TPI April 2009

developments products &

Photo – Unifit Boru Baglanti, Turkey – see page 26

30 years of Victrex PEEK polymer innovation Since 1978, the use of Victrex PEEK polymer has spread around the world, initially into western Europe and the United States to address customers’ needs in the automotive and transportation sector. As businesses became global, Victrex moved into Japan and, during the last decade, has delivered its polymer into China. The company continues expansion into high growth markets such as India, Russia and Brazil.

making use of the latest injection moulding and compression moulding techniques. Victrex can help optimise a customer’s design and can assist in establishing a set of manufacturing parameters according to the particular materials being selected, as well as carry out an extensive set of relevant analytical and application-related tests to confirm the real-world feasibility of a part. This can take away any uncertainty from a customer’s product design and in many cases opens up new design alternatives for customers. The UK centre complements the Victrex Asia Innovation and Technology Center, located in Shanghai, China. Based on the same advanced services, the state- of-the-art 2,000m 2 facility is dedicated to Victrex PEEK polymer-based application and testing. Customers benefit from local-language staff, technical seminars, process and troubleshooting support, moulds validation and prototyping. Victrex is a multiple winner of the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade in 1987, 1997, 2002 and 2006. It also attained the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) President’s Award in 2008, in recognition of sustained occupational health and safety achievement after winning ten consecutive RoSPA Gold Awards.

Victrex Plc is a manufacturer of high performance materials, including Victrex ® PEEK ™ polymer, Vicote ® coatings and Aptiv ™ film. Thesematerials are used in a variety of markets and offer a combination of properties to help processors and end users achieve cost savings, quality, and performance. All Victrex material production comes under the company’s ISO 9001 quality registration. The company recently celebrated the 30 th anniversary of Victrex PEEK polymer, a high-temperature, high-performance polyketone. “The history of Victrex stems back to the original patent of PEEK, and since then we have been able to further expand our product offerings with the development of unique polymers, proprietary blends, and high performance compounds,” commented Richard Okupniak, managing director for the Victrex PEEK polymer business. “In November 1978, the business (then a plastics unit within ICI) began its PEEK production. The business was small-sized with a handful of employees. Today, Victrex employs more than 500 people around the world and operates two state-of-the art manufacturing facilities with a total production capacity of 4,250 tonnes.” The company’s products are featured in a variety of commercial applications in numerous markets, from automotive and energy to consumer electronics.

Being focused on the development of polyketones, Victrex is able to offer a comprehensive polyketone product portfolio, giving customers the flexibility to choose from a wide range of materials to help solve performance challenges. The company continues to focus on Victrex PEEK polymer research and development. Victrex has a £1.5 million, 900m 2 Applied Technology Centre in the UK that is an extension of the company’s product and application development facilities, providing material specification and testing services. The centre houses processing labs featuring extrusion and compounding equipment for new product development, as well as state- of-the-art injection moulding machines, with the capability to support customer trials on-site, and tooling for moulding experimental samples and test pieces.

Victrex Plc – UK www.victrex.com

The processing labs can bring a customer’s product design to life,

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