Press release: Nexam Chemical’s patent application regarding production of EBPA approved in Europe.
01/08/2014
Nexam Chemical has received a notice of allowance from the European Patent Office that the company’s European patent application for production of the crosslinker EBPA will be granted.
EBPA, which Nexam Chemical sells under the name of NEXIMID 400 (EBPA), is a crosslinker and chain extender which was developed in the 1980s by General Electric for use in high temperature applications, such as motors. Despite the promising properties EBPA has not yet achieved a widespread use. This is partly due to that a suitable production process of obtaining the product on a larger scale so far has not been available and that the price thereby has been too high.
Nexam Chemical has developed a completely new process to produce EBPA on larger scale, with higher purity and at a much lower price. This has been done as part of Nexam Chemical’s ambition to become a recognized world leader in the field of property modification of plastic and polymeric materials through heat-activated crosslinking. EBPA fits well into the product portfolio of crosslinkers Nexam Chemical offers its customers, primarily for high-temperature polyimide materials.
“Polyimide materials are used in the most demanding and high-performance composites that are available today. The total global market for polyimides is about 60 000 tons annually and is growing continuously. The application areas for these composites are within e.g. aerospace and electronics (both consumer and industrial applications).”, says Per Palmqvist Morin, CEO.
As previously announced (see news from 2013-11-12) there is currently a project ongoing to develop a new high-temperature material based on Nexam Chemical’s crosslinkers, which includes NEXIMID 400 (EBPA). The new resin is intended for use in composites targeted at the most demanding applications in the aerospace industry. Nexam Chemical has already delivered material for evaluation and component development to the Clean Sky project consortium, where Rolls Royce Jet Engines and Swerea SiComp are customers (see news from 2013-11-20).
Nexam Chemical currently has 6 approved patents, as well as 38 patent applications within 11 patent families.
For more information on Nexam Chemical’s technology, please go to http://www.nexamchemical.com/Technology/.
Note: This press release has been translated from Swedish. The Swedish text shall govern for all purposes and prevail in case of any discrepancy with the English version.