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'Super-TPVs': the new challenge to rubber: a new category of TPEs combines engineering thermoplastics with vulcanized silicone or acrylate rubbers to provide new levels of heat and oil resistance. Conventional TPVs are also being upgraded with styrenic rubbers in place of olefinic types.

Article Excerpt
Recent commercialization of a cluster of novel thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) families is promising to boost demand for thermoplastic elastomers in new and challenging industrial and consumer product segments. One evolving class is "super-TPVs" designed to replace higher-cost thermoset rubbers and upgrade the performance of conventional TPVs in more extreme applications, notably auto under-hood, appliance, and industrial parts subjected to high heat (135 to 170 C) in the presence of oils and greases.

Conventional TPVs combine a PP matrix and a vulcanized EPDM rubber phase. The new "super-TPVs" create an analogous structure, but do so by utilizing wholly different components. To illustrate, the initial member of this new class, introduced two years ago by Dow Corning, consists of a cross-linked silicone rubber embedded in a nylon or TPU matrix. More recently, variations of this "thermoplastic silicone vulcanizate (TPSiV) family based on other engineering thermoplastic matrices are being developed for future launch. (TPSiV is now supplied by Multibase, a compounder purchased by Dow Corning.) Furthermore, the "super-TPV" category was recently broadened by the arrival of new members from Zeon Chemicals and DuPont Engineering Polymers.

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