GE ADVANCED MATERIALS REDEFINES WEATHERABLE RESIN PERFORMANCE WITH NEW OPAQUE, MOLDED-IN-COLOR PRODUCTS FOR INJECTION MOLDING

BERGEN OP ZOOM, The Netherlands — GE Advanced Materials, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), today expanded its LEXAN® SLX weatherable copolymer resin line with two new opaque grades specifically designed for injection molding. The new materials – LEXAN SLX EXRL0124 and LEXAN SLX EXRL0125 resins – were developed to address environmental issues and costs associated with painting plastic parts in applications that require long-term retention of color and gloss in demanding outdoor use.

Polycarbonate (PC) provides outstanding impact strength, good stiffness at light weight, the ability to maintain mechanicals over a broad temperature range, high gloss, excellent tintability and paintability, option for water-clear transparency, and excellent moldability. In challenging outdoor applications, however, scientists have traditionally needed to use UV additives to help stabilize the polymer, and tints, pigments, or paint to mask color shift. Hardcoat technology has been employed to improve scratch and chemical resistance, and alloying and blending has been used to expand the chemical resistance for uncoated PC components.

LEXAN SLX resin effectively improves the weatherability of polycarbonate. The new material is a copolymer technology that has been derived from polyester carbonates and resorcinol arylates. When exposed to UV light, the new copolymer undergoes a photo-fries rearrangement and produces a new structure that is inherently a UV screener, essentially making the resin self-protecting.

The LEXAN SLX resin technology was initially deployed by GE Advanced Materials in a high-gloss film for use with in-mold decorated parts for the automotive industry. Comprised of a clear cap layer over a colored layer (flat or metallic), the film maintains dimensional stability over a broad temperature range and can be back-molded onto a variety of substrates to create a Class A surface. This technology provides excellent weathering, outstanding chemical and scratch resistance, plus excellent gloss and depth of image (DOI), which are all necessary to meet the automotive industry’s demanding aesthetic requirements. LEXAN SLX film is now available from GE Advanced Materials in multiple gauges.

In June 2003, GE introduced the first, injection-molding grades of this copolymer, which are transparent and, in laboratory testing, demonstrate excellent weathering (seven+ years), high light transmission (>83%), and low haze (<1%), with performance and processing much like standard polycarbonate materials. Depending on weathering conditions, the new materials offer five-to-10 times better gloss, color, and light transmission retention than standard UV-stabilized polycarbonate. After a slight initial color shift, the transparent grades of LEXAN SLX resin offer a longer lifetime of UV stability and clarity vs. traditional UV-stabilized polycarbonate. This makes the transparent grades of LEXAN SLX resin an ideal candidate for lighting applications, including covers, refractors, and lenses.

With today’s announcement, GE Advanced Materials has expanded the LEXAN SLX resin technology still further with two new opaque grades that are high gloss and can be pre-colored in a range of hues for paint-replacement in injection-molded parts. Unlike many self-colored, weatherable polymers and alloys, the new LEXAN resin grades offer higher chemical, thermal, scratch, and weathering resistance. Post-weathered ductility is high, while most other physical, mechanical, processing, and shrinkage properties are very similar to standard PC grades. The new LEXAN SLX materials are being positioned for use in components for sporting goods, automobiles, recreational vehicles, agricultural equipment, and telecommunications enclosures.

“When exposed to UV light over time,” says Kurt Schuering, global LEXAN product manager, GE Advanced Materials, “traditional weatherable polymers can lose gloss, where this exceptionally tough copolymer technology can withstand the rigors of long-term outdoor use virtually unscathed. Key to

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