SABIC Expands Renowned Lexan* Polycarbonate Portfolio with New High-End Materials for LED Lighting
SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business today announced here at NPE 2012 (Booth #29000) important new additions to its flagship portfolio of high-performance Lexan* polycarbonate (PC) materials: Lexan CFR (clear flame retardant) copolymer and three new Lexan LUX resin grades. Lexan CFR copolymer addresses rising consumer electronics and appliance manufacturer demand for a clear, sustainable flame retardant (FR) material, and the new Lexan LUX resins offer an excellent solution for light emitting diode (LED) applications such as light guides and lenses. These new Lexan PC materials demonstrate SABIC’s ongoing investment in world-class technologies, technical expertise and portfolio breadth. They also underscore how the company continues to increase PC performance to meet customers’ environmental, high-performance, aesthetic and regulatory requirements. In fact, SABIC’s portfolio of customer-relevant PC materials is the broadest in the global plastics industry.
“We’re proud of Lexan resin’s 60-year heritage of innovation and pleased to be perceived as a leader in consistent product quality,” said Gregory Adams, vice president, Automotive and Polycarbonate Strategy, Innovative Plastics. “The new Lexan CFR and LUX resins we are introducing today illustrate how we strive to deeply understand our customers’ industry dynamics and commercial ambitions, and how we are helping to power their long-term competitive advantage with the materials solutions they need to succeed worldwide. These new additions to the Lexan portfolio illustrate our commitment to deliver innovations that address customers’ changing needs.”
Enabling the Next Generation of LED Lighting:
Efforts to raise the continuous operating temperature of LED lights for increased light output are placing new demands on plastics used in these applications. Long-term color stability and retention of light transmission performance under the influences of heat and light are becoming more critical. The Lexan LUX resin portfolio, which includes the three new transparent grades plus three others designed for covers of LED bulbs and tubes, addresses this challenge.
The new Lexan LUX grades (LUX2110T, LUX2010T and LUX2910T resins) utilize new technology that offers improved initial color, color stability and light transmission during heat aging vs. standard PC. These next generation PC resins are engineered using an innovative, technologically advanced process, resulting in high-purity resins that provide significantly improved light transmission as molded and after heat aging, as compared to standard and optical grade PC. For example, these grades retain more than 98 percent of initial light transmission when exposed to a temperature of 130 °C for more than 5,000 hours. At more typical heat exposure in the range of 90-110 °C, the transmission retained is even higher. They also provide improved light transmission (10 units better, compared to competitive products) after heat aging at low wavelengths typical of LED systems.
The latest enhancements to the LUX portfolio also offer a choice of flow characteristics for a variety of LED applications including automotive light guides and inner lenses and general lighting lenses. They also meet the UL 94 V-2 rating at 0.8 mm and glow wire flammability index (GWFI) 850 °C at 1 mm, according to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60695-2-12.
Expanding the Lexan LUX Family:
The latest additions to the Lexan LUX portfolio complements SABIC’s existing Lexan LUX resins, which were introduced in 2011. The first launch provided non-chlorinated, non-brominated FR resins that meet the UL 94 V-0 standard at 1.5 mm in all colors. They also offer a choice of customizable diffusion levels or transparency and excellent luminance. Customers can choose clear Lexan LUX9610 resin for injection molding and extrusion applications or select from two customizable diffusion grades. Lexan LUX9612 resin offers low diffusion and Lexan LUX9616 resin provides high diffusion with well-balanced transmission.
For additional information on SABIC’s Lexan PC solutions, please go to www.sabic-ip.com. For technical product inquiries, please contact us at www.sabic-ip.com/prtechinquiry.
About SABIC Innovative Plastics:
SABIC’s Innovative Plastics strategic business unit is a leading, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics with an 80-year history of breakthrough solutions that solve its customers’ most pressing challenges. Today, Innovative Plastics is a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company continues to lead the plastics industry with customer collaboration and continued investments in new polymer technologies, global application development, process technologies, and environmentally responsible solutions that serve diverse markets such as automotive, electronics, building & construction, transportation, and healthcare. The company’s extensive product portfolio includes thermoplastic resins, coatings, specialty compounds, film, and sheet. Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).
