FROST & SULLIVAN PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD FOR STANYL

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within their industry. The recipient company has shown innovation by launching a broad line of emerging products and technologies.

This Award has been given to the range of Stanyl polyamide 46 products because they are unique, innovative and have achieved competitive advantage in the marketplace. In addition to Stanyl's impressive portfolio of performance properties, a major advantage of Stanyl versus other performance plastics is that they can be used without any reinforcement, thus offering even greater weight savings to OEMs.

To choose a recipient of this award, the analyst team tracks all new product launches, R&D spending, products in development, and new product features and modifications. This is accomplished through interviews with all the market participants, and extensive secondary and technology research. All new product launches and new products in development in each company are compared and evaluated based on degree of innovation and customer satisfaction. Companies are then ranked by number of new product launches and new products in development.

In addition to the methodology describe above, there are specific criteria used to determine final competitor rankings in this industry. The recipient of this award has excelled based on one or more of the following criteria:

• Significance of new product(s) in their industry

• Competitive advantage of new product(s) in their industry

• Product innovation in terms of unique or revolutionary technology

• Product acceptance in the marketplace

• New product value-added services provided to customers

• Number of competitors with similar product(s).

According to Dr. Brian Balmer, Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst, DSM is not the only manufacturer who offers a polyamide with proprietary chemistry: "But where DSM stands out from the crowd is in its continual development of the brand, adding new grades and new functionality all the time."

Dr. Balmer adds: "Whilst testimonials from respected customers such as Delphi and Siemens confirm the value of Stanyl, the very recent announcement of major capacity increases demonstrates DSM's long-term commitment to this unique and valuable material."

Stanyl background

DSM Engineering Plastics developed Stanyl PA46 in the late 1980s and a pilot plant soon followed in the early 1990s. In January 2001, the company further expanded its Stanyl production facility at Geleen in the Netherlands. Stanyl remains the only commercially available PA46 type and has a leading share of the European HTPA market.

Stanyl is an aliphatic polyamide formed by the polycondensation of 1,4-diaminobutane and adipic acid. Stanyl is noted for its high temperature and high wear resistance. In terms of heat resistance, Stanyl is positioned along with high heat materials such as PPS, polysulphones, polyetherimides, polyketones and LCP, and above the standard engineering plastics such as polyamide 6 or 66 and polyesters. However, on ease of processing Stanyl ressembles standard engineering plastics.

The heat distortion temperature for Stanyl is 190°C for unreinforced grades and 290°C for glass reinforced grades. Main areas of application are automotive, electrical & electronics and consumer products. Unlike other competing HTPAs, another advantage of Stanyl versus other performance plastics is that it can be used without any reinforcement.

Stanyl also offers the highest mechanical properties at high temperatures, excellent resistance to wear and low friction, outstanding flow for easy processing and exceptional design freedom.

DSM has introduced a number of new Stanyl products during the last three years.

• Stanyl High Flow match the best flowing LCPs while maintaining a high level of mechanical properties.

• In 2001, DSM introduced a flame-retardant, reinforced grade of PA46 with Stanyl High Flow. T