Smithers Rapra Silicone Elastomers Conference

Smithers Rapra Technology announce the technical programme for the second Silicone Elastomers conference taking place in Munich.

Smithers Rapra Technology Limited, a subsidiary of the US-based independent testing, consulting and contract research organisation, The Smithers Group, has announced the technical programme for the second Silicone Elastomers conference taking place in Munich from 12-13 March.

With the ever increasing application demand for higher temperature and greater environmental resistance, and ease of use, there is continuous technical development of silicone elastomer materials, compounding ingredients, processing and applications.

The worldwide silicone elastomers market is poised for further growth over the next few years and this timely event is has been developed to cover market trends and new developments in materials including high temperature vulcanised (HTV), room temperature vulcanised (RTV) and liquid silicone rubber (LSR).

Dow Corning will kick off the meeting with a look at the global expansion of the silicone rubber market.

As developing nations look for greater ways to expand, silicone technology has become a critical player in promoting greater economic growth, improved energy and cost efficiencies, while maintaining regulatory and safety standards.

This paper will take a closer look at the driving forces behind this global heightened demand.

A session devoted to liquid silicone rubber follows with papers from Dow Corning and Momentive Performance Materials showcasing new product families from their respective companies.

Attention is then focussed on the applications for silicone elastomers - ranging from medical devices to outdoor electrical power transmission and distribution to antiadhesive coating for concrete.

NuSil Technology Europe will talk about adding colour to medical devices using pigment masterbatches.

The incorporation of pigments is often a challenge to the medical device industry both from a regulatory and a processing and consistency perspective.

Regulatory support of materials used in medical devices is a mandate in the medical device industry and this paper will outline USP Class VI testing and the relevance to the device engineer.

Processing with pigments will be discussed at length and will include various methods for adding pigments and the pros and cons of each method.

Moving into the afternoon, French firm 01dB-Metravib will be discussing the dynamic mechanical testing of elastomers using a single testing instrument with multiple testing capabilities.

The properties of elastomers are sensitive to different parameters: temperature, frequency, strain and heat build up and for all these reasons it is not an easy work to measure accurately dynamic properties of elastomer.

Fillers for silicone elastomers will be discussed later in the afternoon, with a range of papers highlighting trends and improvements in carbon nanotubes/ silicone elastomer nanocomposites, structure modified fumed silica and diatomaceous earths from Evonik Degussa, Nanocyl and World Minerals respectively.

The day concludes with an evening drinks reception hosted by Smithers Rapra.

The second day of the conference starts with a session on the crosslinking of silicone elastomers.

Akzo Nobel will present a paper on the peroxide curing of silicone elastomers giving a comparison between peroxide and platinum catalyzed cure systems.

Cure characteristics determined by means of rheometer and physical properties obtained with these different peroxides in silicone rubber are illustrated.

This will be followed by a paper from Technische Universiteit Eindhoven on crosslinking in PDMS particulate composites, specifically investigating the crosslinking reactions and the effect of the presence of inorganic particles.

The day continues with papers on the processing of silicone elastomers.

Bluestar Silicones will present a paper on bubbling modelling for developing low density RTV foams which could, for example, have uses for transport applications.

The challenge in the design however is to combine two properties supposed to be antagonistic: low density and good mechanical properties.

It is well known that these two properties depend mainly on the relative kinetics between the curing and foaming reactions; therefore a theoretical modelling study was done to identify the key parameters that control the curing profile and the development of the foaming.

Further papers from Wacker Chemie, Nanon, Colmec and Chemical Innovations complete the processing session.

The conference offers two days of original technical papers on key novel polymers, processes and applications for this fast moving industry.

To register for this conference please visit www.polymerconferences.com.

All registrations made before 12th January 2008 will receive a 200euro discount off the full conference fee.

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