BYK Additives & Instruments (Wesel / Germany; www.byk.com) has developed a coupling agent for use in PP glass fibre compounds. “Scona TPPP 9212" has a high chemically bonded maleic anhydride content that reacts with the amino groups of the silane in the glass fibre coating, resulting in a stable structure, BYK claims. The content of 1.8% maleic anhydride is exceptionally high, the company said, enabling considerable improvement to be achieved in the compounds’ mechanical properties, even with a low dosage.

The “Scona” range is based on the company’s solid-phase grafting process. This gentle manufacturing process, which requires relatively low temperatures, is characterised by the reduced number of fibre breaks compared to melt grafting. An additional flushing process following the chemical conversion removes volatile components, resulting in the coupling agent having a very low VOC content.

BYK is a subsidiary of German speciality chemicals producer Altana (Wesel; www.altana.com).