Electrolube develops plant-based epoxy & PU bio resins

The cost-driven incentive, led by Electrolube’s Indian and UK R&D teams, explored switching some of the content with a more eco-friendly plant based isocyanate instead. The answer lay in a plant based local material, suitable for recycling and pressing to produce a natural oil that is a perfect partner for epoxy resins and provides a good mixed ratio by weight bio content.

The new Bio range includes two epoxy resins, ER6006 and ER7006. Providing good flow characteristics to allow the potting of difficult and complex geometries, ER6006 is a two-part high thermally conductive epoxy encapsulation resin, which has primarily been developed for encapsulation of LED driver units.

The ER6006 offers high chemical resistance and excellent protection in a range of environments, making it suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications. It provides exceptional adhesion to a wide range of substrates and helps to extend the electronics life with its quick heat dissipation (2.65W/mk). ER6006 cures within an hour at 100°C, 3 hours at 60°C or 24 hours at room temperature.

ER7006 is a two-part unfilled viscous epoxy resin, which is ideal for UPS – connector, CCTV camera cable gland sealing, wiring harness adhesive, encapsulation, bonding and potting of electrical components. With a 1:1 ratio for ease of processing, ER7006 provides high bond strength, excellent adhesion to a wide range of substrates and high levels of mechanical stability. Resistant to aqueous alkaline, acid and saline solutions, ER7006 offers excellent flexibility, impact and corrosion resistance, as well as providing a wide operating temperature range -40 to +150°C with excellent high temperature performance. The ER7006 offers a 30 minute cure time at 80°C or 24 hours at room temperature.

Polyurethane resins within Electrolube’s new Bio range include the tough and durable UR5528 two part potting and encapsulation compound, featuring high bio content at 63.29%. UR5528 is a black colour with a maximum temperature of 125°C. It provides excellent chemical resistance across a wide range of chemicals, acids, alkalis, glycols and solvents, making it ideally suited for applications in exposed locations. UR5528 is also an excellent   choice for marine electronics, or where moisture ingress is a potential issue as a result of its excellent water resistance properties.

With 31.67% bio content, Electrolube’s UR5638 transparent LED potting compound is an optically clear PU resin consisting of an aliphatic polymer designed to provide excellent UV stability with excellent transmission of the visible spectrum of light. This makes it an ideal choice for potting white LEDs in particular, and also for potting larger LED units due to its low exothermic values.

UR5638 is a tough resin with excellent environmental protection for both indoor and outdoor LEDs, while maintaining clarity. Offering excellent resistance to acids and alkalis as well as water and mould growth, UR5638 is suited to a variety of indoor or outdoor applications.

Electrolube’s high temperature PU resin, UR5645, features an excellent bio content of 63.33%.  Suitable for a wide range of applications, including automotive and marine environments, UR5645 is a black colour resin with a wide  operating temperature range of -50 to +150°C, (160°C for short excursions of 30 minutes dependent upon application and geometry).

The low viscosity resin aids quick and efficient potting processes, and  is suitable for applications requiring continuous immersion in water at elevated temperatures and depth. The highly versatile UR5645 exhibits excellent chemical resistance to acids, alkalis and fuels, and is perfect for the harshest environmental conditions, such as those found in typical automotive applications.

Padmanabha Shakthivelu, General Manager of Electrolube India, commented: “ Electrolube is leading the way in manufacturing plant-based electro-chemicals, offering customers resins with over 30% bio content up to resins with a 60% content and this illustrates excellent breadth of range. We are collaborating R&D resources with our UK colleagues to develop specific bio based resins with up to 90% bio content, which will be exceptional.”

Ron Jakeman, Managing Director of Electrolube, added: “We are absolutely delighted with the response we have had from Indian manufacturers. It has been incredible and we are excited to be at the forefront of plant-based electro-chemical development. We are fortunate that our international reputation has preceded us as a responsible, sustainable manufacturer, continually developing new and environmentally friendly products for customers around the world. Our commitment has also been endorsed by the ISO 14001 standard for the highly efficient Environmental Management System we have in place at Electrolube.

“Our R&D teams have been consistently identifying the requirements of local manufacturers and we have developed the Bio range to meet these requirements for cost-effective, high performance resins, using locally sourced materials. We are so confident in the performance and reliability of the new bio range that we are planning to roll out a new range of Bio conformal coatings and Bio thermal management solutions. We are now looking to expand plant-based alternatives across all of our product groups for many additional territories around the world.”