Dow Automotive to market Cyclic PBT resins. (In Brief).

Dow Automotive in Auburn Hills, Mich., has entered into a long-term agreement with Cyclics Corp. of Schenectady, N.Y., to market a cyclic form of PET (CBT) resins to global automotive, bus, truck, and rail markets. This marketing agreement builds on the CBT resin-development alliance announced last year by Cydics and Dow. Dow's market-development activities will include a number of automotive structural-composite applications, as well as crash-energy dissipation, occupant protection, and other application areas. Among the initial targets are vertical and horizontal body panels, truck boxes, and tailgates.

Cyclics Corp.'s CBT resins are based on an extremely low-viscosity oligomer that processes like a liquid thermoset but cures in the mold to form high-molecular-weight PBT engineering thermoplastic. Dow Automotive's R&D team and Cyclics have made strides in the past year to develop the benefits of CBT resin to meet the needs of automotive and other ground-transportation markets. "We have a great deal of confidence in the potential for this new technology. largely due to the fact that the benefits are so wide-reaching," says Jane Palmieri, new-business development manager for Dow Automotive. Adds John Ciovacco, CEO of Cyclics Corp., "This relationship moves us toward world-scale capacity and allows Cyclics to focus on commercial-development with customers outside the automotive industry."