Danielson has launched a new rapid prototyping service for use with all membrane switch and keyboard projects.

Danielson, one of Europe's leading developers and manufacturers of membrane keyboards, touch screens and electroluminescent lamps, has launched a new rapid prototyping service for use with all membrane switch and keyboard projects. Intended to help customers reduce product design and development times still further, the new service forms the latest part of an ongoing programme of investment in the company's UK production facilities. Ben Phelan, Marketing Manager for Danielson, explains that, 'Although we have always been able to produce keyboard prototypes relatively quickly, the new membrane prototyping service means that, for many projects, we will be able to produce working samples for customers within days; this is significantly better than the average for this part of the electronics industry, which is typically weeks rather than days'.

He adds, 'Perhaps as importantly, the ability to produce flat and embossed overlays and composite keyboard assemblies, and to incorporate complex, digitally printed half tone graphics, quickly and efficiently means that we can help customers design and, where appropriate, redesign products from concept stages through to final high and low volume production.

As a result, we believe that we will be able to improve the functionality, performance and reliability of the finished products, without adversely affecting the overall cost'.

This significant reduction in turn-round times has been achieved through the use of the latest computer aided production technology, combined with streamlined and carefully monitored production control processes.

For example, Danielson has extensive CAD resources, automatic 200W large area laser cutting systems, multiple high speed screen print lines and in-house embossing facilities; additionally, as part of a larger European group, the company has access to additional production operations in Sweden, Holland and Hungary.

Weatherable copolymer resin line includes two new opaque grades specifically designed for injection molding and provide provide outstanding impact strength, good stiffness at light weight.

GE Advanced Materials, a division of General Electric Company has expanded its Lexan SLX weatherable copolymer resin line with two new opaque grades specifically designed for injection molding. The new materials - Lexan SLX EXRL0124 and Lexan SLX EXRL0125 resins - were developed to address environmental issues and costs associated with painting plastic parts in applications that require long-term retention of color and gloss in demanding outdoor use. Polycarbonate (PC) provides outstanding impact strength, good stiffness at light weight, the ability to maintain mechanicals over a broad temperature range, high gloss, excellent tintability and paintability, option for water-clear transparency, and excellent moldability.

In challenging outdoor applications, however, scientists have traditionally needed to use UV additives to help stabilize the polymer, and tints, pigments, or paint to mask color shift.

Hardcoat technology has been employed to improve scratch and chemical resistance, and alloying and blending has been used to expand the chemical resistance for uncoated PC components.

Lexan SLX resin effectively improves the weatherability of polycarbonate.

The new material is a copolymer technology that has been derived from polyester carbonates and resorcinol arylates.

When exposed to UV light, the new copolymer undergoes a photo-fries rearrangement and produces a new structure that is inherently a UV screener, essentially making the resin self-protecting.

The Lexan SLX resin technology was initially deployed by GE Advanced Materials in a high-gloss film for use with in-mold decorated parts for the automotive industry.

Comprised of a clear cap layer over a colored layer (flat or metallic), the film maintains dimensional stability over a broad temperature range and can be back-molded onto a variety of substrates to create a Class A surface.

This technology provides excellent weathering, outstanding chemical and scratch resistance, plus excellent gloss and depth of image (DOI), which are all necessary to meet the automotive industry's demanding aesthetic requirements.

Lexan SLX film is now available from GE Advanced Materials in multiple gauges.

In June 2003, GE introduced the first, injection-molding grades of this copolymer, which are transparent and, in laboratory testing, demonstrate excellent weathering (seven+ years), high light transmission (>83%), and low haze (<1%), with performance and processing much like standard polycarbonate materials.

Depending on weathering conditions, the new materials offer five-to-10 times better gloss, color, and light transmission retention than standard UV-stabilized polycarbonate.

After a slight initial color shift, the transparent grades of Lexan SLX resin offer a longer lifetime of UV stability and clarity vs.

traditional UV-stabilized polycarbonate.

