Keltan ACE-EPDM: a full range of EPDM polymers produced with post-metallocene catalyst technology

摘要

Lanxess Elastomers has recently developed post-metallocene catalyst technology for the production of EPDM rubber, i. e. Keltan ACE. This new catalyst system reduces significantly the environmental impact of EPDM production, while fulfilling the market demands for EPDM products with identical product properties compared with Ziegler-Natta-based (ZN) EPDMs. Keltan ACE technology allows coverage of the entire EPDM product range. In this study several polymer samples, which have been produced on pilot plant scale with the Keltan ACE catalyst, are compared with state-of-the-art ZN counter grades. The polymer characteristics and the compound and vulcanizate properties show that truly identical products are obtained by fine-tuning the ethylene content towards identical crystallinity and controlling the branching level. These findings are underlined by the received customer feedback.