Gart Kostermans, business manager and project director Stanyl ForTii at DSM, commented, “Despite the current difficult economic conditions, market acceptance of Stanyl ForTii has not slowed.”

Since its introduction, the name of the material has changed—initially it was called PA4T—but its selling points have remained the same: it is said to offer a unique balance of properties, including excellent dimensional stability, compatibility with lead free soldering, high stiffness and mechanical strength at elevated temperatures, and excellent processability in terms of flow and processing window.

DSM keeps its capacity figures close to its vest. Early last year the company opened what it called a market development plant for the material in Sittard, Netherlands, and whatever the capacity at the facility was is now being increased 300%.

According to Paula Wolf, marketing communications manager at the supplier, parts processed from Stanyl ForTii are mainly focused towards high temperature applications involving SMT (surface mount technology) reflow, eutectic (63% lead/ 37% tin) soldering or dip soldering, with these applications so far including switches, bobbins, SATA connectors, LED housings, I/O connectors, mini or micro USB, HDMI, and display ports, with most of the processing completed as yet at customers’ facilities in Europe and Asia.  —[email protected]