Helping to meet stricter atex regulations

Sabic, a glob­al leader in the chem­i­cal indus­try, today launched new LNP STAT-KON and LNP STAT-LOY com­pounds. The prod­ucts offer improved anti­sta­t­ic per­for­mance for appli­ca­tions cov­ered by the Euro­pean Union’s increas­ing­ly strin­gent Atex — direc­tives for equip­ment in haz­ardous areas. The new tech­nolo­gies can replace poten­tial­ly less effec­tive met­als and coat­ed or filled poly­mers in elec­tron­ics enclo­sures, automa­tion equip­ment, appli­ance hous­ings, light­ing fix­tures, safe­ty equip­ment and portable devices such as flashlights.

“Sabic is com­mit­ted to help­ing its cus­tomers com­ply with reg­u­la­tions by proac­tive­ly devel­op­ing spe­cial­ized anti­sta­t­ic mate­ri­als. Our new LNP grades fea­ture opti­mized elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge for­mu­la­tions that offer unique prop­er­ties, such as col­orabil­i­ty, and have under­gone rig­or­ous test­ing by an inde­pen­dent third-par­ty lab­o­ra­to­ry. These new com­pounds not only help speed time to mar­ket, but can also improve appli­ca­tion per­for­mance, dura­bil­i­ty, aes­thet­ics and pro­cess­ing to pro­vide a com­pet­i­tive advantage.”

- Joshua Chi­aw, Direc­tor, Busi­ness Management

The two new prod­ucts are based on LNP copoly­mer tech­nol­o­gy. LNP™ STAT-KON™ DD000XI is an advanced mate­r­i­al that pro­vides excep­tion­al elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge (ESD) pro­tec­tion while exhibit­ing excel­lent impact resis­tance to pro­tect sen­si­tive elec­tron­ics and ease of pro­cess­ing. LNP STAT-LOY D3000IEU6 is a col­orable prod­uct that offers the abil­i­ty to reduce cost­ly sec­ondary paint­ing oper­a­tions. The pro­pri­etary poly­mer blend ensures ade­quate ESD per­for­mance with­out affect­ing elec­tron­ic signals.

The two prod­ucts meet Atex safe­ty require­ments for elec­tri­cal con­duc­tiv­i­ty while offer­ing cus­tomers a choice of desir­able per­for­mance and pro­cess­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics. LNP STAT-KON DD000XI com­pound offers sur­face resis­tiv­i­ty in the range of 106 — 1010 Ω. It offers high impact strength at low tem­per­a­tures and after long-term hydroag­ing, as well as high heat resis­tance (a heat deflec­tion tem­per­a­ture of 140°C at 0.45 MPa (VICAT can also be con­sid­ered instead)).

The mate­ri­al’s wide pro­cess­ing win­dow and high flowa­bil­i­ty enable thin-walled designs for weight reduc­tion, while its easy demold­abil­i­ty — rel­e­vant for parts with rel­a­tive­ly sharp demold­ing angles — increas­es design flex­i­bil­i­ty. Com­pared to con­ven­tion­al car­bon pow­der-filled poly­car­bon­ate (PC) solu­tions, the LNP STAT-KON DD000XI com­pound offers high­er prac­ti­cal flow char­ac­ter­is­tics and a wider pro­cess­ing win­dow, fur­ther increas­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and design flex­i­bil­i­ty. Its high­er impact strength helps meet the demands of increas­ing­ly demand­ing assem­bly and ser­vice conditions.

LNP STAT-LOY D3000IEU6 offers a sur­face resis­tance of 109 — 1011 Ω to meet Atex reg­u­la­tions, while enabling high trans­mis­sion of elec­tri­cal sig­nals such as radar, radio and wi-fi. The dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture of this prod­uct is its com­plete col­orabil­i­ty — with an exten­sive range of vivid shades and good col­or reten­tion after pro­cess­ing. With this LNP STAT-LOY mate­r­i­al, cus­tomers can enhance their appli­ca­tions with a wide range of col­ors for brand­ing, aes­thet­ics or safe­ty mes­sages with­out the draw­backs of coat­ing and paint­ing process­es. Until now, PC-based grades for Atex appli­ca­tions were main­ly avail­able in black.

Oth­er out­stand­ing advan­tages include high impact resis­tance at low tem­per­a­tures (duc­tile to ‑30 °C) and a high lev­el of impact strength after hydroaging.

“With each update, the appli­ance direc­tive becomes more strin­gent and impacts an ever-widen­ing range of appli­ca­tions — from indus­tri­al, elec­tri­cal and mechan­i­cal equip­ment to elec­tron­ics and health­care appli­ca­tions,” said Luc Gov­aerts, direc­tor, Formulation& Appli­ca­tion, Spe­cial­ties. “Our new anti­sta­t­ic mate­ri­als were devel­oped with unique LNP copoly­mer tech­nol­o­gy to help cus­tomers meet the require­ments for their end-use appli­ca­tions more eas­i­ly and reli­ably. The com­pa­ny stays ahead of chang­ing require­ments by con­tin­u­ous­ly devel­op­ing new tech­nolo­gies that result in new and dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed prod­ucts. This con­tin­ued expan­sion of our port­fo­lio will enable new appli­ca­tions and pro­vide solu­tions for com­pli­ance in the future.”