The Building Solutions business unit of Dow Chemical (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com) has produced its first “Styrofoam” extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) product containing “PolyFR”, its new polymeric flame retardant. The product, named “Impaxx”, is being produced at Dow’s plants in Lavrion / Greece and Drusenheim / France.

“Impaxx” has been made for Coastal Automotive (Rochester Hills, Michigan / USA; www.coastal-automotive.com), a supplier of energy absorbing materials to the automotive, motorsport and packaging industries. Coastal will use the material to produce pre-cut and custom-moulded parts for certain automotive applications – it is designed for use in overhead systems, doors and pillar trims to help absorb energy during impact.

PolyFR was introduced in 2011 to meet increasing sustainability requirements and has won several industry awards. Dow finished converting its XPS plants in Japan to “PolyFR” technology by the end of last year. The next phase will see the conversion of its XPS plants in Europe and North America – see Plasteurope.com of 19.02.2014.