Plastics Live 2022 –  “Flame Retardants. A Changing Landscape” Presentation.

– All right, good morning, everyone.

– Good morning.

– I don’t know if everyone can hear me.

Can you hear me?

Hello?

Cool.

All right, I’m James, and this is Callum.

We’re from a company

called Polymer Compounders.

We’re based in Durham.

We are an engineering

thermoplastics manufacturer

and we specialize in ABS

compounds, ASA compounds.

There we go.

PC ABS, polycarbonates,

and more recently,

our Notoxicom speciality

novel flame retardants.

– So, what is a flame retardant?

So by definition, it’s a substance

that prevents or inhibits

the outbreak of a fire,

which is not to be confused

with heat resistance,

which looks at the deformation

of the polymer under heat.

With some halogen flame retardants,

they use something called a cosynergist,

which helps their flame retardancy,

which is specifically used in FR ABS,

which we’ll touch on a bit later on

because of its serious

health concerns and toxicity.

Some common flame retardant specifications

are looking at the vertical burn test,

which is a UL-94 test.

And these three specific ratings,

V-0, V-1, V-2,

and V-0, which is the most stringent test

or stringent specification.

And it looks at the

self-extinguishing time.

It looks at the afterglow and

the dripping of the polymer.

So specifically with V-0,

the flame extinguishes within 10 seconds

with absolutely no dripping,

so it’s the most stringent

out of the three V ratings.

So we’re gonna look at the current

flame retardant technologies

beginning with FR ABS.

And global regulators are

becoming increasingly concerned

with halogens released from the polymer

when they’re set on fire, basically.

So the alternative to FR ABS could be an FR PC/ABS,

which uses a low melting point,

non-halogenated liquids

which are suspended within a polymer matrix.

I know, although this seems

like a safer alternative,

it’s becoming of increasing

concern to the ECHA,

which is the European Chemicals Agency.

– So this brings us on to the

evolution of flame retardants

starting at the bottom left

with FR ABS using brominated technologies,

moving on to the middle of FRPC ABS,

which uses a liquid-based

flame retardant package.

And then moving on to the top,

which is the polyphosphonate co-carbonate,

which is something that we think

is the future of flame retardancy,

and is also in relation to our Notoxicom,

which we’ll get onto a little bit later.

– So we’re gonna look at some

developments around the world,

articles and studies.

And I’ve already spoken about

the European Chemicals Agency.

And they’ve announced

a restrictions roadmap

for a ban on all flame

retardants additives.

And by the end of this year,

they’re supposed to be

announcing like a roadmap.

Brominated flame retardants

are banned from display units in the US.

That was announced at the end of last year

, and from the states of

New York and Washington.

So this is coming in from the year 2024.

So they’re not gonna be using

any flame retardants whatsoever

in any of their electrical displays.

A bit closer to home in

the medical industry,

the European Healthcare Without Harm

have announced a phase-out list

from no flame retardants at

all in the medical industry.

And I want you to pay attention

to an endocrine disruption study

from Brunel University in London,

which looks at flame retardants

and how they’re affecting

sperm counts in men

and just general endocrine disruption.

– So this brings us on to the

the topic of our presentation,

which is flame retardants,

a changing landscape.

So there are growing health concerns

regarding the toxicity of

flame retardants and polymers.

The ECHA have now added

the most widely used

flame retardant packages

to their list of substances of concern,

also known as the CORAP list.

– Part of this CORAP list.

One second.

TBPA, which is used in FR ABS,

is becoming of increasing concern,

not also due to its endocrine disruption,

but it bio-accumulates at the surface

and it’s toxic when it’s burned.

And this is suspected of causing cancer.

This is from the ECHA’s own website.

So this eventually will be banned.

– So, the natural progression

from FR ABS technologies

is FRPC ABS technologies.

Unfortunately, this is

also a risk of being banned

due to the health concerns

regarding the endocrine

disruption of the chemicals used.

And essentially, it will be

removed from the market as well.

– So, one of the chemicals

James was discussing was TPP,

also known as triphenyl phosphate.

And this is one of the chemicals

that’s suspected of endocrine disruption,

again, sourced from

the ECHA’s own website.

– But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Introducing Notoxicom,

superior halogen-free flame retardancy,

non-migratory chemicals

that do not bio-accumulate,

and a more favourable toxicity profile.

– Notoxicom, the world’s first UL-94 V-0

at 0.8 millimetres is

a halogen-free PC ABS

or an FRPC ASA

using polyphosphonate

co-carbonate technology.

As we discussed before

the different V ratings.

Notoxicom, the UL-94 V-0,

so the best rating at 0.8 millimetres,

which is really, really thin.

So now, we’re gonna compare and contrast

the different flame retardant technologies

beginning with halogenated

flame retardants.

