NEWS
Panel discussions on recycling
This year’s Flame Retardants in Plastics Conference included a panel discussion on recycling, moderated by Isabel de Castro, Flame Retardants Europe, with Chris Thornton of pinfa, Karen Janssens of Campine, Rudolf Pfaendner of Fraunhofer LBF and Lein Tange of ICL-IP
READ MORECarl Spaeter GmbH
Carl Spaeter supplies different grades of the mineral flame retardant MDH, in particular for cables for different sectors (transport, electrical, construction …), and to applications in construction, such as roofing membranes.
READ MOREDe Monchy International
De Monchy centres on providing quality products to customers, ensuring high levels consistent over coming years. Sustainability is a priority for the company, which is moving away from brominated FRs with a developing offer of ‘green’ and non-toxic FRs.
READ MOREFire and Polymers Belgium
Günter Beyer, Fire and Polymers Belgium, summarised possibilities of bio-sourced flame retardants, Phytic acid (inositol hexaphosphoric acid), the natural phosphorus storage molecule in plants (especially in seeds), with up to 28% P by weight, has been demonstrated to be an effective flame retardant, and is readily available.
READ MOREMateria Nova Research Centre Belgium
Fouad Laoutid, Materia Nova Research Centre Belgium, presented research into fire safety functionalisation of polylactide (PLA, a bio-based polymer) by inserting phosphorus compounds, such as DOPO-diamine, as initiator for lactide ring opening polymerization.
READ MOREKlaus Lederer, POLOPLAST
POLOPLAST’s policy is to offer PIN flame retardant solutions, considered to be the future for fire safety. Health and safety, both for POLOPLAST’s own staff and for customers, is a priority and leads to prefer PIN FRs which offer benefits and quality technical support from PIN FR suppliers.
READ MOREFraunhofer IFAM
Nick Wolter, Fraunhofer IFAM (see pinfa Newsletter n°105 FRPM 2019), presented the Mat4Rail project, developing innovative composite materials using polybenzoxazine (high performance, low density polymer), basalt fibre reinforcement and phosphorus PIN FRs.
READ MORECellMark
Frédéric Roquefeuil, CellMark, presented this group’s development into fire safety. The group was founded in 1984 in Sweden with roots in the pulp and paper industry, acquiring Alcan International Network in 2012. CellMark has today 700 staff worldwide and a strong emphasis on developing a safer and more sustainable chemistry.
READ MOREShinichi Ikoma and Shinji Sakaguchi, Daihachi
Daihachi sees phosphorus as the key to fire safety in the future as users look for alternative solutions to halogenated chemicals.
READ MOREKostas Gatos, TERNA MAG
TERNA MAG expects that the prospects of market growth for flame retardants will induce new developments in relevant materials and polymeric recipes, on the basis of optimum (technically and cost wise) solutions.
READ MOREMuhammad Waseem, Gabriel Chemie
Polyolefins in general, and polyproylene in particular, are one of Gabriel Chemie’s specialist sectors for halogen free flame retardants, providing masterbatches for extrusion and injection moulding applications with demanding fire safety and technical specifications such as stadium seats (see pinfa Newsletter n°44), films for aviation transport, construction, mining industry.
READ MOREBernd Hönig, Constab
Constab optimises formulations to achieve customers’ needs for specific and often demanding applications. PIN FRs are now available which offer heat stability in processing, are melt blendable, easy to process and can be transparent or colour-compatible.
READ MOREJürgen Troitzsch
Jürgen Troitzsch, consultant, summarised trends in fire safety standards. Increasingly, standards are designed to allow fire safety to be achieved by different approaches: use of inherently fire resistant materials, fire barriers or flame retardants.
READ MOREGeorg H. Luh
Klaus Rathberger, Georg H. Luh, Germany, outlined the benefits of his company’s expanded graphite as a PIN flame retardant system component.
READ MOREInternational Antimony Association (I2A)
Caroline Braibant, International Antimony Association (I2A) presented the “hazards” of antimony and stewardship measures engaged to enable safe use of antimony trioxide (ATO).
READ MOREConsultation on RoHS restrictions for halogenated FRs
The European Commission has a consultation, open to 30th January 2020, on restrictions on restrictions of additional substances under the RoHS Regulation (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment), with assessments of TBBPA (tetrabromobisphenol-A), MCCPs (medium chain chlorinated paraffins) and ATO (diantimony oxide). The consultation is based on dossiers for each substance prepared for the European Commission by Öko-Institut and Fraunhofer IZM (each 60-80 pages).
READ MOREEU consultation on classification of melamine
ECHA (European Chemical Agency) has launched, open to 7th February 2020, a public consultation on a proposal to classify (CLH) melamine as Cat 2 carcinogen (H351 suspected carcinogen) STOT RE1 (specific target organ toxicity, H372 urinary tract), based on possible risks from oral intake.
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