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To maximize polymer performance in final products by mixing polymers with different properties was the goal of RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers. The result is its new specialty range of products with the brand name Radilon® Mixloy. The matrix material for these new innovative products is polyamide, the flagship product of RadiciGroup, the only industrial group in Europe today capable of controlling its entire production process, from polymer chemicals to engineering polymers, including end-of-life recycling. Totally vertically integrated production allows the Group to realize customer-tailored formulations and develop innovative projects.
Specifically, Radilon® Mixloy products are made by blending polymers readily available on the market today through a compatibilization technology developed by the Group, which makes naturally immiscible raw materials miscible.
“At the moment, development is focused on certain types of alloys,” pointed out Nicolangelo Peduto, Research and Development manager of RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers, “but, in the future, we plan to add other products, with the goal of achieving properties that are simply not attainable with individual polymers. One of our objectives is to be able to meet the demand coming from market niches. Furthermore, thanks to our upstream vertically integrated polyamide production, we have at our disposal a number of different types of polymers that give us design freedom in formulating the new Radilon® Mixloys.”
The base materials for the Radilon® Mixloy product offering developed so far are PA 6, PA 6.6 and long-chain PAs, some of which are made from bio-source materials, thus increasing the added value of the products.
According to RadiciGroup, Radilon® Mixloy products feature high-performance properties, including thermal resistance, mechanical resistance and surface appearance. They also have low density, dimensional stability and excellent ease of processing. Other promising advantages of these blends are low water absorption, improved tribological properties and low permeability (barrier effect).
There are many fields of application for Radilon® Mixloy products. In the automotive sector, they are ideal not only for auto interiors, where the most frequently requested characteristics are appearance and chemical and thermal resistance, but also for exterior body and engine compartment parts. They can also be used for filament 3D printing – on account of their ease of processing, low water absorption and minimal shrinkage.
