Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials Korea

Duratron® CU60 PBI is the highest performance engineering thermoplastic available today. It offers the highest heat resistance and mechanical property retention over 400°F of any unfilled plastic (see Figures 26 & 27). It has better wear resistance and load carrying capabilities at extreme temperatures than any other reinforced or unreinforced engineering plastic.

As an unreinforced material, Duratron CU60 PBI is very "clean" in terms of ionic impurity and it does not outgas (except water). These characteristics make this material very attractive to semiconductor manufacturers for vacuum chamber applications. Duratron CU60 PBI has excellent ultrasonic transparency which makes it an ideal choice for parts such as probe tip lenses in ultrasonic measuring equipment.

Duratron CU60 PBI is also an excellent thermal insulator. Other plastics in melt do not stick to Duratron CU60 PBI. These characteristics make it ideal for contact seals and insulator bushings in plastic production and molding equipment.

With its versatile performance capabilities and proven use in a broad range of applications, Duratron polyamide-imide (PAI) shapes are offered in extruded, injection molded, and compression molded grades.

Duratron PAI is the highest performing, melt processable plastic. It has superior resistance to elevated temperatures. It is capable of performing under severe stress conditions at continuous temperatures to 500°F (260°C). Parts machined from Duratron stock shapes provide greater compressive strength and higher impact resistance than most advanced engineering plastics (See Figure 22).

Duratron PAI's extremely low coefficient of linear thermal expansion and high creep resistance deliver excellent dimensional stability over its entire service range (see Figure 23). Duratron PAI is an amorphous material with a Tg (glass transition temperature) of 537°F (280°C). Duratron PAI stock shapes are post-cured using procedures developed jointly by BP Amoco and Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials. This eliminates the need for additional curing by the end user in most situations. A post-curing cycle is sometimes recommended for components fabricated from extruded shapes where optimization of chemical resistance and/or wear performance is required.

For large shapes or custom geometries like tubular bar, compression molded Duratron PAI shapes offer designers the greatest economy and flexibility. Another benefit of selecting a compression molded grade is that resins are cured, or "imidized" prior to molding which eliminates the need to post-cure shapes or parts fabricated from compression molded shapes.

Popular extrusion and injection molding grades of Duratron PAI are offered as compression molded shapes. Typically, you can identify a compression molded grade as having a second digit of "5" in the product name.

Duratron® D7000 PI is an exceptional value for applications where thermal requirements exclude Duratron PAI and do not require the extraordinary thermal resistance of Duratron PBI.  Duratron PI is available in several grades for structural and wear applications and in the broadest range of shapes - particularly thick sheets, larger sheets geometries and heavy-wall tubes.  It offers good mechanical performance for applications that demand higher temperature resistance.

Duratron® D7000 PI machinable shapes are ideal starting points for designs that reduce weight, extend length of service before maintenance or replacement and reduce overall cost by increasing process uptime. Duratron PI materials are just one of the solutions in the machinable plastics industry's broadest product line.

Duratron U1000 PEI is an amorphous polymer offering high strength and excellent flame and heat resistance. It performs continuously to 340°F (170°C), making it ideal for high strength/ high heat applications, and those requiring consistent dielectric properties over a wide frequency range. It is hydrolysis resistant, highly resistant to acidic solutions and capable of withstanding repeated autoclaving cycles.

Duratron U2100, U2200 and U2300 PEI are glass-reinforced versions (10, 20, and 30%, respectively) of Duratron U1000 PEI which provide even greater rigidity and improved dimensional stability while maintaining many of the useful characteristics of basic Duratron U1000 PEI. Duratron PEI is FDA and USP Class VI compliant. FDA compliant colors of Duratron PEI are also available on a custom basis.

Duratron PEI commonly is machined into parts for reusable medical devices, analytical instrumentation, electrical/electronic insulators (including many semiconductor process components) and a variety of structural components requiring high strength and rigidity at elevated temperatures. Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials offers Duratron U1000 PEI and Duratron U2300 PEI as standard products.