Rapra Technology international conference

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Feb 19, 2007

Rapra Technology organising ninth international conference on Blowing Agents and Foaming Processes, taking place in Frankfurt.

Rapra Technology, a subsidiary of the US-based independent testing, consulting and contract research organisation, The Smithers Group, is organising its ninth international conference on Blowing Agents and Foaming Processes, taking place in Frankfurt from 22-23 May 2007.

Building on the success of previous year's events, this conference offers a forum to bring together all relevant industries involved in the formulation and application of blowing agents and techniques to produce expanded or foamed polymer substrates.

The European polymer foam market is forecast to grow at a healthy annual growth rate of 5.2 percent to reach EUR 6.7 billion in 2011.

With this scale of growth promised the future of the polymer foam market looks rosy.

Strict energy regulations in most European countries have boosted the use of polymer foams in building and construction and this is a trend likely to be replicated across the automotive and aerospace industries in a quest for greater weight reduction and passenger safety.

However as the price of crude oil and its derivatives continues to soar, manufacturers of organic chemicals and polymer foam suppliers will need to work hard to deflect growing costs and meet new market trends.

In order to achieve growth of this sort, companies must invest heavily in research and development to identify new environmentally friendly foams with improved performance or find niche applications for these materials.

The first day of the conference will open with presentations on the properties and applications of chemical blowing agents and their environmental and regulatory considerations.

There follow papers on polyurethane and cross-linked foams; biodegradable foams and injection moulding technologies.

The day will conclude with an evening social event where delegates can continue discussions with their fellow delegates.

Day two continues with structural foam and microcellular foam technologies with papers on the analysis of mechanical response of rigid thermoplastic foams and novel moulding processes to produce microcellular foams.

Papers on extrusion technology look at new foams for current market trends and the effect of processing temperature on the polymeric foaming processes of PS/CO2 and PC/CO2 systems.

The final sessions go into detail about new studies on resins and foaming processes highlighting specific approaches that are being used to produce, for example, polycarbonate microfoams by gas counter pressure and precision mould opening.