ADDITIVES FOR
HIGH PERFORMANCE PLASTIC PARTS
Plasticshave widespread applications
in virtually all consumer products and areexpanding into applications
traditionally filled by metals, glasses andceramics. Generally, plastics
including thermoset plastics and epoxies havelimited use in applications
where high temperatures, high chemicalresistance, high wear resistance,
high toughness and high dimensionalstability are required. The
Nanomaterials Company's nanophase-plasticadditive, which is nonmetallic and
non-graphitic, has extremely highchemical resistance, extremely high
thermal conductivity but is anelectrical insulator. As such our nanophase
plastic additive (referred tohere as“n-PA”) can be used, for
example, to produce wire insulation thatallows for high heat dissipation.
Our n-PA is compounded with the plastic base material and supplied to
thethermoformer as a new product. Plastic articles produced using
thecompounded base material exhibit higher thermal stability, high
thermalconductivity, high dimensional stability (low coefficient of
thermalexpansion), high fracture toughness and high wear resistance. Due to
theextremely small particle size and uniformity, our n-PA does not
adverselyaffect mold flowability or influence the set point.
A. Improved Performance of Plastic Part
Benefits
Cost
Reduction: Achieve higher plastic
performance without need for new capital equipment, use plastics where
other higher cost materials would otherwise be used, enjoy ease of
fabrication of plastics in applications currently held by machined parts
Higher
Quality: Improved thermal
conductivity, greater heat dissipation, higher impact strength, increased
wear resistance, higher dimensional stability, less susceptible to
corrosion
Industries
Affected: Automotive: light bearing, drive train, suspension,
body components
Aerospace: Complex parts in the air frame and
engine, complex metal parts could be made lighter without sacrifice of
strength
Locomotion: heavy
motors for trains, ships, electric cars
Industrial
Equipment: valve seats, pipelining,
coatings
Sporting
Equipment: cooler helmets, protective
equipment
Many
Others: any manufacturing process
where the advantages of high thermally conductive poorly electrically
conductive plastic components are sought
B. How NanoMaterials' Plastic Additives
Improve the Performance
B.1 Enhancement of Thermal Conductivity
Thermoset plastics are generally
poor conductors of heat. Since heat
is poorly transmitted through the plastic it is absorbed by the plastic,
causing its temperature to rise to that of the heat source. n-PA has a thermal conductivity of
>300 (W m-1 K-1), approaching that of silicon
carbide (SiC). The heat capacity of
n-PA is ~0.7 (J g-1 K-1) and is about the same as silicon carbide. The thermal diffusivity (i.e. the rate
at which the material can respond to a temperature change) of n-PA is
greater than copper but less than SiC and diamond.
The use of n-PA as an additive
allows the plastic/nanopowder to transmit heat better and absorb heat less
than the plastic alone. n-PA will
out perform aluminum oxide, also used as a plastic additive, by an order of
magnitude. Other criteria not
discussed here indicates that n-PA is the material of choice even in cases
where diamond or silicon carbide might be desired from a heat transfer
perspective.
___________________
|
NANOMATERIALS
COMPANY