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Welcome to this edition of Bayer MaterialScience’s TPU eUpdate.

Bayer MaterialScience knows its success depends on our customers’ success. We know that we must provide added customer value by constantly asking, ”How do we make our customers successful?” and offering knowledge, technology or products to make them successful.

That philosophy is underscored in the new TPU Business Unit brochure highlighted in this TPU eUpdate. You’ll also learn about “next generation” TPUs to meet expanding customer needs and new uses of a plasticizer-free TPU as an alternative to PVC.

If you design and manufacture medical devices, you’ll want to visit us at the Medical Design and Manufacturing West Exposition and Conference January 31-February 2 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Ahaheim, California, (Booth 2959) http://www.devicelink.com/expo/west06/. We’ll also be exhibiting June 19-23 at NPE 2006, the international plastics exposition at McCormick Place in Chicago, where innovation will be showcased (Booth 1696) http://www.npe.org/. On February 18-21, we’ll be demonstrating how our TPUs enhance footwear at ANPIC: The Fair of America at the Politform in Leon, Mexico,  http://fair.anpic.com/. March 8-9, we’ll be exhibiting at the NW Footwear Materials Show at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland http://www.americanevents.com/.

At BayerMaterial Science, we apply “Science For A Better Life.” Contact us at 800-662-2927, visit www.BayerMaterialScienceNAFTA.com or contact us by e-mail at TPUinfo@bayer.com.

"Next Generation" Soft Thermoplastic Polyurethanes

Improved Processing Characteristics; Reduced Cycle Time

For decades, molders have searched for increasingly soft thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) that are processor friendly, reduce cycle time to reduce part costs and are easily recycled.

Bayer MaterialScience believes the search is over, thanks to the company’s new Desmopan® 600 Series of soft TPU resins now available in grades DP-065A , DP-6386A and DP-6045D. Bayer calls them “next generation” TPUs.

“These polyether-based TPU resins have a hardness range of 65 Shore A to 45 Shore D,” said Gerry DiBattista, Bayer MaterialScience TPU market channel manager. “They solidify quickly, thus reducing cycle time by 50 percent or more versus traditional polyether TPUs. This makes them ideal for injection molding, and they have high form stability,” he said.

These features, plus high microbe and hydrolysis resistance and recyclability, make them ideal for manufacturing injection molded technical parts. DP-6065A is suitable for “soft touch” applications. DP-6386A is suitable for the extrusion of tubes, hoses, profiles and sheets, and DP-6045D is ideal for various molded functional components.

“Natural adhesion to a variety of common rigid substrates makes these resins excellent materials for overmolding and a host of other industrial and consumer applications,” DiBattista said.

The new resins were made possible by breakthrough research at Bayer MaterialScience laboratories. The research led to ester-based TPUs based on a soft, fast re-crystallizing ether soft segment.

Unlike some soft TPUs, the Desmopan 600 Series is plasticizer-free and is not compounded with any other material. “That’s a dramatic improvement,” DiBattista noted, “since plasticizers or compounds with other soft elastomers can lead to a dramatic reduction in the excellent property matrix of a true TPU.”

Flexible Windows: from Yachts to Baby Carriages

Scratch-Resistant and Plasticizer-Free Alternative to PVC

When Bavarian Motor Works was looking for an alternative to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for the flexible rear window of its BMW Z8 Roadster, it turned to Bayer MaterialScience for an answer.

BMW settled on Bayer Material Science’s Texin® DP7-3041 thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for its strength, scratch-resistance and long-lasting transparency. The resin is now featured in a new application: yacht window panels. Bayer MaterialScience experts believe that other applications—from party tents to rain covers for baby carriages—can’t be far behind. Texin DP7-3041 TPU was developed by Bayer MaterialScience researchers in Pittsburgh.

Use of Texin DP7-3041 TPU for yacht window panels began with German yacht owner Dieter Gnegeler, who also owns a leading European plastics compounding and upgrading company, GEBA Kunststoffcompounds GmbH in Ennigerloh, Westphalia, Germany.

Gnegeler found that he had to replace his yacht’s PVC window panels after only one sailing season. Harsh conditions at sea made the panels brittle, scratched and clouded. He reasoned that replacing the PVC panels with panels produced from

Texin DP7-3041 TPU would have distinct advantages:

First, the sun’s heat softens the resin, leveling out uneven panel areas. This means that small scratches caused by abrasive sea salt crystals practically repair themselves during cleaning.

Next, because Texin DP7-3041 TPU is plasticizer-free, the window panels retain their flexibility for a long time. They also have high flexural fatigue strength and buckling resistance, ensuring there are no cracks or clouding at the panel folds.

Texin DP7-3041 TPU can be easily produced in all colors, opening up a broad range of future applications. Use of the resin for party tent window panels, for example, would eliminate the high cost of regularly replacing windows that have lost their transparency. And if used in rain covers for baby carriages, the resin would allow newborns a clear, plasticizer-free view of their surroundings.

For more information about Texin DP7-3041 TPU, phone Timothy Jacobs, Market Channel Manager—NAFTA Extrusion, at 412-777-3837 or via e-mail at timothy.jacobs@bayerbms.com.

New Brochure Highlights Bayer's High-Tech Thermoplastic Polyurethanes

A new brochure from Bayer MaterialScience, Desmopan® and Texin® -- High-Tech Thermoplastic Polyurethanes Set Trends , details the rich variety of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPUs) the company offers, new TPU resins under development and TPU Business Unit customer services.  This brochure and other Texin TPU literature can be viewed on-line by visiting www.BayerMaterialScienceNAFTA.com  (registration is required before you can view or download the brochure).

Desmopan and Texin resins bridge the gap between plastics and rubber, combining the processing efficiencies of TPU resins with the physical properties of elastomers. The resins, available in polyester- and polyether-based and polyurethane blend formulations, are used in products serving medical, industrial, consumer, sports and automotive applications.

Bayer MaterialScience tailors the resins to specific end uses through the selection of raw materials to meet demanding product applications. These include abrasion, weather, wear and chemical and mechanical resistance.  The brochure describes new, softer, more flexible and plasticizer-free grades and much more.

The brochure describes new Bayer MaterialScience TPU grades under development. For example, harder Desmopan and Texin grades are under development that still can be extruded. These specialty grades are being considered for making pneumatic, industrial and automotive hoses and tubes that require higher compressive strength and mechanical resistance. They are also being considered in the sports and leisure area because of their performance value.

Other specialty grades under development are halogen-free, flame-retardant Desmopan resins that meet Underwriter Laboratories’ stringent US UL94 standard, and new "intelligent" TPU materials that change form under defined external parameters—they "remember" their original shape and return to it again by heating.

The brochure also describes how Bayer MaterialScience product teams help customers to successfully make new products from their ideas. The TPU Business Unit will work with customers from their initial product application ideas through the choice of TPU materials and components leading to a finished product.