DuPont launches Kevlar-elastomer composite

Ontario, Canada - DuPont's Canadian research unit has, after many years of research, finally started selling commercially a compound made up of rubber compound mixed with short fibres of its aramid material, Kevlar.

"We are excited to officially launch the production of this innovative DuPont performance material in Kingston, which builds on our 50-year history of expertise in materials science, complex process development and successful commercialization of innovative products," said Nicolas Cudré-Mauroux, who leads the Kingston Research, Development and Engineering Centre.

Previous attempts to commercialise the material have been limited due to the high stiffness of the elastomer compound once the fibre pulp has been added and the resulting difficulty in obtaining a homogeneous distribution of the pulp within the matrix. Also, the resulting material tends to be anisotropic, with the fibres aligned in the direction of processing. This anisotropy, combined with the high stiffness of the uncured compound has made processing difficult in previous generations of the product.

DuPont did not say how it had overcome these issues with the latest announcement.

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Press release from DuPont