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O ne of the major application areas for high performance elastomers is to manufacture seals and so it was no surprise that there was plenty of interest from seal manufacturers at the High Performance and Speciality Elastomers 2007 conference in Frankfurt on 5-6 December.
Contributions included materials with extended fluid and temperature capabilities, improvements to processing properties and discussion of material related aspects of seal applications.
Developments were reported across the broad range of fluoroelastomer materials. Solvay Solexis introduced a new perfluoroelastomer material with patented technology that offers both high temperature capability and wider fluid resistance including polar fluids. Although it can work up to 320ΒΊC it is becoming quite stiff at room temperature. Diakin presented information of grades of fluorocarbon, FKM, that have been developed to improve injection moulding performance and also new low temperature materials. Until recently the primary use of Aflas tetrafluoroethylene co-polymer has been in oil and gas and the chemical industries. However, the increasing use of a large proportion of additives in lubricants, including amines is broadening the potential scope of this material. It is now finding applications in the automotive and other industries where long life lubricants are used. To cater for this broadening range of interests a grade with improved extrusion properties has been developed.
Other material types with improved processing included both HNBR and EVM materials from Lanxess. Fully fluorinated liquid silicones provided a complete session. Both Momentive and Dow Corning have introduced these materials, as discussed in the news section this month, and both companies presented details of these polymers. Developments in both ethylene acrylic and EPDM polymers were also discussed.
Of particular interest among the application oriented papers was the work reported by James Walker on low temperature sealing capabilities. This thorough work, which
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