As resin names go, polyphenylene sulfide isn't very musical. You can say the same for most resin names.
When's the last time you heard a song about polyetheretherketone?
But this lack of musicality hasn't stopped Quadrant Group from finding a melodic use for one of its materials.
A grade of Techtron-brand High Pressure & Velocity (HPV) PPS is being used in high-performance guitar nuts on guitars made by Raygun Guitars of Gaithersburg, Md.
The guitar nut is an important part of any tremolo system. It allows guitarists to access a different range of sound at the press of a lever. Releasing the lever and returning to perfect pitch, however, is dependent on the level of friction within the system. Over the years, guitar makers have experimented with different guitar nut materials, including bone, metal, ivory, graphite, and other composites.
Initial tuning stability tests done by Raygun owner/operator Chris Verhoeven showed that a guitar nut made of Techtron PPS improved tuning stability to the point that, in a controlled environment, the impact to perceivable tuning stability was almost zero.
“I was just shocked at how well it performed,” Verhoeven said.
“Quadrant appreciates the ingenuity shown by Raygun Guitars in using a thermoplastics material in an unconventional way,” added Jim Hebel, manager of technical service and application development at Quadrant's engineering plastics division. “We're always looking for new ideas on how to push the limits of replacing traditional materials with plastics, particularly if they improve the application, like Techtron HPV did with Raygun's guitar nut.”
Quadrant is a major supplier of plastic shapes as well as of composites and other high-performance materials. The firm is truly global, with world headquarters in Lenzburg, Switzerland, and North American headquarters in Reading, Pa., while being majority-owned by Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. of Tokyo.