South Korean firm uses CBT/PC material to replace high heat ABS

South Korean development company PolymersNet has successfully commercialised a new CBT resin from Cyclics as an additive to make high-flow polycarbonate. The firm, set up in 2000 to provide knowledge and technical support to the country’s engineering plastics industry, has used CBT in a portable digital memory card application that was previously in high heat ABS.

Cyclics, which is making CBT at Schwarzheide, in Germany, said that adding small amounts of its material to polycarbonate increases the melt flow by 30-50% while maintaining good mechanical properties. “Adding the CBT resin to PC produced a material with a combination of processing and properties that simply wasn’t available before,” said PolymersNet chief executive Justin Jin.

Cyclics has formed a number of partnerships with majors such as Alcan Composites, Ahlstrom Glass Fibre and BASF to develop applications of its CBT material which offers water-like processing viscosities.