A flame-retardant thermoplastic polyurethane designed for medical applications, including wire and cable components, has been launched by Lubrizol Corp.'s LifeScience Polymers division.
The TPU is an expansion of a polymer the company introduced last year, AR-62, an extremely soft, non-plasticized material. This material can be extruded and injection molded, but also maintains a rubber feel. To ensure it was suitable for medical applications, the TPU exhibits low smoke and toxicology. According to Ralf Hue-ther, global business manager of Lubrizol's LifeScience Polymers division, the TPU also is flame retardant with a limiting oxygen index of 30. That means it would have to be in an environment consisting of 30 percent oxygen for the flame to keep burning. The material contains no plasticizer, no solvents or any chemical reactions are involved in the process.
“So far we've seen potential applications for replacing materials like rubber,” said Uwe Winzen, global marketing manager of Lubrizol's LifeScience Polymers division. “Now we're looking to go into applications that are a little harder. We're looking at more traditional products that wanted to have flame retardancy built into it but were not able to.” Winzen said because the material can be injection molded and extruded, it can be customized to different sizes and thickness depending on a customer's needs. Lubrizol can even mix and match hardness within the same product for customers who may want a soft shell on the inside of their products and a hard shell on the outside. Compounds can be molded together with 100% compatibility because each TPU has the same chemistry. This gives Lubrizol the ability to customize these materials to a variety of customer needs—including size, hardness and color.