Sekisui Plastics USA (Mt. Pleasant, TN) will showcase its processing and polymerization technologies for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets at Booth S20156 at NPE 2015. A major focus of the exhibit will be the introduction of new grades of Piocelan moldable foam resin, a hybrid of styrenic and olefin components.

Used in automotive components for energy absorption and weight reduction, the new grades reportedly offer improved properties including heat resistance, fire retardancy and strength. The foam can also reportedly be used as a safe and effective packing material for transporting automotive components, IT equipment and home electronics according to Sekisui.

“We use a proprietary polymer hybrid technology to add polyolefin characteristics to the foam which significantly improves the shock resistance, chemical resistance and abrasion resistance previously regarded as weak point of EPS [expanded polystyrene] foam,” said Thomas Pontiff, Vice President of Sekisui Plastics USA. “A major feature of the foam is its ability to be easily molded into shapes using conventional EPS molding equipment. Shapes can be freely designed to match the shapes of materials, parts and packed contents.”

Sekisui will also be highlighting several developmental product technologies such as polyamide resin foam that exhibits excellent high and low temperature resistance and it is easily formable into complex shapes; elastomer resin bead foam that is extremely resilient with very low compression set and high flexibility and heat resistant acrylic and polyester foams that are easily formed or machined into complex shapes useful as core materials for carbon fiber composites.

Sekisui will also showcase new grades of Techpolymer microspheres, spherical fine polymer particles produced through a proprietary polymerization technology. “The new grades will provide extremely efficient light diffusion and transmission allowing energy savings and fine detail in lighting and displays,” said Pontiff. Techpolymer microspheres can be used to impart transparent plastic parts with light diffusion properties. The material provides superior light transmittance and diffusion to acrylic, PET (polyethylene terephthalate), and polycarbonate resins making LCDs for personal computers and televisions brighter and easier to see.”