April 5, 2007

Lustran Polymers Helps Customers Use Its Chemistry with New Soft Touch Resins Brochure

The Lustran Polymers business unit of LANXESS Corporation recently introduced the Soft Touch resins and now offers a full-color brochure that highlights the features and benefits of the products to help its customers better use its chemistry.

The Soft Touch resins include Lustran® ST4566 for interiors and Centrex® ST4766 for exteriors. These resins are ideal for sheet extrusion applications that require luxury and durability, such as interior parts of trucks, buses and cars as well as exterior areas of boats, farm equipment and construction vehicles. Both materials have been primarily designed for use in applications where they are co-extruded or laminated over an ABS substrate, with the purpose of providing a low-gloss look and soft touch feel.

“Our Soft Touch resins have been doing very well since being introduced during the last half of 2006,” said David Gingras, head of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for Lustran Polymers in NAFTA. “We are pleased to now be able to offer this attractive brochure so that our customers can more easily learn about our soft touch offering.”

Lustran ST 4566 is an ABS-based alloy (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer), which boasts excellent durability and chemical resistance as well as improved sound dampening when used as a cap over Lustran ABS. The low-gloss Soft Touch resin offers a new dimension to Lustran with a look and feel that resembles textured leather and vinyl. Centrex ST 4766 is a thermoplastic alloy based on ASA (acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate copolymer), which provides a range of unique properties. In addition to soft touch, low gloss, chemical resistance, durability and weatherability, Centrex ST 4766 offers excellent UV-stability, which makes this product particularly well-suited for use in exterior applications or interior parts that will be exposed to direct UV light like tough recreational and marine applications.

The new Soft Touch materials adhere very well to ABS substrates such as the proven grade Lustran ABS 752 used for extrusion purposes. These products can be co-extruded together, and the scrap produced in the manufacture of co-extruded systems with both Soft Touch materials can be reused in the ABS substrate – up to a specific amount without adversely affecting the original property profile. “Both new materials are cost-effective alternatives to co-extrusion systems with polyvinyl or TPU surfaces,” explained Gingras.

Lustran ST 4566 and Centrex ST 4766 are available in a natural color or customized colors, just like all the other thermoplastics from Lustran Polymers. Lustran Polymers has also recently updated its NAFTA Engineering Plastics Properties Guide that includes information on all of its product lines: Triax® ABS/Nylon Alloy, Centrex® Weatherable Products, and Lustran® ABS and SAN.

The brochure is only in English. Clients can get it at the TechCenter NAFTA site or by sending an e-mail to LUP-NAFTA@lustran-polymers.com.