| Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd, Japan, has recently developed a new manufacturing process of liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) that uses an organic catalyst. The process produces high-performance LCP and achieves substantially improved production efficiency. Sumitomo will work actively with customers to incorporate the new grades of LCP into the company�s Sumikasuper� LCP product line.
In contrast to conventional technologies, the new process employs a basic organic catalyst and remarkably increases the rate of reaction between monomers while restricting undesirable side reactions. Further, the catalyst does not remain in the polymers after use and comes out of the reaction system together with by-products as reaction temperature rises during polymerisation. Because the high activity catalyst enables much faster reaction, the production capacity of Sumitomo�s existing LCP plant in Ehime, Japan can be doubled to 4,000 tonnes per year only by installing a catalyst feed equipment with a minimum of investment.
Compared to conventional LCP, the product manufactured by the new process offers several benefits, such as, for example, greater flowability while maintaining the high-heat resistance of super engineering plastics; markedly small content of polymers with low-molecular weight, enabling improved heat stability during resin moulding and a significant reduction in blistering during soldering; and improved colour tone (whiteness), allowing use in LED components that require this attribute. Surface-mounted components such as connectors, a major LCP application, are becoming smaller and finer-pitched, requiring high-flowability and heat stability during moulding. Testing of the new LCPs by major Sumitomo customers has produced favourable results.
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