This makes the transparent grades of Lexan SLX resin an ideal candidate for lighting applications, including covers, refractors, and lenses.

With today's announcement, GE Advanced Materials has expanded the Lexan SLX resin technology still further with two new opaque grades that are high gloss and can be pre-colored in a range of hues for paint-replacement in injection-molded parts.

Unlike many self-colored, weatherable polymers and alloys, the new Lexan resin grades offer higher chemical, thermal, scratch, and weathering resistance.

Post-weathered ductility is high, while most other physical, mechanical, processing, and shrinkage properties are very similar to standard PC grades.

The new Lexan SLX materials are being positioned for use in components for sporting goods, automobiles, recreational vehicles, agricultural equipment, and telecommunications enclosures.

'When exposed to UV light over time,' says Kurt Schuering, global Lexan product manager, GE Advanced Materials, 'traditional weatherable polymers can lose gloss, where this exceptionally tough copolymer technology can withstand the rigors of long-term outdoor use virtually unscathed.

Key to this is the product's unique ability to actually become a UV absorber, potentially extending the service life of the part by protecting both surface appearance and physical properties.

Due to their outstanding performance, gloss retention, and color stability, these new grades potentially hold the answer to the many challenges that outdoor equipment manufacturers in several areas have had to deal with for a long time,' Schuering said.

Some of the first commercial applications for the new opaque grades of Lexan SLX resin include industrial backhoe fenders and the housing for a wireless infrastructure product from NexGen City.

In both cases, the material was selected after testing revealed it met customer requirements for chemical resistance, weatherability, thermal stability (-40 to 77degC), impact resistance, processability, and knit-line/flow characteristics.

In the case of the backhoe fenders, Lexan SLX resin offered better design flexibility, weatherability, and ductility than painted dicylopentadiene (DCPD).

For the NexGen City communications housing, the material replaces painted steel at lower weight and better design flexibility.

No other thermoplastic tested by the customer passed the long-term impact and gloss retention requirements.

According to Dave Meitzen, NexGen City, chief operating engineer, 'We're very pleased to be using GE's Lexan SLX resin for NexGen City's wireless infrastructure product, which we are currently deploying in a 60-square-mile area around Garland, Texas.

Once complete, this system will serve as the wireless backbone for the city's first-responder - fire, EMT, and police - emergency personnel.

This is a proven, leading-edge technology and a huge homeland security application for us, and Lexan SLX resin helped play a major role in its development,' Meitzen said.

A major UK automotive molder will be replacing the steel with a low-pressure thermoformable composite in the bonnet/hood of a high-powered sports vehicle.

As the result of a joint development, GE Advanced Materials' Azdel Superlite composite will be used by BI Composites, a major UK automotive molder, to replace the steel in the bonnet/hood of a high-powered sports vehicle to be launched by a leading international carmaker in early 2004. The bonnet development was driven by the need to provide a cost-effective material solution that could be applied to low-volume production, niche segment vehicles. Key application criteria included recyclability, impact strength, low weight combined with high stiffness, the ability to bond with steel, extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and the ability to obtain a Class A finish with strong paint adhesion.

BI Composites tested a range of high-temperature engineering thermoplastics before selecting Azdel Superlite composite as the material that offered the optimum balance of properties and met the cost-reduction target.

While initial series production using Azdel Superlite composite indicated a premium over that for a steel bonnet skin, the tooling cost for a steel skin solution could only be justified by amortization over high-volume production.

In contrast, tooling for Azdel Superlite composite is a substantially lower investment because of the material's low-pressure formability.

With a EUR 70,000 (approx.

$88,000 USD) tool, meeting a production level of 15,000 units per year, and the process being developed to achieve 150,000 units from a single tool, unit cost represents a 50 percent savings over low-volume steel production and a 75 percent savings over comparable thermoset composites.

