Find out about.......Plastics, Polymer Engineering and Leadership: Guest Interview: Doug EOM – POKETONE Technical Support Engineer from Hyosung Chemical – “Polyketone can be characterized as strong, tough, and ductile.”

Hello and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Mr. Doug EOM from Hyosung Chemical and we have the chance to learn about polyketones, what they are and where they can be used.

Enjoy the interview!

Tell us about yourself, your current role, and activities at Hyosung.

Thank you for having me on your blog. I am Doug EOM in charge of POKETONE technical support in Hyosung Chemical. I have been working in the plastic industry for 13 years, especially in Hyosung Chemical for 7 years. Basically, I provide technical and application assistance for the sales group and process technical inquiries from the customer base and internally. It’s been 6 years since we have launched POKETONE material, but I think POKETONE is still ‘unknown’ material for many people in the industry. My daily job is all related to how to position POLYKETONE in the existing engineering plastic market and user’s minds as a reliable solution that doesn’t exist before. Since the pandemic situation, I have been more focusing on web marketing for more close support instead of the in-person meeting.

Tell us about the materials you produce, in particular, polyketone; What is it? What are the performance attributes?

POKETONE™, the world's first commercialized polyketone, is non-toxic polymers that are FDA and NSF-approved.

It exhibits excellent chemical resistance, excellent toughness, and abrasion resistance. With its balanced properties, POKETONE™ is widely used in markets such as automotive, water meter, water purifier, toys, medical devices, pipes, films. Every time we introduce POKETONE, our customers always ask us what is so special about polyketone. Polyketone can be characterized as strong, tough, and ductile. Tensile yield stress is 60 MPa. Stiffness is moderate, with a tensile and flexural modulus of 1.5~1.7 GPa. Polyketone also exhibits good retention of stiffness. Superior Resilience and Snap-ability. Elongation at yield is very high (25%), and Polyketone polymers can be subjected to much larger deformation than any other engineering plastics before permanent deformation occurs. Polyketone polymers are also very resilient and well suited to snap-fit assemblies, allowing for relatively large design strain. Polyketone polymers’ impact strength is unusually high and they exhibit a high level of ductility over a broad temperature range.

Looking at the still ongoing tight market situation of polyamides, POM, PBT in 2021 - would Polyketone be an alternative to these engineering Polymers?

The current supply issue is not a short-term phenomenon. The situation has become and will remain critical for PA66, POM, PBT consumers. Since we started promoting the POKETONE in 2015, our customers have been contacting us for substitutes for conventional engineering plastics like PA66 and POM and the current situation is just accelerating the development process for the approval. I mean this situation cannot suddenly interest our unknown customers who are not aware of polyketone. That is why we are more focusing on promoting POKETONE as a potential substitute to the conventional engineering polymers and how to maximize the value in use of POKETONE. Regarding the supply stability, comparing to other engineering plastics, we can supply POKETONE with a more stable price because the fluctuating raw material costs less affect its price. For the smooth material replacement, when switching from PA66 to PK, you have even less to worry about when it comes to different shrinkage and warpage values – PK shrinks in a similar way to PA66. Tools designed for PA, PBT or POM are often suitable for PK. If you have a concern about POM’s toxicity, PA’s water absorption, PBT’s water resistance, or frequent supply shortages, PK would be the reliable solution for your products.

What are some application examples and markets you can use polyketone?

49% of the polyketone applications are related to food and water contact safety for example toys, food conveyor belts, water purifier, and cosmetics & medical products, and 52% are related to chemical/water resistance like oil & gas pipes and water-contact area. I think one of the most representative applications is the food conveyer belt. Food processing facilities have unique challenges that require unique solutions. POKETONE’s good hydrolysis resistance, as well as the dimensional stability, ensure that components made of POKETONE are suitable for food manufactures to safely produced food. Products made of POKETONE especially stand out for a longer life cycle of long-term sanitation chemical exposure than POM. Moreover, POKETONE can withstands mechanical stress very well and shows excellent friction and wear behavior. Due to the combination of outstanding resilience, toughness behavior POKETONE is highly suitable for the production of functional components such as food conveyor belts, valves, plug-in connectors, gear wheels, and spring elements. We offer complete assistance to meet the regulatory requirements for a different region and industry like FDA, EU Directive, NSF, KTW, USP Class VI, and ISO 10993.

How is the processing of Polyketone done? Which processing methods can be used? What are some benefits?

Polyketone can be processed like other thermoplastics through conventional processing techniques like injection molding (including hot runner system), film and pipe extrusion, fiber spinning, etc. to yield molded parts, films, pipes, tubes, or fibers. Like other thermoplastics, polyketone activates material degradation when operated outside of their required operating window. One unusual aspect of the rheological behavior of polyketones its tendency to exhibit a gradual increase in melt viscosity with increasing residence time. That is why we provide the customized technical support for the new customers. Injection molding cycle times for aliphatic polyketone are typically 15-30 percent shorter than those required for the same part when molded from acetal (POM) or nylon (PA). This not only results in reduced processing cost but also increases productivity.

Where can the readers find out more about you and POKETONE?

Whatever you would like to know about POKETONE including your local distributor, sample request, grade selection, or applications in use, you can visit our website.

With the pandemic continuing, we are more enhancing on in-direct communication via social media posting and video conference. We also encourage our employees to share technical content on LinkedIn. You can directly contact our employees through their LinkedIn accounts (this is my account). You can also contact your local polyketone compounder for the customized product (Listed below).

Country

Compounder

Brand name

Germany

LyondellBasell

SCHULAKETON

Germany

Akro Plastic

AKROTEK®

Germany

Ria Polymers

RIAMAXX® HR