SABIC to Showcase at Plastpol Advanced Materials and Application Development Expertise for Poland’s Established and Emerging Growth Sectors

Kielce, Poland – 24 May 2011 – At Plastpol 2011, the SABIC family of plastics businesses – including Polymers and Innovative Plastics – will showcase their expanding array of advanced material solutions for the Polish market. These innovative technologies have been designed for Polish customers in both established and new market sectors, including infrastructure, packaging, electrical/electronics, consumer goods, lighting and fluid engineering. As part of its comprehensive offering to Polish customers, SABIC also provides a strong local team and extensive resources. These include a logistical centre in Kutno for reliable, local supply of materials; and a Fluid Engineering Centre of Excellence in the Netherlands in close proximity to help customers find the right material solutions throughout the application development cycle -- from concept through production. SABIC will exhibit at Plastpol 2011 in Stand Hall E, stand 31.

Piotr Kwiecien, Managing Director Sales Office Poland for SABIC Polymers, says; “Poland is a strategic priority for SABIC, and we are proud to be one of the top polyolefin suppliers to Polish companies. We have experienced solid growth in core segments – such as packaging and consumer – and will continue to invest in new materials solutions to meet changing industry requirements to help customers achieve greater performance and productivity. These solutions include linear low-density polyethylene for multi-layer film packaging and a range of advanced materials for pipe applications. We have the global resources and systems to fully support Poland’s strong growth in consumption of polypropylene, polyethylene and other materials.”

“In addition to supporting and developing materials for core markets such as electrical, we are expanding our focus this year to target fast-growing sectors such as healthcare, LED lighting and fluid engineering,” adds Al Ghelani, Regional Manager, Eastern Europe for SABIC Innovative Plastics. “A major focus for us is replacing traditional materials such as steel and aluminum with high-performance specialty resins and compounds – including Ultem* and Noryl* resins and LNP* compounds. It’s important to work closely with customers, especially R&D teams. Moreover, using resources such as our Fluid Engineering Centre of Excellence in The Netherlands, where we have extensive testing and engineering design facilities, will be critical to the success of new projects.

• Specialty materials for electronics and healthcare

LNP Thermocomp* high specific gravity (HSG) compounds for radiation shielding address upcoming changes to the lead replacement exemption for category 8 products under the European Union’s (EU) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Additionally, LNP Faradex* compounds integrate protection against interference from wireless patient monitoring systems increasingly used in the home or long-term care facilities.

• LED Heat Sinks Brighten Up With LNP Konduit* Compound

Heat sinks are essential for dissipating heat that can detract from an LED’s optimal useful life of 50,000 hours. Traditionally, they have been made from aluminum or black or gray conductive resins. To meet typical consumer demands for more attractive LED lighting designs, LNP Konduit compound is now available in white to coordinate with white and coloured bulbs. In addition to superior thermal conductivity, this material offers cost and design benefits. LNP Konduit compound boosts productivity compared to die-cast aluminum, which requires secondary operations. It also offers greater design freedom, including the ability to create shapes with greater surface area for improved thermal management.

• Fluid engineering

Thermoplastics offer the potential to build cleaner, safer and more cost-effective water systems; however, each material must first undergo extensive testing. Materials research, testing and evaluation at SABIC’s Fluid Centre of Excellence are leading to new fluid engineering innovations. These include the use of Noryl polyphenylene oxide (PPO*) resin in water valves to provide better hot water resistance than other resins and greater design freedom and part integration than metal. Noryl and Noryl GTX* resins are also used widely in water meter components and pump impellers, due to their low water absorption and dimensional stability that provide better accuracy and performance.

Noryl PPX630* resin can be typically used for new generations of environmentally compliant condensing heat exchangers for boiler systems. Noryl PPX* resin is commonly used by customers for several criteria: good heat resistance, remarkable chemical resistance to condensing fluids and fumes and very good mechanical resistance and dimensional stability. Noryl resin is typically used for manufacturing the housings that contains the stainless steel coils. Components moulded with Noryl PPX630 resin can allow easy assembly of the condensing heat exchanger on automated production lines. This not only brings a second potential cost saving but may also offer the advantage of ease of integration relative to this industry.

LNP Lubricomp* graphite-filled compounds are a good candidate for typical applications such as water meter pistons due to their abrasion and wear resistance, hydrolytic and dimensional stability, and low coefficient of friction.

Ultem resin is typically used for highly technical applications requiring high temperature, tight dimension and long term stability in combination with potable water approvals.

Proven materials and new innovations

SABIC is supporting Polish packaging customers with its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) grades for blown film and cast stretch film.

