Polymer Additives

Markets

Indirectly Great Lakes plays a key part in the creation of many products that we use in our daily lives in the home, in the car, and in the workplace. Plastics producers and resin suppliers use our high-performance additives to create products that resist heat and combustion and maintain stability during processing. These products serve strong and growing markets such as consumer electronics, fibers, wire and cable, telecommunications equipment, automotive, cosmetics, and furniture.

Automotive

As automobile manufacturers look for ways to reduce the cost of manufacture and to reduce weight, plastics use in automobiles will increase. Great Lakes additives are used to provide light fastness in polymers used in the interior of automobiles. Antioxidants and flame retardants find use in under the hood applications as well as interior components where there is a concern for prolonged exposure to heat or flammability. Key polymers used in automotive applications include: polyurethane, polypropylene, polyethylene, PVC, polystyrene, ABS and most of the engineering polymers. Key Great Lakes antioxidants used in automotive applications include: Anox® 20 and Anox® PP-18, and key light stabilizers include Lowilite® 234, Lowilite® UV B1260 and Lowilite® UV B1211. For a full list of Great Lakes Flame Retardants and Smoke Suppressants for Automotive see www.fr.greatlakes.com.

Coatings

Polymeric coatings are used over a variety of substrates to improve aesthetics, protect surfaces, and improve physical properties. Acrylics, epoxies, PVC, SBR, and many other polymers are used. Often copolymers are developed to provide the specific properties required. Great Lakes offers a wide range of flame retardant additives, additive packages, and smoke suppressants, to help the coatings formulators meet the strict criteria established by both furniture and automotive manufacturers. Great Lakes DE-83R™, Great Lakes CD-75P™, Great Lakes FF-680™, Reofos® 65, Reofos® 95 and Firemaster® 2100 can be dispersed into the latex matrix. In addition, Great Lakes also offers these flame retardants in different physical forms that are more readily dispersed into the latex and help to expand the final products' shelf-life. The tradename for these novel solutions is Azub.

Polymer stabilizers are utilized, individually or in combinations, to enhance the longevity of polymeric coatings. UV absorber/HALS combinations, like Lowilite® 28 and Lowilite® 26, enhance light stability. Phenolic antioxidants like Anox™ 20, Anox™ PP18, Anox™ 70 and Alkanox™ 240 enhance thermal stability. While solid additives are often most cost effective, reactive compounds, liquid additives, and submicron sized particles are used when clarity is required.

Electronics

Consumer electronics such as TVs, appliances and computers, and electrical mechanical devices such as connectors, switch boxes and relays are major markets for polymer additives. Electronic applications are by far the largest use for flame retardant polymers. UV absorbers and antioxidants are commonly used in the polymers that will likely see prolonged exposure to heat or light or are processed at elevated temperatures. The common polymers used in electronics applications are epoxies, polystyrene, polyolefins, ABS, PC/ABS, PPO/HIPS, polycarbonates, PVC, polyamides and polyesters. A wide variety of GLCC products are used in these polymers including:

Antioxidants: Anox™ 20, Anox™ PP-18, Alkanox™ 240 and Alkanox™ P-24
UV Absorbers and Stabilizers: Lowilite® 20, Lowilite® 24, Lowilite® 27, Lowilite® 28, Lowilite® 62, Lowilite® 77, and Lowilite® 94
Flame Retardants, flame retardant synergists and smoke suppressants

Textiles

Polymeric fibers have show great promise and growth in a number of applications such as sportswear and diapers. Many times polymer additives may be incorporated into the polymer prior to fiber formation. Great Lakes offers antioxidants for polyolefin and polyurethane fibers for such applications such as Lowinox® 1790 and Anox™ IC-14. When incorporation into the polymer is not possible, the finished textile may be treated several ways. Topical treatment with salts or other additives lacks permanence. Reactive compounds exist to treat some textiles topically. An alternative is incorporating the additive into a polymer binder or coating. Great Lakes DE-83R™, Firemaster® 2100, and Azub products offer excellent performance in textile backcoatings for applications like carpet. Where smoke is an issue, a wide range of smoke suppressants are available for textiles. Dispersible antioxidants like Lowinox® CPL and Lowinox® 44B25 can used in backcoating formulations to help the processing characteristics.

Wire and Cable

A number of polymers are used in wire and cable applications. Primary uses include insulation over conductors or as sheathing over multiwire systems. PVC and olefins are dominant in wire and cable. PTFE and elastomers are gaining share. Potential for fire and smoke are important considerations in wire and cable. Flame Retardant additives for PVC include antimony trioxide, TMS® and Flame Retardant additives for polyolefins include Firemaster® 2100 or antimony tiroxide combined with aromatic halogens, Great Lakes DE-83R, PVC used in plenum applications must meet severe flammability and smoke requirements. Great Lakes DP-45 and Reofos 35 can be used in place of primary plasticizers in plenum sheathing. Great Lakes has developed novel additives for plenum applications that impart flame retardancy without detrimentally affecting the physical properties of the system, such as low temperature brittleness, or increasing smoke generation. Also Great Lakes offers a wide range of smoke suppressants that can be used in PVC to meet the smoke criteria for UL-910. Examples of these products include Smokebloc® AOM-100, Smokebloc® AZ-75, Smokebloc® AZ-40, Smokebloc® AZ-11, Smokebloc® AZ-12, ZB-223, ZB-237, ZB-112R, ZB-325, ZB-467 and Ongard® 2. Phenolic antioxidants are the primary method of stabilization for the insulation cover. Great Lakes' products such as Anox™ HB, Lowinox® MD24 and Lowinox® DSTDP offer excellent protection against free radical induced decomposition that can sometimes occur during use. Antioxidants like Anox™ 70 and Anox™ 330 also offer protection against degradation in cross-linked wire and cable applications.