DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - Shell International Chemicals Ltd. thinks it has found a new sliced bread. The London firm introduced its aliphatic polyketone resins -based on ethylene and carbon monoxide monomers - at K'95 in Dusseldorf, comparing development of the resins to DuPont Chemical Co.'s discovery of nylon in the 1930s.
Steve Wood, manager for Carilon thermoplastic polymers, said he expects the resin to compete with the five most-used engineering thermoplastics - nylon, acetal, polycarbonate, polyesters and polyvinylidene fluoride.
Shell plans to market the new resins under the Carilon trade name. Wood said they will be available commercially - at a cost of $3.50 per pound - in the second half of 1996, when Shell completes a 15.4 million-pound-per-year production plant at its facility in Carrington, England.
The company claims the resins are easy to mold and can be molded on most standard equipment. Further, they do not require predrying or conditioning after molding, and have glossy, mar-resistant finishes. The copolymer has a melt temperature of 490§ F, while a terpolymer version, which uses polypropylene as the third component, has a melt temperature of 430§ F.
Wood said the resins were developed after a key catalyst technology was developed to permit polymerization of carbon monoxide and olefin monomers at its market development center in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Samples of Carilon resins will be offered until they are available commercially, Wood said.
By mid-1996, Shell expects to have natural, glass-fiber-reinforced and flame-retardant grades of Carilon resins.