Recently, the company unveiled a combined polyethylene (LDPE/LLDPE/HDPE) multi-layer film concept of up to five layers for typical food and household products packaging. These film combinations allow manufacturers to create unique property configurations that can be used for specific needs of brand owners as well as the demands of the consumer. Multilayer film offers down-gauging opportunities that can reduce material consumption for cost savings. The concept also optimizes equipment performance for higher processing speeds and lower energy consumption.

Other packaging innovations include the SABIC® LDPE UMS (Ultra Melt Strength) foam line for foam applications, including foam sheeting and sealing, which can deliver significant savings in materials and energy. The UMS materials are less temperature-sensitive, allowing a wider operating window for machine temperatures. This combination of properties delivers considerable material and energy savings, supporting converters in their efforts to improve their cost and sustainability performance.

Clarified polypropylene (PP) grades for storage containers and other packaging applications offer improved optical performance and energy savings for converters. SABIC® PP Qrystal random copolymer grades can be processed at significantly lower temperatures than comparable grades without loss of transparency, resulting in energy savings of up to 15 percent.
SABIC PP® Qrystal is a potential choice for housewares, office and home storage, lids and caps & closures.

The SABIC® PP Flowpact range of polymers may provide benefits to converters, particularly in thin-wall packaging. Flowpact grades offer shorter cycle times and lower energy costs with the potential for significant material down-gauging.

In healthcare, SABIC has introduced two new PP random copolymer grades. SABIC® PP PCGR02 is an extrusion-blow moulding grade which can be applied for bottles and ampoules. This material exhibits good contact transparency, impact strength and excellent processability. The second new resin, SABIC® PP PCGR25, features the high clarity and good antistatic properties necessary for injection moulded housings of disposable syringes. SABIC® PP PCGR25 may also be used for other parts that benefit from its excellent optical properties as well as its broad processing window.

• Pipe

Infrastructure is another major sector where SABIC has achieved notable growth, with offerings for non-pressure, high-pressure, scratch-resistant and corrugated pipe, among others. The new SABIC® Vestolen A RELY family of tough, sustainable and cost-effective bimodal HDPE materials for pressure pipe applications, offers converters considerable energy savings and enables environmentally responsible pipe installation. Developers and contractors can select trenchless pipe installation such as guided boring and horizontal directional drilling that reduce impact on the environment.

SABIC® Vestolen PP random copolymer grades for drinking water pipes and fittings are heat stabilised to handle hot water transport. These high molecular weight materials offer good resistance to extraction and leaching.

About SABIC
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.

SABIC recorded a net profit of SR 21.5 billion (US$ 5.73 billion) in 2010. Sales revenues for 2010 totaled SR 152 billion (US$ 40.5 billion). Total assets stood at SR 317.6 billion (US$ 84.5 billion) at the end of 2010.

SABIC’s businesses are grouped into Chemicals, Polymers, Performance Chemicals, Fertilizers, Metals and Innovative Plastics. SABIC has significant research resources with 18 dedicated Technology & Innovation facilities in Saudi Arabia, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, India and China. The company operates in more than 40 countries across the world with 33,000 employees worldwide.

SABIC manufactures on a global scale in Saudi Arabia, the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. SABIC’s overall production has increased from 35 million metric tons in 2001 to 66 million metric tons in 2010.

Headquartered in Riyadh, SABIC was founded in 1976 when the Saudi Arabian Government decided to use the hydrocarbon gases associated with its oil production as the principal feedstock for production of chemicals, polymers and fertilizers. The Saudi Arabian Government owns 70 percent of SABIC shares with the remaining 30 percent held by private investors in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

About SABIC in Europe
In Europe SABIC has 12 world-scale production facilities which manufacture polyethylenes, polypropylenes, engineering thermoplastics and chemical products. An extensive network of local sales offices and logistical hubs are responsible for sales of these products as well as those manufactured elsewhere in the world. In addition SABIC has three research facilities based in the region, which form part of its global Technology and Innovation organization.
SABIC employs approximately 6000 people in Europe.

About SABIC Innovative Plastics
SABIC Innovative Plastics is a leading, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics with an 80-year history of breakthrough solutions that solve its customers’ most pressing challenges. Today, SABIC Innovative Plastics is a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company continues to lead the plastics industry with customer collaboration and continued investments in new polymer technologies, global application development, process technologies, and environmentally responsible solutions that serve diverse markets such as automotive, electronics, building & construction, transportation, and healthcare. The company’s extensive product portfolio includes thermoplastic resins, coatings, specialty compounds, film, and sheet. SABIC Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).

Media Notes
• As an acronym, SABIC should be all caps whenever it appears in print.
• ® Trademark of SABIC
• * Trademarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP B.V.

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E knoels@marketingsolutions.be

This release was published on openPR.