Consumables
Processing additives for polyurethane foam applications – meeting the challenges of compatibility and processability
Thursday 22. January 2009 - With its new class of additives, BYK is setting new standards in polyurethane foam applications. This unique group of processing additives improves both the compatibility and the processability of foam systems.
Incompatibility and separation are familiar phenomena in todays foam formulations. Specialty foams such as super soft and viscoelastic grades, for example, require components of different chemical compositions and polarity. These products, however, are of either limited solubility or complete incompatibility. This is an ideal application scenario for processing additives – in this case compatibilizers – since this group of additives helps overcome the incompatibilities between various raw materials in the formulation.
Compatibility is one issue, but processability (in production) presents another major challenge:
Anti-sedimentation / floating additives, for example, prevent the sedimentation of CaCO3 and melamine powder or the floatation of ground PU foam or PE powder. This is achieved by means of thixotropy and the build-up of a slight yield value in the polyol.
Anti-cold-flow additives improve the dimension stability of the foam and thus reduce the cold flow effect.
Hydrophilic additives influence the water-absorbing properties of polyether / polyester foams, thus increasing the water receptivity and the absorption rate of the foam.
Viscosity modifiers improve the flow behavior and pumpability of higher viscosity polyols or systems, especially at lower temperatures. The additives are 100% isocyanate reactive.
Processing additives
Compatibilizer
Anti-sedimentation /
anti-floating additive
Anti-cold-flow additive
Hydrophilic additive for polyether / polyester foams
Viscosity reducer for polyols and foam systems
BYK-P 9900
BYK-P 9901
BYK-P 9902
BYK-P 9903
BYK-P 9904
BYK-P 9905
BYK-P 9906
BYK-P 9910
BYK-P 9911
BYK-P 9915
Survey: BYK processing additives