Albany, New York -- Momentive Performance Materials Inc. yesterday introduced a new generation of surfactants for appliance foams made by hydrocarbon-blowing, as part of a global initiative to help eliminate voids in polyurethane foam.
Momentive described the development in paper on use of Niax silicone L-6891, presented 26 Sept at the Polyurethanes 2011 Technical Conference of the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry, in Nashville, Tennessee.
The paper looked at proprietary testing methodologies developed by Momentive to study foam voids generated in discontinuous moulding. Using these methodologies, Momentive said it has examined the technical challenges of optimising the silicone surfactant structure to eliminate voids while preserving other important foam and formulation properties, including maintaining the lowest thermal conductivity.
"At Momentive, we have invested significantly in R&D to focus on eliminating the foam voids that are an ongoing industry concern across rigid foam segments," said Tony Lanchak, global business director for Urethane Additives at Momentive Performance Materials, in a company statement.
"This global effort has been expanded to hydrocarbon-blown appliance foams, which are used extensively in household refrigerators. We believe that these defects in the foam surface, which could lead to aesthetic and thermal conductivity issues in the end product, are more likely to occur in formulations that use hydrocarbons as the blowing agent."
The technical paper, "A new generation of surfactants for hydrocarbon blown domestic appliance formulations providing optimized rigid foam surface quality while minimizing thermal conductivity," can be downloaded at www.momentive.com .
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