Thermoplastic polyurethanes are high-tech
materials with a unique combination of very useful properties.
For example, our products display high wear resistance, good
resistance to oils, greases and solvents, and extremely good
weather stability, combined with high elasticity.
As a result, TPU is used successfully in
numerous segments of the economy, such as in the sports and
recreation industry, and the automotive industry. Apart from
wellknown applications, such as transparent skiboots from
leading manufacturers, the folding rear window of the BMW Z8,
and livestock ear tags from Allflex, I would also like to
mention some new applications, like foldable kayaks, leg ropes
for surfboards and breathable textiles. However, together with
our colleagues in New Business, we are also pondering the world
of tomorrow, where issues like “automotive flat cables” will
play a key role for us.
It is also said that
TPU closes the gap between rubber and hard thermoplastics.
Thermoplastics on the one hand are plastics, that can be
deformed plastically even after their hardening under the
influence oft heat. Rubber on the other hand is very elastic and
shows a good adhesion without sticking to something. Our
flexible high-tech materials Desmopan® and Texin® (product line
of Bayer MaterialScience LLC., USA) combine a multitude of those
strengths, that mark rubber on the one side and thermoplastic
materials on the other side. They can for instance be deformed
under tensile and compression load, but find back afterwards to
their basic position; furthermore they can be stretched when
being heated, and when they are heated even more they can
unboundedly be fused-in and
reshaped.
Recapitulating it can be said, that
our Desmopan´s and Texin´s principal advantages include the
following properties, that make them very interesting for a
broad variety of applications:
Print