Flame retardancy is an essential element for plastic components or composites that are commonly used in transportation, construction, household and industrial applications, as accidental exposure to heat and flames can cause severe damage and put lives in danger. Growing demand from the global construction and automotive industry, combined with stricter fire safety standards, will significantly influence the demand for durable flame retardant chemicals.
THOR and BASF plastic additives experts have worked together for many years to develop sophisticated solutions to meet demanding flame retardant specifications by focusing on alternatives to halogen-containing additives.
Both parties are active members of the PINFA Phosphorus, Inorganic and Nitrogen Flame Retardants Association and work closely together to provide durable polymer systems that resist ignition and the spread of fire over their lifetime.
The combined expertise in flame retardant additives provides customers and end users with information highlighting the synergistic benefits of BASF’s Flamestab® halogen-free flame retardant with THOR’s AFLAMMIT® phosphonate technologies, for polyolefins which are typically an application difficult flame resistance.
“An in-depth, multidimensional evaluation of an additive solution is essential to shorten the time to market. The closer our suggested formulations are to end-user requirements, the shorter the development time and cost for our customers. At THOR, we are continually working to improve our flame retardants and their performance in desired plastic compounds. Depending on market needs, a wide variety of fire safety standards are available to test our own developed flame retardant formulations. As a service, our project partners, such as BASF, provide us with newly formulated plastic films, molded or extruded samples for performance evaluation,” explains Armin Eckert, BU-Head of Performance Chemicals, THOR GmbH.
“Offering superior fire safety to a plastic part while maintaining other characteristics such as mechanical performance and light stability is a real challenge,” says Dr. Achim Sties, Senior Vice President, Performance Chemicals Europe, BASF. “BASF’s technical experts work hard to deliver solutions that meet our customers’ requirements and leverage our strong experience and network to respond with cost-effective and sustainable technology solutions. Together with THOR, we focus on technical combinations that help shorten a formulator’s or processor’s journey to achieve their flame retardance goal and efficiently progress towards certification in a complex environment of standards and testing.
Comments are closed.