The founders of PEKK pioneer Oxford Performance Materials (OPM, Enfield, Connecticut / USA; www.oxfordpm.com) are reacquiring the biomedical side of the business from Arkema (Colombes / France; www.arkema.com) for an undisclosed sum. The French chemical producer bought a stake in the company in 2009 from Dutch venture capital funds in which DSM (Heerlen / Netherlands; www.dsm.com) was a partner – see Plasteurope.com of 17.02.2009. Both European chemical players evidently learned that the medical side of the ultra high performance polymers businesses requires not only capital but specialised knowledge. Arkema, which claims extensive expertise in polyamides, PMMA and PVDF, noted that PEKK addresses “two distinct major markets.” In future, it plans to focus on aerospace and oil and gas applications.

An Arkema spokesman told Plasteurope.com that the industrial markets require larger volumes of the lightweight material. Altogether Arkema’s PEKK business has sales of considerably less than EUR 10m, he said. OPM president and CEO Scott DeFelice and operations vice president Severine Zygmont, who have managed the medical business from the outset, added that they are now ready to proceed to the next level in their marketing development.

The company, which will trade under the Oxford name, will move operations in September from Enfield to a leased property at nearby South Windsor, Connecticut. The 1,700 m² facility is said to have larger clean rooms for fabricating speciality plastics. OPM’s standard PEKK portfolio includes neat formulations as well as carbon-filled, glass-filled and various polymer composites.