At Fakuma 2015 PolyOne unveiled new bold color and extrusion options within the reSound Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites portfolio."While the automotive industry has responded well to reSound NF, which was introduced earlier this year, we have seen significant interest in these strong, lightweight solutions from manufacturers in consumer and other industries," said Holger Kronimus, VP Europe and general manager, PolyOne Specialty Engineered Materials. "The new color and extrusion options have been developed to offer non-automotive customers the flexibility and aesthetics they need while maintaining performance and ease of processing."
New reSound NF color options include beige, copper, terra cotta, green, blue and black hues. These colors were developed in collaboration with PolyOne's InVisiOSM Color Inspirations 2016 color collections. In addition to these creative hues, reSound NF is now available in formulations that have been tested and proven for profile extrusion, expanding its use to potential extrusion applications in building and construction, sports and leisure, and furniture manufacturing.
Introduced this year in March, reSound NF composites feature an engineered natural fiber reinforcement. Compared to other natural fiber reinforced solutions, reSound NF materials offer mechanical property improvements of more than 20% for tensile and flexural properties, 10°C to 20°C higher heat deflection temperature, and an increase of more than 50% in impact strength. Independent testing has shown that reSound NF formulations offer equivalent performance to short glass fiber reinforced alternatives, at a 5-10% lower density.
