Fortron Industries, a joint venture of Celanese Corporation and Kureha Corporation of Japan, has produced 104,000 tonnes of PPS as of last month, as the world’s largest producer of linear polyphenylene (PPS) in the US celebrates its 20th anniversary.

“Since creating Fortron Industries in 1992, Celanese – through its engineering polymers business Ticona – and Kureha have worked with us to invest in technologies aimed to increase output and improve the overall productivity of the PPS manufacturing process,” said Fred Samz, president of Fortron Industries, during the 20th anniversary celebration recently. “With six expansions since the initial start-up, our Wilmington plant today is a global leader in PPS, delivering proven material solutions for the most challenging environments to customers all around the world.”

Fortron PPS, a high-performance engineering polymer from Ticona Engineering Polymers, is used worldwide in various award-winning applications – the first welded thermoplastic composite aircraft primary structure, thermoplastic modular composite seat back assemblies for aircraft and blow-moulded charge air pipes for automotive engines.

Fortron has ramped up production and added new staff at its Wilmington plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 15,000 tonnes/year, to meet a worldwide demand for its high-performance polymer used in the most demanding applications. This speciality material offers chemical and thermal resistance, high hardness, rigidity and dimensional stability, and low creep and moisture absorption and is used in thermoset applications and to replace metals.

(PRA)

Electronic Editions 2012