16 Sept 2003
GE PLASTICS REINFORCES SUPPORT IN DRIVING INNOVATIVE PRODUCT DESIGN SOLUTIONS
BERGEN OP ZOOM— September 17, 2003 — In support of its services to the design community, GE Plastics worked with designafairs GmbH, one of Europe’s foremost design consultancies, to have a permanent state-of-the-art presentation at designafairs’ new Color and Materials Laboratory, which opened in Munich on September 17, 2003. This center of expertise brings together the leading technologies in materials, colors and effects to serve industrial designers in driving real design innovation in new and existing applications.
This latest move complements GE Plastics’ well-established key designer-support technologies and services that include its globally networked Customer Innovation Centers. Through these centers, industrial designers, design engineers and marketing professionals can access the latest materials and techniques to optimize and differentiate their application concepts, and can bring them to market with speed.
Further support is provided by GE Plastics’ ColorXpress® color matching and management services, which enable rapid and precise color selection and ensure color consistency throughout manufacturing processes. The full range of design tools and associated aids can be accessed via www.geaesthetics.com.
At the core of these designer-aids is Visualfx™ special color and effect resins. In 2000, GE Plastics introduced the first Visualfx resin portfolio, designed to provide companies from all industries with a competitive marketing edge through a revolutionary palette of finer texturing, shades and special effects. All of GE Plastics’ Visualfx resins are formulated with the color and effect inherent in the pellet to create colorful and exceptionally rich looking parts out of the mold without the need of what can often be costly secondary paint and coating operations. Additionally, several of these Visualfx resins are also available in film for use in in-mold decoration applications to achieve unique multi-layer effects and flow line free appearance. Whether sparkling, metallic glow, translucent or fluorescent, Visualfx resins can give products almost a completely new look.
As the technical differences between mass-produced standard products tend to disappear and aesthetics increasingly influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, there is a high demand for visually attractive materials that will extend the possibilities of product differentiation, capture new customers and conquer niche markets. Visualfx resin has been developed to meet this need. Through its LEXAN®, CYCOLOY®, GELOY®, XYLEX®, XENOY®, and CYCOLAC® thermoplastic resins, GE Plastics Visualfx resin portfolio currently offers 26 effects with over 33,000 dynamic color variants, loadings and derivatives.
Confirming both demand and material performance, in each of the past three years, sales of Visualfx resins increased by 20%. Volker Neuber, managing director, GE Plastics Germany, explains this market growth, “High-quality, innovative plastics from our Visualfx resin portfolio are rated very highly by our customers across all industries. Visualfx resins not only inspire new, bold developments but also satisfies customers’ key concerns such as recyclability, environment-friendly processing and cost efficiency, by eliminating the need for painting or coating operations.”
This is also the reason behind GE Plastics’ development of chlorine and bromine free, flame retardant, environmental friendly engineering thermoplastics. These developments effectively anticipate upcoming legislation, stemming from the European Union directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), for example. New materials such as LEXAN 925 and LEXAN EXL 9330 polycarbonate, GELOY DHRA 222 alloy, CYCOLOY CH6410 alloy, as well as Thermocomp PCAF04FRHH, already meet the projected new demands that will be made on materials particularly in respect of applications in the appliances, business machines (computers, printers, scanners, faxes) and telecommunications sectors.
Jens Götzelmann, responsible for Quality Management in the production of saf
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Helen Vandebovenkamp
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Notes for editors
About GE Plastics
GE Plastics is a leading producer of engineered thermoplastics with major production facilities worldwide. GE Plastics materials, including LEXAN® polycarbonate, are used in a wide variety of applications such as CDs and DVDs, automobile parts, computer housings, cookware, outdoor signage, cell phones, bullet resistant shielding and building materials. Through its LNP Engineering Plastics business, the company is a worldwide leader in the custom compounding of engineering thermoplastics. GE Plastics is also a global distributor of sheet, film, rod and tube products through GE Polymershapes and GE Structured Products. In 2003, GE Plastics is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of LEXAN polycarbonate, discovered in 1953 by GE chemist Dr. Daniel W. Fox. The company's web site is located at www.geplastics.com, and to learn more about LEXAN, visit www.gelexan.com.
*LEXAN, CYCOLOY, XENOY, GELOY, CYCOLAC and ColorxPress are registered trademarks of General Electric Company.
Visualfx is a trademark of General Electric Company.
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In support of its services to the design community, GE Plastics worked with designafairs GmbH, one of Europe’s foremost design consultancies, to have a permanent state-of-the-art presentation at designafairs’ new Color and Materials Laboratory, which opened in Munich on September 17, 2003. This center of expertise brings together the leading technologies in materials, colors and effects to serve industrial designers in driving real design innovation in new and existing applications.
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