And although, so the top

right-hand corner, the box,

these are polymeric

halogenated flame retardants,

which use brominated technology.

And although they don’t

migrate from the host plastic,

they’re toxic when they’re burned.

And now, to the bottom right-hand corner,

TBBPA, which we spoke about.

These are the worst of the worst.

They bio-accumulate, they’re toxic,

They migrate from the host plastic,

suspected of endocrine

disruption causing cancer.

We don’t want to be using these.

In the bottom left hand corner,

although some PC ABS flame

retardant alternatives

are branded as halogen-free,

because they use small molecules,

they still migrate from the host plastic.

This is where we keep talking

on about endocrine disruption.

It’s the migration of these chemicals

through to the surface of the polymer.

Notoxicom’s technology

uses polyphosphonate

co-carbonate technology.

It’s halogen-free.

It does not migrate or bio-accumulate

and has a favourable toxicity profile.

– So this brings us to the

smoke inhalation statistics.

The number one cause of death

related to fires is smoke inhalation,

with an estimated 50 to

80% of all of these deaths

being caused or linked

to smoke inhalation.

In sufficient high concentrations

over a long enough period of time,

the inhalation of smoke

can create hazardous health conditions

for people who are exposed to it.

So this brings us on nicely

to our Notoxicom smoke toxicity test,

excuse me for fumbling.

The Notoxicom has passed

the stringent aviation

testing requirements.

And if you can look at the bottom left

sort of towards the bottom of the screen

where the big green yes is,

you can see that the data shows

that it’s well below

the minimum requirements

needed to pass.

– We’ll look at some other

advantages of Notoxicom.

There’s no drops in heat

or strength performance,

as with other flame retardant grades.

It’s a lower density, which

means it saves on the material.

And as we’ve already spoken about,

it’s low smoke and low toxicity.

Or no toxicity, I should say, no toxicity.

– So, here in this example,

here is one of our customers.

The representative from

Super B, Marten Zilvold,

has been enjoying the greener credentials

of switching to Notoxicom,

one of which has allowed

them to use less material

by dropping a hot runner

within their system.

And also, it is used in a

lithium-ion battery application.

I almost missed that point.

– If you pop over to our stall,

a stand at B-26,

you can see the actual battery

application on our stand.

So I don’t know

whether you want to have a

go at scanning the QR code,

but if not,

you can pop over to our stand at B-26

and grab the actual data sheet.

It gives you a bit more information,

but it’s a high flow,

and with excellent complex

tooling processability.

It’s got good heat

performance, excellent impact.

As we’ve already mentioned,

it’s halogen-free and V-0,

and it has excellent

glow wire flammability

at 960 degrees,

which makes it perfect for

electrical applications.

Just waiting for a second

’cause I could see a few

people scanning the QR code.

– Oh, great.

Absolutely.

Okay.

So Notixocom B6000 was

tested under lab conditions

to see how it compares to

standard FRPC ABS technologies.

It was tested under both glow wire

and comparative tracking index.

The results from the conditions show

that in both tests,

it didn’t lose any of the performance

in comparison to the FRPC

ABS standard technology.

– And just another reminder,

it’s glow wire at 960 degrees.

– Yes.

So here in this representation,

this is a visual of before and

after the test is taking place.

The left-hand side being

the samples before,

and on the right-hand side,

the sample furthest to the right here

is Notoxicom B6000.

As you can see,

there is a severe less amount

of charring on the samples,

significantly less amount of charring.

– Now, we’re gonna look at

the recycling robustness.

After one recycling pass,

Notoxicom still maintains its

excellent impact resistance

after one recycling pass.

The two others, the BPADP

and the RDP are other

FRPC ABS alternatives.

You can see a slight dip

in performance with B6000,

but as we move on to the V-0

rating in the next slide,

we’ll discuss it a little bit more.

– Notoxicom also maintains

its V-0 rating after recycling.

As you can see,

both the RDP test sample

and the BPADP sample,

they have both lost some of their rating

from the initial start.

So B6000 maintains its

V-0 rating throughout,

with RDP being the one that loses the most

and dropping to a V-2.

– As James has said,

RDP has lost its V-0 rating,

it’s flame retardancy, from a V-0 to a V-1.

And going back, looking

at the impact resistance,

even though BDADP has maintained

its impact resistance,

it totally loses its V-0 rating

after one recycling pass,

which means Notoxicom is

left standing on its own.

– So this brings us onto our

vertical burn demonstration

with ABS being the sample on the left,

with our Notixocom in the center,

and a general FR ABS to the right.

As you can tell from the samples,

when the flame reaches the FR ABS,

it rises up significantly more

than the Notoxicom sample in the center,

which acts almost like a barrier,

which is what its designed to do

being a self-extinguishing polymer.

