TPC Develops New Polyamide for 2-Shot Molding

Written by TP Composites, Inc. Friday, May 13 2011 09:52

TP Composites has developed a new polyamide composition for 2-shot “soft touch” over-molding. The new ADH technology can be extended to other engineering resins besides polyamides.

TP Composites has developed a new polyamide composition for 2-shot “soft touch” over-molding.  The new ADH technology can be extended to other engineering resins besides polyamides.  Designers continue to create new & innovative injection molded plastic parts, components and devices.  The ‘in-use’ requirements that are placed on these new designs have moved into the realm of elevated continuous use temperatures, resistance to chemicals, and flame retardancy, to name a few.  To meet these end-use criteria, more complex molding compounds are required.

In the example of a new hand held consumer device, it was found that a glass fiber reinforced, flame retardant, custom colored polyamide 6 hard substrate (first shot) did not adhere to the olefinic TPE second shot, that otherwise exhibited excellent adhesion to the polyamide 6 base resin. The biggest issues were that the injection mold tooling was built for a specific mold shrinkage and the OEM had a firm launch date with their largest retailer for the new product.

Working closely with the OEM, the molder and a key additives supplier, TP Composites developed a molding compound that retained key properties such as mold shrinkage, flame retardancy and flexural modulus.  Using design of experiments (DOE) methodology, 2 candidates were quickly identified and the molder sampled them and with the OEM (standing press side) selected one of them and produced enough samples for the product launch.  The cycle time from observing the adhesion problem to successful parts was less than 4 weeks.  At TP Composites…We solve problems®

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