First Cyclics PBT plant on stream.

Cyclics Corp., Schenectady, N.Y., has brought on stream its first production-scale plant for making "CBT" Cyclic PBT resins. The plant in Schwarzheide, Germany, can produce 5.5 million lb/yr of CBT resin. This low-molecular-weight oligomer melts to a water-like viscosity and then cures in a hot mold to form a high-molecular-weight PBT engineering thermoplastic.

In addition, Cyclics has patented a new lower-cost process for making CBT resin directly from monomers instead of the current, more costly route of depolymerizing PBT resin to produce a cyclic oligomer.

Other news from Cyclics includes international agreements to develop CBT processing markets. A New Zealand firm will distribute CBT to rotomolding markets in that country, Australia, and Malaysia. A company in South Africa will distribute CBT resins for rotomolding in that nation. These two distributors see opportunities for rotomolded PBT electrical enclosures, swimming-pool filter housings, spa tubs, kayaks, fuel tanks, shipping drums, and specialty mannequins.

Cyclics also teamed up with a Korean distributor to sell CBT-based compounds and masterbatches in Korea. The distributor sees immediate potential for CBT in mobile phones and sheet extrusion. In addition, Cyclics will supply CBT to a major German supplier of tooling blocks for prototyping aerospace and automotive parts. Besides strength, stiffness, and heat and abrasion resistance, CBT tooling blocks have the advantage of recyclability over polyurethane blocks. Reground CBT can be used in compounding and injection molding. Tel: [phone] * PT Direct: 218HP