Air Products Celebrates 50 Years of Urethane Catalyst Biz
Across the globe, manufacturers of polyurethane (PU) materials are demanding increasingly innovative additives that are capable of producing high quality foam with reduced environmental emissions.
Designed for use in the automotive and flexible slabstock sectors, Air Products has been leading the way in the development of new generation low emission non-fugitive catalysts.
Steve Hulme, Global Marketing Manager PU Chemicals at Air Products, said: "When developing low emission catalysts, the biggest challenge has been to fulfil the physical property standards of flexible foams used in automotive seating, in particular to meet properties after humid aging of the foam."
According to Air Products, demand for non-emission catalyst technology has spread globally in the past decade and this is expected to continue. Steve Hulme added: "Initial interest in non-fugitive catalyst technology came from the European automotive industry, but this has since spread to flexible stabstock and rigid foams. We are now seeing an increased demand for this advanced technology from furniture and bedding producers in Asia, for example, which are supplying markets in the EU and US."
In Europe, Air Products is launching two next generation non-emission catalysts at UTECH 2012, Dabco? NE1090 and Dabco BA305. Both these new products have been designed specifically to produce non-emission molded TDI foam that can meet the humid age specification that is required by automotive OEMs. "The technology will close a gap that foam manufacturers have been looking for since many years", added Steve Hulme, "and will be another milestone in 50 years of Air Products´ catalyst developments for the polyurethane industry". New catalysts and surfactants for rigid and flexible foam applications will also be showcased.
Air Products obtained the Dabco business and patent rights when it acquired the Houdry Process Corporation in 1962 and so will be celebrating 50 years of supplying innovative products to the PU industry at Utech 2012.