Great Lakes Present Their Latest Additives for Polyurethane at Utech 2003

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA—Great Lakes Chemical Corporation (NYSE:GLK) today announced that the latest additions to their range of flame retardants and polymer stabilisers for polyurethane applications will be presented at Utech 2003.

Greater performance requirements and improved aesthetics together with changes in regulatory standards, processing methods and environmental issues, are increasing the challenges faced by today’s manufacturer of polyurethane. Suppliers of additives into the polyurethane industry must allow the polyurethane manufacturer to meet these challenges without adversely affecting the physical properties of their product.

Against this background, Great Lakes have developed two new flame retardants and two polymer stabiliser blends. Firemaster® 2100 a bromine based flame retardant has been added to the selection of Great Lakes flame retardants for thermoplastic polyurethane. Firemaster 2100 is used in combination with Great Lakes antimony trioxide to provide a cost effective, non-diphenyl oxide based additive allowing UL-94 V-0 flame test performance.

A recent addition to Great Lakes’ halogen-free flame retardant products is Reofos® NHP, a scorch free, low fogging flame retardant for flexible automotive foams that maintains excellent physical properties during ageing. Reofos NHP will be featured in a technical paper to be presented at the Utech conference titled ‘A New Approach to Flame Retarded Polyurethane Foams For Automotive Applications’.

Automotive applications are also the target for new polymer stabiliser blends, Lowilite® UV B1211 and Lowilite® UV B1260. These are Liquid blends of thermal and light stabilisers offering low fogging and excellent thermal protection, Lowilite UV B1211 is particularly suitable for interior flexible integral skin automotive applications and Lowilite UV B1260 is suited to outdoor, integral skin applications.

Great Lakes offer a broad range of additives for polyurethane that includes reactive and additive, bromine-, phosphorus- and antimony based flame retardants and synergists, as well as a full line of UV absorbers, hindered amine light stabilisers, and antioxidants which ensure the physical and mechanical properties of components are maintained and significantly extend the life of polyurethane products.

Great Lakes polymer additives are suitable for a wide selection of polyurethane applications including rigid foam, flexible integral skin and flexible foams, thermoplastic polyurethane, polyurethane fibre and coatings and polyurethane based adhesives and sealants.

Great Lakes will exhibit on stand 406 at Utech 2003

For more information about these product lines, please visit the Great Lakes Polymer Additives web site at www.pa.greatlakes.com.

For further information:

Marketing, Polymer Stabilisers – Claudia Beyer

+41 52 723 44 26

Marketing, Flame Retardants – Keith Hughes

+1 765 497 6224

Reader enquiries

Great Lakes Chemical Corporation
9025 North River Road
Suite 400
Indianapolis
Indiana 46240
U.S.A.

+1 (317) 715-30 00

www.pa.greatlakes.com