BASF enters the long glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide market

Wherever the most demanding technical requirements must be satisfied – in the automotive and machinery industries but also in the household appliance and leisure sectors – designers have often had to rely on metal in the past. But this is where plastics can provide the greatest benefits, since when it comes to mobility resources can be conserved and the environmental impact reduced. Moreover, when designing complex machinery, function integration and ease of processing count: these are the three primary benefits of plastic as a lightweight material.

This is why many components that were previously made of metal have been replaced by plastic components over the past decades. The more demanding the application, the greater is the performance required from the plastic. Disregarding high-temperature materials such as PEEK or polysulfones, the greatest advances have been made with specially formulated polyamide grades, as can be seen from the first volume production of plastic transmission cross beams and engine mounts in 2009. If this class of materials wishes to make even greater inroads in high-load applications in the machinery and automotive industries, additional innovations are necessary.

With this in mind, BASF is entering the market with a new class of high-performance polyamides in the K-year of 2010 and presenting its first long glass-fiber-reinforced (LF) polyamide grade Ultramid® Structure LF. This product group which is new in BASF’s portfolio, represents a considerable advance in terms of performance with metal substitution as the objective, since where even highly optimized short glass fiber-reinforced products reach their limitations, LF polyamides offer new opportunities.

The self-confident name also shows that these polyamides are part of the new group of specialty polyamides designated Ultramid Structure LF, with the aid of which BASF is taking a large step in the direction of specialty engineering resins with high capability.