Chemicals group LyondellBasell (LBI, Houston, Texas / USA; www.lyondellbasell.com) announced its launch of a new grade in its “Purell” family of products. Purell "KT MR 07” is the first polybutene-1 (PB-1)-based resin that targets markets in flexible and transparent healthcare applications, such as medical tubing and intravenous (IV) infusion bags. It is a non-phthalate-based solution free of plasticisers and may offer opportunities for replacing PVC or SEBS (styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene) in medical tubes, bags, caps and closures.

Unlike traditional Ziegler-Natta catalyst-based PB-1 products, KT MR 07 is based on metallocene catalyst technology, which provides compatibility with polypropylene. Combined with PP, KT MR 07 enhances key properties such as flexibility, softness and transparency over a wide temperature range. It has good processability in film extrusion conversion as well as injection and blow moulding technologies.

Distributor Albis Plastic (Hamburg / Germany; www.albis.com), which had clinched a licensing deal with LyondellBasell on Purell products, said KT MR 07 was one of the new materials it was offering to expand its own healthcare product portfolio (see Plasteurope.com of 13.07.2017).