Teknor Apex produces nylon compound for quick fastener moulding

A next-generation Polyamide 6.6 compound from Teknor Apex Company overcomes cycle-time limitations of earlier workhorse grades, enabling injection moulders of fasteners and similar parts to meet the same product performance requirements while increasing productivity and plant capacity. 

Teknor Apex’s Chemlon 102HI BK001 is the first compound in what will be a new suite of nylon products for fastener applications. It provides the same performance properties as an established workhorse grade, Chemlon 104H, but in gate-freeze tests by Teknor Apex, Chemlon 102HI BK001 showed a 15 per cent improvement against industry benchmarks in achieving constant weight, and it did so without any impact to surface aesthetics during demoulding.

In commercial-scale production by a customer using high-cavitation tooling, Chemlon 102HI BK001 demonstrated accelerated rates of crystallisation. After long periods of runtime, the new material consistently out-performed competitive products. Some customers have reported up to a nine per cent increase in part production by switching over to the material, according to Brian Rickard, director of strategy and business development for the ETP Division of Teknor Apex.

Rickard said: “Many of our customers have been really tight on press time. This new product will allow them to open up additional capacity on their current equipment, either to run less overtime or to bring in-house jobs that had gone to contract moulders. As a result, it provides our customers with a competitive cost advantage.”