Sep 30 2010
Upon the occasion of the international plastics trade fair K 2010, BASF will be introducing a new member of its ABS product line (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer) that was specifically developed with an eye towards the requirements made in electroplating.
This material goes by the name Terluran® BX 13074 and is intended particularly for plumbing fixtures, the household sector and automotive construction. The first components made with the new product will be showcased at BASF’s trade fair stand in Düsseldorf in October.
Terluran BX 13074
Terluran® BX 13074 has a very broad processing window when it comes to its residence time and the temperature of the electroplating bath. It can be used in all commercially available baths, and its very high reliability translates into a lower reject rate.
Basic studies pertaining to the metal coating of the new material by means of electroplating were conducted at the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid (Lüdenscheid Plastics Institute). The properties of this new ABS grade are remarkable: for instance, the peel strength of Terluran® BX 13074 achieves very high values and the material also passes the stringent adhesion test on a complex grid plate. Moreover, this new electroplating grade also exhibits the well-known flow and filling properties of the major Terluran® standard grades made by BASF and, like these, is produced at the large world-scale plant in Antwerp, Belgium. ABS is the plastic used most frequently for electroplating.
The first high-quality operational plates for flushing mechanisms have already been manufactured from the new Terluran® by Werrit, located in Buchholz (Westerwald, Germany). Other possible applications in the realm of sanitary engineering are water faucets, shower heads and other shiny surfaces in bathrooms and kitchens. In the automotive sector, radiator grilles and trim strips are electroplated, and the method is also employed in jewelry production.