success,” said Khaled Al-Mana, SABIC executive vice president, Polymers. “Our Culture of Innovation focus drives our strategy to be a preferred world leader in chemicals, including plastics, and we are proud of our investments in global capabilities and our expansive product portfolio, which are instrumental in providing complete solutions to our customers.”
“Our number-one priority is to support our customers’ needs,” said Charlie Crew, SABIC executive vice president, Innovative Plastics. “To do this, we are investing in high-performance material solutions, advanced application development resources and value-added services that help our customers compete and succeed in local, regional and global markets. SABIC Innovative Plastics continues to build upon our rich heritage of breakthrough innovations, bringing a steady stream of new solutions to the marketplace.”
SABIC’s Culture of Innovation theme for BrasilPlast 2011 is built on four strategic pillars:
1. Growth: To meet customers’ requirements today and tomorrow, SABIC continues to invest in the expansion of global and local production.
- Expanded capacity to meet customers’ needs – SABIC Innovative Plastics recently expanded its local production capacity in Brazil with the addition of a state-of-the-art new manufacturing line running custom colors and smaller lot sizes, giving faster, easier access to samples of materials needed for application development. Products available for production in this new line include Cycolac* acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin, Cycoloy* ABS/polycarbonate (PC) resin, Lexan* PC resin, Lexan EXL resin, Noryl PPX* polyphenylene oxide/polypropylene (PPO*/PP) resin, Geloy* acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) resin, Valox* polybutylene terephtalate (PBT) and Xenoy* PC/PBT resins, as well as LNP* compounds.
- Local production of sustainable Flexible Noryl* resins – SABIC Innovative Plastics is now providing local supplies of its world-renowned Flexible Noryl resin to the critical South American market, shortening lead times for the sustainable, non-halogenated, flame-retardant resin by as much as 50 percent on average.
- Expanded polyolefin capacity – SABIC recently expanded polyolefin production capacity at its plant in Saudi Arabia. Together with polyethylene (PE) facilities in the United Kingdom and Germany, and the newer PE and PP facilities in China, this expansion allows SABIC Polymers to reliably supply customers anywhere in the world, including market segments in the Americas.
2. Technology: SABIC continues to focus on the development of materials targeting the demands of current and future technologies, from medical devices to light emitting diode (LED) lighting. These materials deliver high performance, meet more-stringent regulations and requirements, and add value by reducing system costs, opening up new design opportunities, and driving growth. Key technologies include:
- LED portfolio – These advanced materials include flame-retardant (FR) Lexan PC resin meeting the UL94 V0 standard at 1.5 mm. This resin enables thin-wall LED lighting in transparent and diffusion applications. The SABIC booth will feature examples of LED lighting with varying diffusion levels.
- Specialty materials for healthcare – LNP Thermocomp* high specific gravity (HSG) compounds for radiation shielding address upcoming changes to the lead replacement exemption for Category 8 products under the European Union’s (EU) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Also, the company’s LNP Faradex* compounds integrate protection against interference from wireless patient monitoring systems increasingly used in the home or long-term care facilities.
- Lexan PC auto glazing – SABIC Innovative Plastics' advanced Lexan GLX PC technology with Exatec* coatings are driving the development of new automotive glazing applications such as rear quarter windows, large sunroofs, spoilers and backlights that could offer up to a 50 percent weight reduction vs. comparably sized glass windows. More significantly, reducing the weight of glazing translates into a lower center of gravity for the vehicle, improving handling and safety. The company is displaying a roof module prototype and the SEAT rear quarter window.
- Lexan Thermoclick* sheet – This multiwall sheet system featuring a profiled connection combines high mechanical, optical and thermal properties for building cladding and facades. This interconnecting system eliminates the need for vertical profiles, saving installation time and costs while providing energy efficiency and excellent high-end aesthetics. Lexan Thermoclick sheet systems comply with CC1 (ASTM D635) and Class A (ASTM E-84) smoke and fire ratings.
3. Sustainability: Global sustainability issues are at the core of SABIC’s business strategy. SABIC’s product portfolio, technological expertise and history of innovation enable the development of materials that can help customers tackle a wide variety of environmental issues: cutting energy consumption during manufacturing; reducing weight of products or making them thinner; and enabling easier recycling or including recycled content.
- Sustainability Solutions Portfolio – SABIC Innovative Plastics is highlighting its expanded Sustainability Solutions portfolio and new validation process for sustainable materials, designed to help customers lower their carbon and energy footprints, reduce waste, and ensure strict compliance with global environmental regulations. All products meet an appropriate third-party standard or, in the absence of a recognized standard, pass an environmental benefits evaluation using a rigorous Sustainable Product Scorecard developed with GreenOrder, a top environmental sustainability consulting firm.
- Materials with PCR content – A significantly expanded array of SABIC Innovative Plastics materials containing post-consumer recycled (PCR) content builds upon the well-known Valox iQ* resin, Xenoy iQ* resin, and Lexan EXL PCR resin product lines with new Cycoloy PCR resins, Noryl Classico PCR resins and three new grades of Lexan EXL resins.
- Advanced FR materials – The company is producing two new grades of Flexible Noryl resin locally: WCD801AU, for potential use in cable jacketing and WCP821U, for potential use in molded cable components. These materials utilize FR systems that avoid use of brominated or chlorinated additives.
- High molecular-weight, high-density grades for pipe – Bimodal high density polyethylene (HDPE) grades from SABIC are compounded with a carbon black masterbatch that offers converters considerable energy savings and enables environmentally responsible pipe installation.
4. Customer Focus: To help customers innovate, differentiate their applications and optimize manufacturing, SABIC Innovative Plastics works collaboratively throughout the application development process. Dedicated local teams based in Brazil and Argentina, with color development and sample production at the Campinas plant, position the company to respond quickly to customer needs.
- Lightweight Noryl GTX* resins – Automotive designers such as Peugeot enjoy greater freedom to create larger, top-quality, high-precision body panels with lightweight Noryl GTX resin. When used to replace metal, Noryl GTX resin can deliver weight savings of up to 50 percent, contributing to better fuel efficiency and lower emissions. SABIC Innovative Plastics provided Peugeot with local and global support throughout the development process for its new 408 Griffe medium-compact sedan, which is on display here at the SABIC booth.
- SABIC® STAMAX® PP for automotive – Lightweight, high-performance SABIC STAMAX long glass fiber polypropylene (LGFPP) resin offers good thermal resistance and mechanical performance in automotive front-end modules. An additional potential benefit of using this material is the freedom to consolidate parts for streamlined assembly and system cost reduction. The Peugeot 408 Griffe, sporting the front-end module, will be on display.
- Expression 2012 palette – SABIC Innovative Plastics’ fifth-annual portfolio of eye-catching resin colors and special effects was created to inspire designers and give customers new ways to differentiate their products and stand out from the competition. Expression 2012 features in-surface decoration – a sustainable, direct-decoration colorizing process that works by enabling water soluble colorants to soak into a resin to eliminate the need for paint. The Expression 2012 sample kit is featured at the company’s exhibit.
Source: SABIC IP.
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