As part of a focus on “foaming and lightweighting”, Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) is expanding its portfolio of foamable polymers to include additional polyolefins such as POP elastomers and plastomers, as well as engineering thermoplastics such as “Lexan” polycarbonate, “Noryl” modified PPE and “Ultem” PEI.

LDPE 2502X0 offers benefits for the physical foam extrusion process, as well as for the resulting lightweight foams, while LDPE 2402CX0 offers benefits for cross-linkable (XL) foam extrusion processes. The XL foams offer improved properties-to-weight ratio and use in higher added-value applications, the company said.

A range of “fast converting” foam materials that provides further improvements in the production efficiencies of foam manufacturers has also been developed. LDPE 2102FC is the first in a series of products that combines up to 50% savings in degassing time – reducing the foam manufacturer’s inventory – and an improvement in production efficiency of up to 5% through less production waste and better foam consistency.