Cannon Afros Extends Range Of EG-AX Kit to Process Expandable Graphite for Viscoelastic Foams, Continuous Sandwich Panels And Poly-Iso Boards
Cannon Afros, a company of Cannon Group, which specializes in mixing equipment and dosing systems for polyurethanes (PU) and other reactive resins, has extended the range of its EG-AX multi-component mixing head system to include viscoelastic foams, continuous sandwich panels and poly-iso boards. With the range extension Cannon can now offer the EG-AX system to process expandable graphite in any kind of product, including insulation panels, flexible foams for furniture, molded foams for mass transit as well as integral skin and flexible molded foams for automotive applications.
“We developed our EG-AX system in response to the increasing use of expandable graphite due to other flame retardants being phased out. This includes melamine, which is now classified in the EU as a ‘substance
of very high-concern’, and many material suppliers and players in the industry anticipate it too, will soon be phased-out,” said Stefano Andreolli, Sales and Marketing Manager at Cannon Afros, referring to the REACH (European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation 203-615-4 issued on June 2022. “Expandable graphite is considered as an eco-friendly, highly effective intumescent char-forming fire retardant with low smoke and toxicity. However, it’s very fragile and sensitive to mechanical stress, and therefore requires expertise when processed in a PU dosing machine. Thanks to the very short high pressure recycling time before the shot and special injector, the EG-AX system results in far lower particle breakage than other solutions offered on the market. For customers this means double savings. They need less expandable graphite to achieve the same fire resistance, while also reducing waste of chemicals and downtime due to spoiled formulation.”
Expandable graphite is a fragile and ‘tricky’ flame retardant. If broken, the expandable graphite particles release sulfuric acid, which damages the catalyst blended in polyol. The EG-AX system allows to process high-quantity of expandable graphite drastically reducing the release of sulfuric acid. EG-AX consists of a Cannon AX mixing head with 4 streams – one for slurry made of polyol and expandable graphite, two for isocyanate, fed by a single pump and split into two by a flow divider. A fourth stream is available as an optional input to process additives or blowing agent, depending on the application.
The EG-AX system can also be used for processing other solid flame retardants, such as ammonium polyphosphate (APP). Even though APP is not as fragile as expandable graphite, the base concept of EG-AX of using 2 iso streams and 1 slurry stream allows for very efficient mixing, even with high percentages of filler.
For sandwich and board panels requiring a continuous process, a generous proportion of the polyol is drawn from the slurry and injected via the fourth stream, thus allowing much lower injection pressures for the slurry.
At present Cannon EG-AX is already in use with several manufacturers of seats for mass transit, automotive engine covers, sound deadening parts for white goods, insulated piping and sandwich panels. Moreover, those customers who could see and try EG-AX system, selected it for their manufacturing due to easy and economic processing of expandable graphite fire retardant filler.
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