Fibre-filled compound enables hazardous handling

A LNP Engineering Plastics Europe product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 22, 2003

Theodor Fries Gesellschaft of Sulz, Austria, has developed an innovative 18-litre pail designed especially for hazardous materials using a proprietary Faradex steel fibre filled compound.

Based on extensive knowledge gained in developing drums, pails and canisters for various application areas as well as on their injection moulding and tooling expertise, Theodor Fries Gesellschaft of Sulz, Austria, has developed an innovative 18-litre pail designed especially for hazardous materials.

The pail is moulded in a proprietary Faradex steel fibre filled compound from LNP Engineering Plastics, a world leader in custom-engineered thermoplastic material solutions.

Key application requirements included high impact strength and rigidity in transportation and storage.

Above all, however, the pail had to provide reliable surface conductivity for filling and handling easily flammable powders and liquids in explosion-proof environments.

"Conventional explosion-proof packaging solutions using thermoplastic materials are frequently based on carbon black to achieve the required electrical conductivity of the inner and outer surfaces of the containers", says Thomas Rhomberg, Director of R and D for Fries.

"Apart from limiting the colour choice to black, the filler content - between 6 and 8% - presents a high contamination potential.

The risk of carbon black migrating into the packaged product prohibits its use for many applications, such as in the dye/paint and food industries".

In search of a thermoplastic material to overcome these restraints, Fries eventually selected Faradex MS-1003 from LNP, a 15% steel fibre filled polypropylene compound.

Moulded in this material and completed with a steel lid and metal clamping ring, the 18-litre pail meets all explosion-proof classes, as well as all temperature class provisions set out in the European ATEX directive for packaging equipment in hazardous environments.

Moreover, the pail is stackable under load (filled), has passed severe mechanical testing, including impact without breakage when dropped from a height of 1.2m at -18C, and showed no leakage when subjected to a pressure of 1.5bar for 30min.

The Faradex compound was identified as ideal for this demanding application, as a result of the close co-operation between Fries and LNP.

"Beyond ensuring optimum balance between the required conductivity, mechanical properties, processibility and cost, LNP's quick response and competent support also helped us to minimise time-to-market for this product", says Kunibert Tiefenthaler of Fries purchasing department, in emphasising another critical reason for the material choice.

Following two years of extensive research and development, the electrically conductive pail was officially introduced to the market at Interpack 2002, and was awarded a state award for exemplary packaging by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Labour.

In their decision, the expert jury complimented the pail design for combining "a resource saving and cost-efficient transportation packaging with high safety and optimum product protection", by preventing electrostatic charge and associated explosion hazards.

The conductive pail is available in various colours matched to customer specifications.

Typical application areas include the packaging of powders and water-based liquids in the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries.

Faradex is part of LNP's line of electrically active compounds, which also includes Stat-Kon and Stat-Loy, each offering excellent protection against static buildup, electrostatic discharge and electromagnetic interference through the use of selected electrically conductive fillers, fibres or polymers.

Faradex compounds are available in various base polymers, including ABS, PP, PC and PC/ABS, and in a wide range of colours; the compounds are customised to provide the desired shielding level in a ready-to-mould material without the need for additional coating or painting.