E/E applications on the rise
The use of thermoplastics in the electrical/electronics sector (E&E) will continue to grow strongly in the future thanks to megatrends such as Industry 4.0, LED lighting and the digital networking of building systems, household appliances and entertainment electronics. Lanxess's High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit - a world-leading supplier of compounds based on polyamide 6, polyamide 66 and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) with its Durethan and Pocan brands - is therefore boosting its activities for the E&E industry. A new E&E Marketing and Sales segment has been set up that pools resources for this industries and organizes them in more targeted fashion.Areas of focus on the product side include thermoplastics with good melt flow characteristics that facilitate the design of large, thin-walled components of complex geometry. One example is a roller support for a food processor from a premium household appliance manufacturer. It is made of Pocan C 3230 XF (XtremeFlow). With this material, the precision component, which is subjected to high mechanical stress, can be of thin design, but still display low warpage and high dimensional stability. Other new products from HPM include hydrolysis-stabilized PBT compounds for automotive electrical and electronic systems and thermally conductive polyamides.