Liquid silicone rubbers 98 per cent transparent

Paul Boughton

Momentive Performance Materials is introducing the LSR7000 series of highly transparent liquid silicone rubber (LSR) compounds.

Combining typically 98 per cent transparency with the processing and productivity advantages of an addition-cured, platinum-catalysed LSR, the LSR7000 series is an excellent candidate for applications requiring outstanding optical characteristics and increased design flexibility.

These features potentially enable customers to reduce manufacturing and assembly cycle times for complex parts.

Yang Nuo, the Pacific electronics marketing manager for Momentive, comments: "By offering high transparency, high elasticity and easy processing, the LSR7000 series may help designers and manufacturers to effectively address many of the toughest design challenges they face. This material is an excellent example of our strategic focus: we combine our close customer collaboration with our leading research and development capabilities, resulting in quick response to complex industrial needs. We are excited about this technology, as it may provide a new elastomeric solution for a broad range of applications where higher transparency is desirable."

The LSR 7000 family includes products ranging in 60 to 80 Shore A hardness. Recent innovation in optical systems, light-guide applications and mobile phones have increasingly seen liquid silicone rubbers replace materials such as transparent polycarbonate and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) due to the processing and productivity advantages of LSR.

In China, Momentive has co-operated with Sunrex, an input device manufacturer, to apply the LSR7000 series to light guide film for commercial production. Liu Dianshan, director of the Sunrex facility in Suzhou, states: "By combining our proprietary technology with the super transparency of LSR7000, we have been able to successfully develop silicone light guide film for use in new mobile equipment. We are now co-operating on a long-term basis with Momentive to develop new, flexible applications for smart 3D light guide film."

Momentive will be exhibiting the LSR7000 series at the Fakuma 2008 trade fair, Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 14-18 October 14-18.

LSR7000

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