New Dow Impact Modifier for Rigid Vinyl Material Greatly Boosts Impact, Gloss and Processing Performance

Producing vinyl window profiles remains a highly competitive contest that pits increasing performance against decreasing manufacturing costs. Dow Plastics Additives, a division of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:Dow), is now providing answers for both of these contrasting demands with their recently introduced Paraloid™ KM-X100 Pro impact modifier. Even while rigid vinyl demand for construction applications is forecast to be weak until housing starts to rebound, Dow believes that this new product’s attributes will nonetheless immediately win new converts. Trials by extruders now bear them out and window profiles produced with the new material should be available by the fourth quarter of this year. Paraloid KM-X100 Pro is now available in North America and Latin America.

“Our new all-acrylic, weatherable impact modifier for vinyl window extrusion is a profound step-change in producing higher impact resistance in combination with providing high gloss,” said Rob Martin, Dow market manager for Plastics Additives. “Early trials have demonstrated a marked improvement over competitive offerings, as well as against a series of additives that we launched just 18 months ago. The high gloss / high impact efficiencies achieved with this KM-X100 Pro product surprise everyone who tests it.” Paraloid KM-X100 Pro is a fully formulated impact modifier with processing aid functionality; however, individual compounds can be augmented with additional processing aids, or a lubricating processing aid where the need exists. At lowered use levels, it may be possible to reduce overall or external-type levels of lubricant in the compound.

Dow reports that new Paraloid KM-X100 Pro achieves significantly higher Gardner Impact results over a wide processing temperature range even at low use levels, and that vinyl window profiles produced with this impact modifier attain the highest drop dart efficiency of any current vinyl window profile.

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