Show gets six of the best

Six new products, including adhesives, structural composites and tooling materials, were on show for the first time at the recent JEC Composites show in Paris last month. Huntsman Advanced Materials' showcased its new syntactic damping paste for aero engines; a flame-retardant adhesive; a structural syntactic paste; two multi-functional epoxy resins; and a new casting system for the foundry industry. The company's Structural Composites business unit produces epoxy specialities and high value thermosets for fibre reinforcement technologies. It provides innovative products for a wide range of industries including the wind turbine industry, aerospace, automotive, railway, electronics, high performance offshore pipes and concrete construction. At JEC, the division showed off two multifunctional epoxy resins that were suitable for a range of processing systems, including resin transfer moulding, resin film infusion, pre-pregs and filament winding. 'Araldite MY 0600' is a multi-functional epoxy resin based on meta-aminophenol. Compared to the properties of current multi-functional epoxy resins, the material is unique in its ability to provide structural matrices with higher modulus and greater toughness. It is ideally suited to aerospace applications. 'Araldite MY 9721' is a multi-functional epoxy resin that is suitable for a wide range of industrial composite applications and has been developed from the firm's 'Araldite MY 721' aerospace grade of tetrafunctional epoxy resin. While offering similar properties such as long pot life at process temperatures and excellent retention of mechanical performance even at elevated temperatures, the resin, thanks to a special manufacturing process, is a lower cost resin intended for high temperature resistant industrial applications. Huntsman Advanced Materials