By Frank Esposito
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: November 12, 2014 5:07 pm ET
Updated: November 12, 2014 5:10 pm ET
Starflam-brand flame-retardant nylon compounds have returned to the North American market, thanks to a deal between two materials firms — one in Tennessee and one in Paris.
Polymer Technology & Services LLC of Murfreesboro, Tenn., is now designing and producing Starflam for Paris-based Eurostar Engineering Plastics. The deal strengthens the role of PTS as a leader in UL-listed thermoplastics in North America, officials with both firms said in an Oct. 14 news release.
“We already had a flame-retardant, UL-listed polycarbonate, so [Starflam] was a good fit,” PTS president Tom Hooper said Oct. 15 at Fakuma. “There aren’t many people that would have spent the time and money to develop this [material] like they did.”
Eurostar was founded as an engineering resins compounder in 1972 and was later owned by LNP Engineering Plastics, GE Plastics and Sabic Innovative Plastics before being bought out in 2010 by Gilles Vaesen and other employees. Vaesen now serves as the firm’s marketing and technology manager.
The deal with PTS “is a good way for us to promote Starflam in the American market,” he said Oct. 15.
PTS business development manager Jonathan Guevart added Oct. 15 that flame-retardant nylon compounds such as Starflam can replace metal or thermoset plastics in electrical/electronic applications such as connectors and metering equipment.
Hooper founded PTS in 1992 after spending 20 years with materials firms Eastman, Celanese and Borg-Warner. Guevart has experience in the injection molding field.
Eurostar employs 60 in Paris, operating 12 compounding lines with total annual capacity of about 33 million pounds.
“A company like Eurostar might want to expand organically, but costs are so high,” Hooper said. Working with PTS “allows [Eurostar] to get a good return on investment and on development applications.”
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