In response to industry demand for products with a reduced environmental impact, DSM Engineering Plastics has extended its product offerings across its portfolio to include halogen free grades in all its product lines. These products address the needs across a wide range of technical parts for the electrical and electronics industry with a focus not just on a greener material but also delivering the required electrical, mechanical and processing performance.

Non-governmental environmental organizations have been raising issues with the electronics and electrical industry on their use of materials that may have a negative impact on the environment. Some of the concerns are on the use of Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) and other plastics with halogenated flame retardants. The short life-cycles of electronic appliances such as laptops, mobile phones and PDAs, make it important to re-use valuable materials like copper through recycling and extraction. These processes introduce risks of generating hazardous by-products from halogen containing compounds when recycling processes are not optimal.

Jan Waninge, Sales and Marketing Director, DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific: “The concerns on the environment are valid. DSM is one of the first engineering plastics companies to have a portfolio with halogen free grades in all our products: Stanyl®, Arnitel® TPE, Akulon® PA6, Arnite®, and Xantar®. The extension to applications where product life-cycles are very long has already started, albeit at a less aggressive pace. Environmental standards eventually will make the whole electronics and electrical industry move to materials that are halogen free.”

Chris Schroder, Product Manager – Arnitel TPE, DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific: “Over recent years, demand from all major OEM’s and their parts suppliers in the electronics industry for wire insulation materials has increased steadily.” Wire and cable insulation has traditionally been made in polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The copper is recovered during recycling through incineration of the insulation. Incineration under non-ideal conditions can generate dioxins, which are carcinogens, when halogens such as PVC are present. Chris adds: “Our introduction of Arnitel XG to wire insulation customers has been received very positively. These grades offer them a halogen free solution which meets all the industry standards in safety and electrical insulation.”

Normally pins in connectors are gold plated, and the gold too is valuable enough for recovery. Connector housings are plastic and are often incinerated during recycling, so it is increasingly important that these housings do not contain any halogens.

Jason Lee, Product Manager – Stanyl, DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific: “In our discussions with many mobile phone OEM’s we realized that a UL94 HB material is more than sufficient for many connectors. In our perspective, this directly makes products a lot ‘greener’. Stanyl, a high performance polyamide used extensively for connectors, is available in UL94 HB flammability ratings. These Stanyl compounds are ‘greener’ or environmentally safer as they contain no flame retardant additives, and so do not have any halogen or other environmentally damaging ingredients. Stanyl HB grades are already used for mobile phone connectors for a number of OEM’s, and represent the best choice amongst high heat resistance resins. They are inherently lighter and tougher than materials that contain flame retardants, and that makes them better materials for connector applications.”

DSM has further developed entirely halogen free grades of Stanyl that are rated as UL94 V-0 and UL94 V-2. Jason elaborates: “Some applications do require a higher flammability rating. We have now introduced grades to support these requirements and components made from them have already been approved by our customers. What is really interesting is that the industry now has a better understanding on the real flammability requirements and the corresponding material specifications that should be applied. Until now, most materials for connectors were over-specified, calling for UL94 V-0 flammability levels. The new IEC norm, IEC 62368, which will be in place by the end of 2008, lays down clear guidelines for materials to be used for Audio, Video, and IT equipment”.

Other electrical systems such as white goods and power distribution switchgears are already progressively demanding materials that are halogen free and flame retardant. The connectors used in white goods, like washing machines, dryers and dishwashers, are a typical area where this demand is felt. The new IEC 60335-1 standard specifies the requirements for unattended household appliances operating under high currents (>0.2A) and it is more difficult to be met.

Arnite XG from DSM has a UL94 V-2 rating and matches the requirements for these applications. Arnite XG has a lower environmental impact compared to other solutions, as it uses a flame retardant system that is free of halogen and red phosphorus. Brendan Maguire, Design Manager of Molex Ireland explains that this new material delivers an exceptional solution for manufacturers of white goods: “Halogen-free Arnite XG is revolutionary because it is the first unfilled PBT which has tested positively according to GWT on end products.”

Power distribution switchgears such as Miniature Circuit Breakers and Molded Case Circuit Breakers too are following similar trends to go halogen free. DSM’s Akulon polyamide 6 has been the traditional choice of all global and local low voltage switch gear manufacturers. Peter Dufour, Product Manager – Akulon (Power Distribution), DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific: “Akulon was introduced in halogen free flame retardant grades for this segment more than 5 years back. We correctly read the market trends and the intentions of the global Low Voltage Switchgear (LVSG) companies, and introduced a number of grades in quick succession. Most of these have become our standard portfolio for LVSG. This portfolio is relatively large and the grades are UL registered in different glass and mineral combinations for various applications where halogen free and environmentally clean solutions are needed.”

Jos Goessens, President, DSM Engineering Plastics: “The development of halogen free engineering plastic grades is in line with DSM’s sustainability policy known as Triple P (People, Planet, Profit) which states that DSM sets out to use energy and raw materials efficiently in order to reduce the environmental impact of our activities and to improve the eco-efficiency of our products and processes on an ongoing basis.”