Robert A. Grigsby

MODIFIED POLYETHERAMINES IN RIM

Polyurea RIM, because of its production speed, internal release characteristics, high temperature dimensional stability, and increased resis tance to water absorption is finally coming to the forefront as a better route to producing automotive body panels and fascia. One of the barriers that held back the rapid replacement of polyurethane-urea RIM by this new technology has been the increased reaction rate typically exhibited by polyurea RIM. The throughputs of existing RIM equipment were not high enough to produce some of the larger fascia and body panel parts. To address this need of some molders to process polyurea RIM in lower throughput RIM machines, we have investigated various modifications of our polyetheramines. Among the modifications investigated were the recently in troduced ketimine technology, N-alkyl substituted polyetheramines and polyether amines having aromatic amine termination. The processing charac teristics and physical properties of some of these slower polyether amines in polyurea RIM formulations will be discussed.

Polyurea RIM: novel applications and technical advances

THE DEVELOPMENT OF polymeric material systems that can be processed via the Reaction Injection Molding or RIM process has been an active field of industrial research for more than a decade [1,2]. Polyurea RIM materials are the most recent development to result from this effort [3-5]. In this paper we will discuss some recent advances in polyurea RIM technology. In order to allow the reader to fully appreciate the contribution that polyurea RIM materials have made to our industry, we will first review the history of RIM material development. The focus of our review is to enable the reader to understand how polyurea RIM materials address the processing and property needs of the RIM industry.