Dow unveils new elastomers

At the NPE 2006 plastics trade show in Chicago last week, Dow Chemical unveiled Infuse olefin block copolymers. The products are based on the firm's Insite single-site catalyst technology and a unique "chain-shuttling" mechanism that ferries polymer chains back and forth between polymerization catalysts, forming the blocks (C&EN, May 8, page 9). "We have changed the game of how you can create olefin elastomers," says Greg Jozwiak, Dow's global business director for performance plastomers and elastomers. The first product in the Infuse line will have a "hard" block of polyethylene and a "soft" block of an ethylene-octene copolymer. Dow says the polymers have properties never seen in an olefin elastomer, including high-temperature performance, low cycle times, and good abrasion resistance. The company says it will disclose plans for an Infuse manufacturing plant at a later date.