Dow Introduces New Polymer Enhancer Technology Capable Of 55 Percent Line Speed Improvement For Automotive Cable Manufacturers

Houston, TX - Dow Wire & Cable, a market-facing global business of The Dow Chemical Company, introduced FR EVA 100 NT EXP1, the first generation of a new polymer enhancer technology developed by Dow which can enable significantly faster speeds on cable production lines.

FR EVA 100 NT EXP1 is used in conjunction with an existing automotive compound to enable manufacturers of under-the-hood automotive cables to increase their output. Typically, the product would be added into the automotive compound at 4-8 wt% to achieve maximum benefit. In full-scale automotive cable manufacturing demonstrations this year, Dow customers using FR EVA 100 NT EXP1 to enhance flame retardant Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) copolymer insulation improved cable processing speeds on existing equipment by up to 55 percent.

Cable made with the addition of FR EVA 100 NT EXP1 to their existing compounds has been demonstrated to maintain conformance with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) specification SAE J1128 and shows heat resistance for under-the-hood applications to 125 C. "Dow is very excited about the technology being showcased in FR EVA NT 100 EXP1," said Mark Burtch, North America Market Manager, Dow Wire & Cable. "We have seen some automotive cable manufacturers demonstrate significant gains in operational efficiency by being able to boost the line speed of their current equipment. And this is just the beginning - we will soon commercialize the technology as INSTEP™ Polymer Enhancer and start to roll out next generation products for cable manufacturers focused on other applications and industries."

To enable automotive cable manufacturers to optimize the performance of FR EVA 100 NT EXP1, Dow Wire & Cable has developed a highly accurate predictive modeling capability. Dow can provide cable manufacturers with predictions of line rate improvements possible with FR EVA 100 NT EXP1, accurately estimating how it will perform in actual operating conditions.

FR EVA 100 NT EXP1 Key Features:

• Cures peroxide crosslinkable polymer compounds at faster rates, running up to a 55 percent faster line rate without scorch.
  
• Enables processing of peroxide crosslinkable polymer compounds at higher melt temperatures of up to 20 C without scorch.
  
• Works with a variety of commercially available peroxide crosslinkable polymer compounds which comply with the SAE J1128 specification.
  
• Use of the Polymer Enhancer can be intermittent based on demand, thereby allowing more flexible manufacturing capacity in wire extrusion.
  
• Enables in-line feeding through existing color additive systems.
  
• No impact on color-matching with existing color concentrates.

SOURCE: The Dow Chemical Company