Thermoformable Glass Fiber Reinforced UltemŪ

Ensinger's Penn Fibre Division has added thermoformable glass fiber reinforced UltemŪ 2300 PEI to its extensive line of high performance thermoforming materials. This new addition to the current line of unreinforced materials extends the user's design options. Unreinforced UltemŪ 1000 has very good properties in terms of stiffness and strength. It maintains much of these properties up to its glass transition temperature (217° C). Its insensitivity to gamma radiation; good heat aging (UL RTI of 170° C); and low flammability has made it very useful in a variety of products, ranging from medical to aerospace and other transit applications.

The addition of 30% glass reinforcement dramatically improves the strength and stiffness of Ultem 2300 PEI over the unreinforced material's properties at all temperatures. Its room temperature tensile strength is increased by 44% (to 158 MPa), and at 150° C it is about double the tensile strength of unreinforced Ultem 1000 (90 MPa vs. 50 MPa). The increase in stiffness is even more impressive. For Ultem 2300 PEI it is 8960 MPa (1.3 MMpsi) as compared to 3520 MPa for Ultem 1000. This improvement allows designers to use thinner, lighter weight parts where weight is a substantial value. Whether it is a medical tray or aircraft seatback, a flexural modulus improvement of 255% equates to the ability to make the part 27% thinner and deliver the same functional stiffness. Use of carbon fiber reinforcement can further improve this modulus advantage where the cost increase can be justified by the lower weight. Samples are available.

For more information, contact Mark Kreisher, Ensinger-Penn Fibre Division, 2434 Bristol Road, Bensalem, PA 19020, 800-662-7366, Fax: 215-702-9552, E-mail: penninfo@pennfibre.com, Web: www.pennfibre.com.