This illustrates the competitiveness of Azdel Superlite composite and the low-pressure forming process for vehicle production volumes of between 500 to 50,000 units, whereas steel shows savings after 100,000 units.

'This development also achieved a very considerable weight savings,' says Mike Birrell, business development director for BI Composites.

'With an optimized skin thickness of two millimeters, Azdel Superlite composite gave greater stiffness than the steel it replaced at 50 percent lower weight.

As part of our benchmarking process we also produced a bonnet skin in a carbon fiber/epoxy composite, however, it weighed as much as steel in this application.' The performance of Azdel Superlite composite bonnets was independently measured.

In high-speed, offset front-impact tests, the bonnets exhibited less damage than that sustained by similar steel panels tested under the same procedure.

Moreover, the bonnets' adhesive bonding remained intact throughout impact testing.

As well as delivering high impact strength, the continuous unidirectional glass fiber reinforcement of Azdel Superlite composite, and its thermal stability, enable a Class A paint finish.

The material's surface is flame treated and prepared with a standard polypropylene primer before painting with a finishing coat.

'With Azdel Superlite composite, we are offering the outstanding combination of light weight, high impact strength, and thermal stability properties,' says Gordon King, commercial director of Azdel, Europe.

'We expect Azdel Superlite composite to benefit OEMs in the automotive industry for specific applications - from interior to bonnet - where, previously, composites would not have been considered.' GE Advanced Materials' Azdel Superlite composite is a low-pressure, thermoformable composite developed specifically for automotive applications.

composite is based on short, chopped-fiber reinforcement, with a glass content of 42 to 55 percent and a weight of 600 to 2,000 grams per square meter.

The material can be compression molded in less than one minute at very low pressures of 0.5 to 5 bars.

This ratio of fibers to polymers, as well as the base weight of the web, can be customized for different interior and exterior automotive applications.

Characterized by light weight, a high stiffness-to-weight ratio, good dimensional stability, and high impact resistance over a wide temperature range, Azdel Superlite composite allows engineers to design high-performance components that can replace steel, meet aesthetic demands, and contribute to vehicle weight reduction.

Azdel Superlite composite's good polypropylene/fiber bond enables it to be recycled into other engineering applications at the end of its first-life use.

BI Composites, a leading producer of molded components for executive and luxury cars, is a business of the UK-based BI Group Plc, an international group of specialist engineering companies.

The company has annual worldwide sales of approximately ?

200 million (approx.

$364 million USD) and employs more than 2,000 people in 14 countries.

Azdel Superlite composite is produced and distributed by Azdel, a joint venture of GE Advanced Materials and PPG.

The Azdel business was established in 1972 by PPG Industries, and a 50/50 joint venture was set up with GE in 1986.

Low-pressure, thermoformable composite of a polypropylene resin matrix and chopped-fibre reinforcement reduces weight and enhances performance in automotive interiors.

Already achieving successes in automotive interior programs, which include headliner, sunshade, and parcel shelf applications in the U.S., Australia, and China, Azdel Superlite composite is now being trialed by automotive OEMs in Europe. Azdel Superlite composite is a low-pressure, thermoformable composite of a polypropylene resin matrix and chopped-fiber reinforcement. Developed specifically for automotive interior applications, the material offers light weight, a high stiffness-to-weight ratio, good dimensional stability, and high impact resistance over a wide temperature range.

This combination of properties enables engineers to design components for vehicle weight reduction without compromising part performance or aesthetics.

As well as achieving weight savings of up to 50 percent in some components, Azdel Superlite composite also delivers production advantages.

In headliners - the first application in which Azdel Superlite composite was used - this versatile sheet can be molded directly in one step together with surface textile and special functional layers, thereby eliminating the several production steps required with traditional materials.

Because of the product's high stiffness-to-weight ratio, headliners can be constructed with ultra-thin profiles, down to three millimeters thick, half the thickness of conventional systems.

