ATLANTA, Oct. 2, 2009 – Huber Engineered Materials (HEM), a division of J.M. Huber Corporation, and The Sherwin-Williams Company today announced they will jointly deliver a key technical presentation at the upcoming International and Wire and Cable Symposium (IWCS). The presentation will be held Nov. 11 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C.
The presentation is titled “Enhanced Flame Retardant (FR) Performance Enabled by Magnesium Hydroxide with Metal Molybdates in Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Wire and Cable Compounds.” The Huber authors of the presentation are Alex Isarov, Ph.D., technology manager for surface chemistry for HEM’s alumina trihydrate (ATH) and magnesium hydroxide (MDH) products and Tong Chen, Sc.D., HEM director of technology for ATH and MDH. For Sherwin-Williams, the authors are Ken Walker, Ph.D., staff scientist, and Elmer Luke, research and development technologist.
The technical presentation will focus on the collaborative research efforts conducted by the two companies’ ongoing commitment to growing its environmentally-friendly low-smoke and zero-halogen MDH portfolios with the development of new products for the wire and cable industry. An area of emphasis is on enhancing flame retardancy in EVA copolymers. EVA is commonly used in wire and cable applications and MDH is used for flame retardance.
"Huber is looking forward to presenting this technical paper with Sherwin-Williams at IWCS,” says Don Mills, ATH director of sales. “Technical cooperation between two industry leaders to advance the understanding of synergistic benefits with our complimentary flame retardant technologies is important. As regulatory requirements continue to get increasingly stringent, FR suppliers are going to have to consider ideas such as collaborating in order to develop the types of products the marketplace will require.”
Huber and Sherwin-Williams plan to continue its collaborative efforts in the future to continue efforts to search for ways to enhance the physical properties of MDH and other flame retardant products.
“Sherwin-Williams views its partnership with Huber as a win-win situation,” explains Walker. “We are looking forward to the joint presentation at IWCS and sharing our collaborative insights to improve FR technology in wire and cable applications. There’s no question that demand in the future for low-smoke, zero-halogen wire and cable compounds will increase and we want to work with companies like Huber to find solutions in areas where we feel we can benefit our customers.”
Huber’s booth #520 can be found at the IWCS Conference in the Charlotte Convention Center where technical and sales representatives will be discussing Huber’s product options and sharing its technical service expertise.
