New materials meet environmental standards

A Sabic Innovative Plastics product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 12, 2007

GE Plastics' LNP Starflam compounds offer high-end mechanical and electrical properties that exceed those of traditional materials that use brominated and red phosphorus additives.

GE Plastics has released a new portfolio of high-tech LNP Starflam compounds that provide excellent flammability performance while meeting the requirements of halogen-free parts.

The LNP X-Gen Starflam Z270 family of fibre-re-inforced polyamides supports compliance with the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE), Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations, and other environmental requirements.

The new products offer high-end mechanical and electrical properties that exceed those of traditional materials that use brominated and red phosphorus additives, and provide easy processing, excellent surface appearance, and the ability to be laser marked for labeling purposes.

"Many different industries face increasingly stringent environmental requirements on the use of halogenated flame retardants", said Nitin Apte, General Manager LNP at GE Plastics.

"Until now, there were no good alternatives to traditional re-inforced polyamides".

"But with our new LNP X-Gen Starflam compounds, GE has changed the game: customers across the electrical/electronics, transportation seating, and industrial devices industries now have a full range of high-performance, environmentally responsible compounds that can help ensure regulatory compliance".

The LNP X-Gen Starflam Z270 compounds combine nonhalogenated flame retardance and low-smoke performance, and meet UV94 V-0 standards at low thicknesses, as well as IEC60335 requirements.

They also provide outstanding thermal performance with a RTI of 140C and very robust electrical properties with a CTI of 600V.

The materials deliver excellent mechanical properties - Including ductility and low warpage, enabling the materials to be use in demanding applications of virtually any size.

RoHS regulations have led to industry adoption of a soldering process that meets lead-free requirements for surface mounting of connectors onto printed circuit boards.

To pro-actively address this, Winchester Electronics, a US manufacturer of high-speed, high-bandwidth interconnect solutions, began developing a complete line of RoHS-compliant products.

But the company found that the polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin that it was using could not withstand the higher temperatures generated by infra-red (IR) reflow ovens used in lead-free soldering.

Not only did Winchester need a plastic that could take the heat, but the material also had to comply with regulations mandating the elimination of halogens from flame retardants, plus provide an array of key performance properties.

GE's LNP X-Gen Starflam Z270 compound was able to completely meet these needs.

On top of this, the GE Plastics material could be processed in existing moulds, saving tremendous capital costs and enabling fast implementation.

Similarly, French firm Trelec turned to the LNP Starflam compound to produce fuse holders for printed circuit boards.

The GE Plastics material offered this demanding application high electrical performance and compliance with RoHS and WEEE.

In the transportation seating market, Franz Kiel, a German manufacturer, achieved its goals of flame retardance, stiffness, and chemical resistance for moulded bus and tram seating with GE's LNP X-Gen Starflam compound.

The colourability of the material allowed Franz Kiel to avoid the cost of secondary painting.

LNP X-Gen Starflam compounds have already proven their excellent fits in a range of other applications covering the electronics and electrical segment as well as transportation.

The portfolio includes PA6, PA6.6, PA6.6/6 blends and other polyamides such as PPA and PA12.

The materials are available globally and are currently injection- mouldable.

New extrusion grades are under development.