'The combination of wide versatility and performance properties can make Azdel Superlite composite an excellent material for pre-assembled modular headliners,' says Gordon King, commercial director, Azdel, Europe.

'It allows the entire system to be mounted to a vehicle as a single assembly.

Its light weight and low-pressure formability, often using existing tooling, means that Azdel Superlite composite has the potential to reduce system costs by up to 20 percent.' To meet growing OEM demand for Azdel Superlite composite, Azdel,is expanding its U.S.-based global supply facility in Lynchburg, Va.

The introduction of a third Azdel Superlite composite line will add 7,000 tons to the company's current annual capacity, totaling more than 25,000 tons when it comes on-stream this quarter.

According to James Forden, president, Azdel: 'This investment reflects the strong interest in Azdel Superlite composite by the automotive industry and the global translatability of the application programs it's supporting.

This step-increase in capacity will help further ensure product supply, as well as confirm our ongoing commitment to serve this sector.' With its low-weight advantages, ultra-thin profile, and high stiffness-to-weight ratio, Azdel Superlite composite can be formed with varying thickness and stiffness.

Moreover, it allows manufacturers to use slightly modified existing tooling, helping to prevent creasing during the installation process.

Furthermore, with better moisture resistance and lower emissions than traditional materials, Azdel Superlite composite can be an ideal candidate for interior applications.

The composite was recently chosen by Lear Corp.

for the automotive interior integration program for the Ford GT performance vehicle.

Azdel Superlite composite was specified for the headliner, bulkhead cover, door panels, pillar trims, center console, and instrument panel.

The material met all key criteria and demonstrated its cost efficiency in high-end, low-volume models.

It also helped save an estimated 30 percent more weight per vehicle than conventional injection-molded substrates.

Currently in limited production, the Ford GT performance vehicle is scheduled to go into regular production in spring 2004.

In Europe, modular headliners, rear parcel shelves, door trim panels, underbody shields, and instrument panels made from Azdel Superlite composite are currently under development in cooperation with tier 1 automotive suppliers.

These include a novel instrument panel concept featuring a new NIS seamless airbag system that exploits the high integration opportunities offered by the product (which avoids adding extra parts or materials to the passenger airbag area).

The high load-bearing strength-to-stiffness ratio of Azdel Superlite composite is also opening the way for its integration into new rear parcel shelf concepts now being explored by the industry.

The GE Advanced Materials' Automotive Application Development Center in Southfield, Mich., U.S., and its European Design Center in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands, provide the world's leading automotive manufacturers and tier suppliers with extensive technical support.

Expert staff assist with concept generation, complete pre-production consultancy, application and performance prediction, processing simulation, feasibility and cost studies, advanced processing capabilities, system solutions, and innovative automotive expertise.

Moreover, GE Advanced Materials' affiliates, Polymer Solutions in the United States and GE Polymer Design Associates in Europe, can assist customers with a complete set of design and engineering services, or with finding an optimal solution to a specific task.

This support covers the full range of automotive disciplines - styling, engineering design, CAD, finite element analysis, model and prototyping, tooling, testing, and project management.

Azdel Superlite composite is produced and distributed by Azdel, a joint venture of GE Advanced Materials and PPG Industries.

The Azdel business was established in 1972 by PPG Industries, and a 50/50 joint venture was set up with GE in 1986.

Azdel Superlite composite customers are provided with support in design, testing, molding, and prototyping to achieve excellent performance and weight reduction in automotive applications (www.azdel.com).

About GE Advanced Materials - GE Advanced Materials is a world leader in providing materials solutions through engineering thermoplastics, silicon-based products and technology platforms, and fused quartz and ceramics.

Headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass., GE Advanced Materials is the combined entity of GE's former Plastics, Silicones, and Quartz businesses.

