WEB EXCLUSIVE: Japan’s Zeon Corp. (U.S. office in Louisville, Ky.) has developed a high-transparency cyclo-olefin polymer (COP) for use in smartphone and tablet-computer camera lenses, which have smaller and thinner camera modules.

Last fall’s K 2010 fair in Germany drew dozens of materials suppliers to show off hundreds of new products, aimed especially at packaging,medical, automotive, and electrical/electronics.

New Zeotherm 110-70B engineering TPV from Zeon Chemicals L.P., Louisville, Ky., provides heat resistance up to 150 C and noise and vibration dampening for cuffs on automotive air ducts, vibration mounts, fasteners, industrial grips, body and passthrough plugs, and close-out seals.

This first of two articles on directions in TPE development focuses on styrenic, copolyester, polyamide, and TP urethane elastomers. The following article covers olefinics—TPOs, TPVs, and POEs.

WEB EXCLUSIVE A new cyclic olefin polymer (COP) from Zeon Chemicals L.P., Louisville, Ky., offers high light transmission and a stable refractive index after prolonged heat exposure to blue lasers in Blu-ray pickup lenses and prisms.

A softer grade has been added to the Zeotherm line of engineering TPVs from Zeon Chemicals LP, Louisville, Ky.

Car makers' all-out effort to cut costs is giving rise to new paint-free technologies, including an innovative 'simultaneous-shot" injection molding process that was presented at the SPE Automotive Division's latest annual Innovation Awards ceremony.

 Higher flow, higher heat, higher barrier, higher clarity, higher stiffness, lower durometer, lower smoke, lower odor—materials exhibits at the recent K 2004 show in Dusseldorf were stretching the bounds of processing and performance properties in all directions.

Recent commercialization of a cluster of novel thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) families is promising to boost demand for thermoplastic elastomers in new and challenging industrial and consumer product segments.

Cyclic olefin homopolymers and copolymers are engineering thermoplastics derived from the ring-shaped norbornene molecule, which is made from dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and ethylene.