Momentive unveils new silicone elastomer products

Orlando, Florida – US-based Momentive Performance Materials (MPM) showcased its new silicone elastomer solutions at the recent NPE 2015.

At NPE, staged 23-27 March, the company introduced a new low-volatile, self-lubricated liquid silicone rubber (LSR) Silopren LSR 3376/50, as well as fibre-reinforced LSR and anti-static heat cured rubber (HCR).

MPM’s Silopren LSR 3376/50 self-lubricating LSR has very low volatile levels without post-curing and is engineered so as to aid automotive manufacturers to produce electrical conductor seals that meet high safety specifications. The material has 3% oil content, states MPM, and contains less than 350ppm of total volatiles.

Speaking at NPE Oliver Franssen, global marketing director elastomers, transportation for MPM GmbH, said in addition to automotive applications: “We are also interested in seeing how we can give baby-care articles to our customers which don’t need post-curing to reach regulations… the applications for LSRs are increasing.”

Looking at MPM’s new developments in fibre-reinforced LSR Tina Wei, Global Marketing Director Life Sciences for MPM GmbH, said: “compared to the standard LSR this product significantly increases stiffness, which gives a lot of freedom for designers to design [products].”

Going on to speak about wearable consumer goods Wei emphasised how compared to TPU, fibre-reinforced LSR such as MPM’s Silopren Matrix 70 does not cause skin irritation when used for items such as watch straps.

Franssen highlighted how MPM’s Silopren Matrix 70 started in the automotive sector and is still being developed for use in that industry, but it was quicker to develop it in the consumer goods industry.

Speaking about growth Franssen said: “[In automotive] our LSR business, especially connector seals, is the backbone of our silicone growth. In North America the health care segment is our growth area for LSR.”

“For the consumer segment we see strong growth from consumer electronics and also from food packaging,” added Wei.

Franssen spoke on future developments saying: “We continue to invest in this product line [LSR] so there will be a couple of innovations hitting the market in the next two years with improved technical physical properties in reaction to trends such as miniaturisation, low volatile, increase of heat resistance and long term low compressions.”

In October 2014, MPM announced that it had emerged from Chapter 11 and completed its financial restructuring. MPM states it eliminated approximately $3bn (€2.8bn) of debt and now has liquidity of approximately $360m (€332m) and net debt of approximately $1.2bn (€1.1bn).

In November 2014, the company commissioned two new expansions at its Rayong, Thailand manufacturing facility to serve the growing Asian market's demand for speciality chemicals.