Dow says the resin could be used in industrial and domestic applications, such as in window manufacturing, building profiles, electrical infrastructure and civil engineering.
“Major OEMs are looking to urethane resins to permit them to achieve higher mechanical properties when competing with traditional materials, like aluminium," reports Jeff Martin, CEO of Martin Pultrusion Group Inc, a provider of pultrusion equipment based in Oakwood Village, Ohio, USA.
| During our tests with pultruded polyurethane, we discovered superior toughness, excellent fibre wetting, fast reaction and low emission properties at a significantly higher pultrusion speed. Analysing C-shaped pultruded profiles, our research team has found a significant cost savings potential in raw material, as compared to unsaturated polyester, which makes this a really attractive offering to composite fabricators. |
| Guido Bramante, research scientist at Dow’s composite group |
"The lower viscosity of urethane resins permit higher glass loadings than either polyester or vinyl ester resins. This leads to pultruded urethane composites to have flexural modulus properties which approach the properties of aluminium.”
“VORAFORCE™ polyurethane pultrusion resin showed excellent processing behaviour as it allows especially low pull forces during the processing on our equipment,” he reports.
Dow's polyurethane systems for pultrusion will initially be available in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. They will be introduced to US markets at a later stage.