If there was one phrase that really stood out to me during my brief trip to Charlotte for the International Wire & Cable Symposium (IWCS), it would be the term “low-smoke, zero halogen.”
Several companies were highlighting new product lines touting this very critical feature, and several presenters highlighted it throughout the technical sessions, particularly during the poster session. Full product releases will be coming from several of these companies in the near future, but here is a quick run-down of some of them.
One of the first companies we visited with, BASF, said that it is now gearing up to really market a truly low-smoke, zero-halogen product, Elastollan TPU, in the U.S. market. The company’s European counterpart has been offering it for about a year now. The Elastollan material is designed to offer halogen-free flame retardancy with LOI’s up to 33% and increased temperature resistance to 150°C (for 3000 hours).
Huntsman launched its halogen-free TPU with FR performance at the event as well, highlighting it during the New Product Presentations on Monday. Its Irogran 95 P 5003 halogen-free cable jacketing solution combines the mechanical benefits of TPU with high fire retardant behavior. It features a limited oxygen index (LOI) of more than 30.
Finally, in addition to other new product presentations and poster sessions dedicated to the topic, Lubrizol was also highlighting its Estane TR92AP7, high-heat resistant TPU. The company just officially released its Estane TPU last Friday, so this very new product line has a high heat rating of 125°C and features hydrolysis and chemical resistance as well as low-temperature flexibility. In addition, Lubrizol helped revise the UL 1581 standards to include TPU for higher temperature ratings.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we go into more depth on these and other product lines discovered at IWCS.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.