Clariant to display innovative products at Techtextil

Firefighters, the military, and others working in extreme environments and weather, require performance that protects – not just against the elements, but against hazards including fire.

Furthermore, requirements in areas such as home textile and construction are getting more stringent and require high attention during product development.  Those sectors therefore welcome the reassurance provided by technologies such as Clariant’s high performance Pekoflam flame retardants.

Until quite recently, the common chemistries for fire-proofing man-made fabrics were based on organic halogens.  Significantly, the development of Pekoflam began back in 1997 when the debate about the potentially harmful effects of halogen-based chemistry to both human health and the environment was only just beginning.

This gave Clariant a clear advance with its halogen-free Pekoflam range, which is primarily based on phosphorous chemistry as a backbone. In the development of synergistic additives to achieve broad application properties comparable to existing halogen-based products, chemical know-how proved as important as the deeper understanding of flame retardant physics and related thermodynamics.

The now-established Pekoflam range is consequently ideally suited to helping customers to face today’s ecological challenges and fulfill ever stricter safety regulations – whatever the application.

New innovations for ever more sustainable fire retardant solutions

Pekoflam STC and Pekoflam HFC are new coating additives displaying high efficiency and an improved ecological profile when compared to nitrogen and/or phosphorous based commodity chemicals.

Stability and Resistance

Clariant’s polymer dispersions are highly valued by technical textile finishers, whether in coating, spraying, foaming, lamination or impregnation. The tailor-made solutions for customer-specific requirements allow range from soft to hard, from elastic to rigid, from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and from impermeable to breathable.

Crosslinking is used to reinforce the dimensional web created by the polymer, under specific conditions of temperature and acidic catalysis, to provide a range of benefits. In its constant efforts to reduce formaldehyde, Clariant has especially focused on developing self-crosslinking products. Not only do they offer low formaldehyde solutions per se, but they also do not need to be used with melamine resins – which can be a source of free formaldehyde.

From ultra-low formaldehyde to formaldehyde-free solutions

The company’s Appretan E range of ultra-low formaldehyde polymer dispersions has been formulated to provide flexibility, strength, stability and resistance in textile and nonwoven applications.

In addition to a general improvement in properties, the key performance attributes of this self-crosslinking dispersion are its high resistance to water, solvents, alcohol, and elevated temperature.

For the production of textiles that are required to comply with very strict eco-toxicological regulations, Clariant has also developed Appretan NF formaldehyde-free dispersions.