Bayer promotes PUR pultrusion through partnerships

"Polyurethane is the pultrusion resin of the future." That's the sentiment of Bayer MaterialScience polyurethane expert Harry George. "Polyurethane chemistry offers many benefits over the chemistries traditionally used in the pultrusion process." In support of the technology, and its material's use within it, Bayer has recently announced collaborative agreements with two pultrusion companies. Strengthening a relationship that goes back five years, Bayer MaterialScience LLC and Pultrall Inc. announced ongoing collaboration for the application of the Baydur polyurethane (PUR) system that's been specially designed for use in pultrusion.

The companies say the relationship was augmented when Bayer's PUR house, BaySystems, supplied Pultrall with its Baydur PUL 2500, a two-component liquid PUR system for use in composite manufacturing. George says the technology gives excellent composite properties, including superior elongation to failure, shear strength, and impact resistance.

Bayer MaterialScience also announced a formal agreement to augment its strategic alliance with Martin Pultrusion Group (Oakwood Village, OH), a supplier of pultrusion equipment, tooling, and processing technology that the PUR supplier has worked with going back to June 2008. That company, which manufactures pultrusion equipment and dies, also offers prototyping, designing, and start-up assistance.

Through its continuing education classes about material and processing options, the company also provides hands-on experience that to date, has helped more than 90 companies in 29 countries ease into captive pultrusion processing.

Pultrusion products are fiberglass-reinforced shapes formed in a continuous process where the base reinforcement material is pulled through a resin bath and then through a heated die, which gives the part its final dimensions. The pultrusion process allows for a wide variety of shapes and lengths, and variations of properties, such as strength and color, can be obtained by changing the combination of resin mixture and reinforcement materials.

Common applications include bus side panels; modular display duct panels used on buses, trains, and other means of transportation for air circulation and to house lighting systems; overhead luggage racks; and automotive structural components. Pultrall says the Baydur system enables it to eliminate the use of mats or wovens in profiles, with the PUR resin system acting as the transfer reinforcement material for profiles with zero degree reinforcement. —[email protected]