Armacell, a leader in the PET technology field, will exhibit its product lines ArmaFORM® PET Core and PET Foil on booth V112 at the CAMX show. It was the first company to qualify PET foam cores for the composite industry.
ArmaFORM® PET cores, the polyethylene terephthalate-based structural foam cores, are employed in sandwich constructions for the wind turbine, marine, rail and road transportation, and building and construction industries.
Figure 1. PET GR and Foil
The popularity of ArmaFORM® PET foam cores is due to its good temperature stability, outstanding process compatibility with all manufacturing techniques and resins, high mechanical strength, and superior fatigue properties.
In addition, these cores exhibit thermo- formability with no degradation of properties when grid scoring and increase of weight and costs due to corresponding resin intake.
Armacell’s New Product Line
The recent addition to ArmaFORM® PET range is thin PET sheets that are made up of 100% recycled PET material known as ArmaFORM® PET Foil. ArmaFORM® PET Foil is available in different thicknesses starting from 1mm, and in various densities from 70 to 300kg/m³. In addition, customized formulations are also available.
It serves as a highly sustainable and improved alternative to cross-linked XPE and XPP products. Further, its enhanced stiffness and compression properties in addition to its thermal and chemical stability make it different from other thermoplastic foil products.
The foil has the closed and fine cells, which ensure improved processing in terms of forming, die cutting, lamination and so on by providing a smooth surface structure. ArmaFORM® PET Foil has an unmatched service temperature, ranging from -40°C to +180°C. When compared to XPE and XPP products, the foil facilitates a wider thermoforming window due to its heat resistance, and ensures simplified processing and shaping.
Armacell’s PET Products
The ArmaFORM® PET foams are produced based on an energy and resource-optimized production process, i.e., a complete re-use of material loss and without using ozone-depleting HFH or CFC blowing agents. As ArmaFORM® PET foams are fully recyclable, they are considered an eco-friendly sensitive solution for the composite industry.
Armacell is the sole manufacturer of consistent and reliable quality PET foam boards and PET foil sheets 100% made from post-consumer PET materials. Both the products are highly ecological products with an improved environmental performance.
When compared to the commercially available standard PET foam boards made of virgin PET resin, the foaming process of ArmaFORM® PET produced from recycled PET results in a reduction of the greenhouse effect by 34%, carbon footprint by 30%, and energy consumption by 40%.
When compared to other foam cores such as XPS, PUR, SAB and PVC, the improvement is much higher. The energy required for producing ArmaFORM PET Foil is 3.5 times lesser than that of the PE foil of similar density and size, thus eliminating CO2 emissions by 94%.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Armacell Benelux.
For more information on this source, please visit Armacell Benelux.