Its offerings include: • Silanes, specialty silicones, urethane additives, adhesives, sealants, caulks, resins, and elastomers for a variety of vertical markets such as personal care, automotive, tire and rubber, construction, healthcare, electronics, household and institutional, agriculture, textiles, appliances, bedding and furnishings, and foam control, as well as the consumer 'do-it-yourself' market

Good welding characteristics, low warpage and excellent flow characteristics were decisive factors in choosing reinforced polyamide for diesel engine oil separators.

System supplier Bosch Waiblingen Kunststofftechnik, in collaboration with Rhodia Engineering Plastics' Application Development Centre Automotive in Freiburg, has developed housings and other elements manufactured using Technyl reinforced polyamide for two new oil separator concepts for diesel engines. DaimlerChrysler is currently considering using the stand-alone solution of this oil separator with three hose connections for its A-Class diesel models. Series production for other diesel applications, using a cassette version fitted to the aluminium rocker cover, will start in the near future.

The material which will be used for both models is Technyl A 218 MT15 V25, a heat stabilised, glass and mineral reinforced polyamide 66.

It has been selected because it meets the stringent demands placed on its mechanical properties, durability and processing.

In the environmentally-friendly closed crankcase ventilation system, when the engine is running, the blow-by gas finds its way from the combustion chambers into the crankcase.

It then flows through the oil separator.

The gas is an aggressive combination of air, fuel remnants such as water vapour, soot and other combustion by-products, as well as oil mist and oil droplets.

The separator splits out almost all the oil and other fluid particles which are reintroduced into the oil system, while the remaining gas is fed back into the air intake.

The oil separator housing, the coil for the centrifugal oil separator for the larger drops and the support for the fleece which absorbs the fine oil mist, are all made from Technyl A 218 MT15 V25.

The support for the pressure control valve membrane is made of fluorine silicon-coated polyamide.

'We believe that this new type of oil separator will open up a wide range of new market opportunities.

The concept is a real step forward and we feel confident it will be the forerunner of a whole new generation of oil separators', said Eric Noyrez, Director Automotive Business, Rhodia Engineering Plastics.

The combination of glass and mineral particles in this Technyl grade precisely provides the demanding mix of properties required in this application, as well as meeting the demand of high production efficiency.

The hostile environment in which the oil separators are used means that they need to have outstanding rigidity and dimensional stability, high creep resistance and be able to withstand temperatures from -35degC to 130degC.

They also have to resist ageing when exposed to an aggressive mixture of lubricating oil, fuel, water and acids, and external factors such as road salt.

Good welding characteristics, low warpage (which simplifies machine tool construction) and Technyl's excellent flow characteristics were decisive factors in Bosch's decision to use the material.

According to Axel Zschau, Leader Application Development Centre Automotive at Rhodia Engineering Plastics, 'This new development is a result of a high level of co-operation between our two companies.

The challenge was to find a way to combine different oil separation systems in the small space available.

We managed to achieve the maximum system efficiency we were both looking for.

This project is one example of the way in which we work with our customers to help them to develop solutions that, as in this case, are often revolutionary.' Rhodia Engineering Plastics assisted Bosch during the material selection and its optimisation of the manufacturing process.

Rhodia offers its customers a wide range of support services during the commercialisation of their projects, such as flow simulation and finite element simulations, as well as a variety of laboratory tests like ageing, burst pressure and leakage tests.

Rhodia Engineering Plastics, headquartered in Lyon, France, is the worldwide specialist in polyamide engineering thermoplastic materials.

The company has a sales network that spans the world, with manufacturing plants and technical development centres in Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Rhodia is one of the world's leading manufacturers of speciality chemicals.

Providing a wide range of innovative products and services to the consumer care, food, industrial care, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, automotive, electronics and fibres markets, Rhodia offers its customers tailor-made solutions based on the cross-fertilisation of technologies, people and expertise.

Rhodia subscribes to the principles of Sustainable Development communicating its commitments and performance openly with stakeholders.