A new generation polyamide 6.6 compound from plastics compounder Teknor Apex (Pawtucket, Rhode Island / USA; www.teknorapex.com) overcomes cycle-time limitations of earlier workhorse grades. The company says it enables injection moulders of fasteners and similar parts to meet the same product performance requirements while increasing productivity and plant capacity.

"Chemlon 102HI BK001" is the first compound in what will be a new suite of PA products for fastener applications. In gate-freeze tests, Teknor says it showed a 15% improvement versus industry benchmarks in achieving constant weight, and did so without affecting 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 run-time, the new material consistently outperformed competitive products. Some customers have reported up to 9% increase in part production by switching over to the material, according to Brian Rickard, Teknor’s Engineering Thermoplastics division strategy director.