It does not allow the fire to continue.

And you can also see in the FR ABS,

the black smoke that comes off the sample

is the gas that we were

referring to earlier

escaping from the polymer

as it’s being activated.

And ABS just sort of

disappears in a sea of fire.

– So, just to summarize,

TBBA, which is the main flame

retardant used in FR ABS,

it’s highly likely to be banned

due to its major health concerns,

its toxicity, and endocrine disruption.

The alternative,

non-halogenated FR technology,

contain TPP,

which is with a lot of

heavy scientific data

suspected of endocrine disruption.

We’ve seen that in the Guardian newspaper,

we’ve seen that from

the ECHA’s own studies,

and we have the state of New

York and Washington as well

announcing that they’re gonna

be banning these materials.

I think that the safer alternative

is our Notixocom range,

which uses polyphosphonate

co-carbonate technology,

which is a greener solution

with superior mechanical properties,

V-0 rating at 0.8 millimetres,

non-migratory chemicals

that do not bio-accumulate,

and a more favourable toxicity profile

passing aviation small toxicity testing.

So let’s start the conversation together.

With future changes in

legislation pending,

are you ready for a greener future?

We have a real alternative

solutions available now

and we are ready to support

your future developments.

– [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

the round table discussion on the future–

– So we’d just like to

take a moment to thank

all of the key parties involved,

which involves the team at PCL

and also some of our partners

elsewhere in the globe,

some of the notable ones

being FRX Innovations,

Kedu Polymers, Super B, and of course,

(indistinct), who

assisted with the moulding

and is the moulder (indistinct).

– Thank you for listening.

– Thank you for listening.

Any questions?

– All right, thanks very much, gentlemen.

It makes me feel rather old

’cause when I started off,

it was antimony trioxide.

– Yeah, that’s the cysynergist in FR ABS,

which is, yeah, nasty.

– I think you were still in your nappies

when I was using that.

Okay, I think you’ve already

answered one of my questions,

what makes it different?

And you’ve said it’s non-halogenated.

Before I forget,

is your presentation

available for the audience?

– We can make it available, yeah.

– Yeah, we will do that.

– So if they come and

see you at the stand on?

– B-26.

– B-26.

– Just to answer your question there,

you said what makes it different.

You said because is it non-halogenated.

It’s not just that it’s non-halogenated

because the non-halogenated

flame retardants,

they contain a liquid additive

that’s suspended within

the polymer matrix,

whereas ours is a full polymer blend.

– So it comes as a master

batch or something.

– No, no, no.

It’s a full polymer blend,

full polymer compound.

And its polyphosphonate

co-carbonate technology.

– So there’s nothing to escape.

So commonly, FR ABS,

FRPC ABS has something

in there in addition to,

so additives,

whereas our polyphosphonate co-carbonate

is literally a compound.

Nothing’s come out.

– Fully polymeric.

– Fully polymeric.

And yeah, the molecular chains in there

prevent it from capturing fire.

It’s self-extinguishing.

We tried to coin the

phrase self-extinguishing

as opposed to flame retardant.

It’s a little bit of

a nicer kind of thing,

but there was a lot of negativity

around flame retardants.

– Yeah,

and if you’d like any more information

or you’d like to go and

collect a physical data sheet,

please pop over to our stand at B-26

and we’ll be happy to

answer any more questions

you may have.

Thanks for listening.

– Okay, before we open,

there’s some questions, I’m sure,

the audience is gonna ask.

What do you do in terms of formulation

that you need to change

if they’re approved,

I don’t know, FDA approved,

or different industries?

Do you have to assist the

clients with formulations

and going through the approval process?

– So in terms,

well, in terms of aviation,

we’re developing different

grades for different industries.

And as we’ve discussed before,

it passes smoke toxicity tests,

which are far more stringent

than any other industry.

– So we have a version of

Notoxicom called A6000,

which we’ve designed specifically

for aviation purposes.

We are also, as we’ve got B6000,

which is a great injection

(indistinct) grade.

We’ve also got B6303, which

is an extrusion version.

So we’re tailoring it to

each of our customer’s needs

and their desires with their material.

– Yeah, ’cause not only

are we a compounder,

we’re innovators.

We blend different polymers together.

We create our own materials as well.

We’ve got an excellent lab team

run by our technical

manager, Steven Blair, there.

So yeah, we’re developing new grades

and variations within our Notoxicom range.

– So, the sports stack.

Right, let’s open the floor to questions.

Has anybody got any questions?

I’m sure there’s gotta

be a question somewhere.

You get paid if you ask a question.

No?

Okay.

Well, thanks very much, gentlemen,

but please feel free to

approach them on the stand.

Thanks very much.

A round of applause, please.

Thank you.

– Thank you.

(audience applauding)

(people chattering)