New Flexible Nylon 610 for Fuel Lines

摘要

Rhodia Polyamide, Cranbury, N.J., has just added nylon 610 to its lineup. Though a 50-year-old material, nylon 610 is attracting new market interest as a biobased plastic—it is derived approximately 64% from castor oil. Up to now, the main use for nylon 610 has been for fibers and filaments. Rhodia has made 610 fibers for a long time but is now developing 610 engineering plastics. So far, most engineering-grade 610 nylons have been rigid, glass-reinforced materials for injection molding parts such as car radiator end tanks. Rhodia is developing such products, but what's especially new is its flexible extrusion grades for automotive fuel lines. It expects to commercialize in this quarter three plasticized Technyl XA grades in natural and black with tensile modulus from 800 to 900 MPa (116,000 to 130,500 psi) and elongation of 150%. Besides flexibility and toughness, they offer excellent chemical resistance (comparable to nylon 11 and 12), heat resistance (melting point is 215 C/419 F), very high gas barrier, and low water absorption (midway between nylon 6 and 12).