Coatings & Additives

Every one-pack epoxy system is a trade-off between staying stable in the package and curing fast in the press. Dicyandiamide (DICY, CAS 461-58-5) sits at one end of that spectrum – the most latent, the most forgiving on storage, and the slowest to cure. The alternatives each move you along the same curve. This guide

A one-pack epoxy adhesive is a contradiction unless the curing agent refuses to react at room temperature. That is exactly what dicyandiamide does: it sits in the formulation as an inert filler-like solid, survives storage and extrusion, and only reacts when the part reaches 160-180 deg C. The whole one-pack adhesive, prepreg and laminate industry

Crosslinked polyethylene cable insulation is one of those materials nobody notices until it fails. The difference between a 20-year cable and a 40-year cable is often a fraction of a percent of peroxide, dispersed evenly, decomposed at the right temperature, and degassed properly afterwards. This guide is about the practical side of dicumyl peroxide (DCP,

Dicumyl peroxide is one of the small group of chemicals that quietly underpins modern infrastructure. Every metre of crosslinked polyethylene cable insulation, and most hot-water pipe made from PEX-a, owes its performance to a peroxide that decomposes at exactly the right moment during processing. This guide covers dicumyl peroxide (DCP, CAS 80-43-3): what it is,

Every organofunctional silane is built the same way: one end likes polymers, the other end likes mineral surfaces. The variants differ only in which organic group they carry – and that single choice decides whether a silane works, does nothing, or actively causes a problem in your compound. This guide compares the four silanes that

Low-voltage cable insulation used to be cured in a continuous vulcanisation line: peroxide, high pressure nitrogen, a long tube, a lot of capital. Silane crosslinking replaced that with a warm water bath, and the monomer that made it possible is vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS, CAS 2768-02-7). This guide is for cable and pipe compounders: how the silane

Vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) is the smallest commercially important vinyl-functional organosilane, and the one that turned polyethylene into a crosslinkable material without a peroxide curing line or an electron beam. If you have ever used a hot-water pipe or handled a low-voltage cable whose insulation was cured in a warm water bath, VTMS was probably part of

Every polyolefin stabiliser quotation eventually comes down to a comparison between four names: HALS 944 (CAS 70624-18-9), HALS 622, UV-770 and UV-783. They are all hindered amine light stabilizers, they all work by the same radical-trapping cycle, and they are priced differently. Choosing between them on price per kilogram is how formulations end up failing

An agricultural film is the most hostile environment a polyolefin stabiliser package will ever face. A greenhouse cover is 100-200 microns thick, sits in full sun for three to five years, and is simultaneously attacked by sulphur-based fungicides, chlorine disinfectants, acidic pesticide actives and condensation. Nowhere else does the difference between a cheap stabiliser and

Polyolefins fail in sunlight for one reason: ultraviolet radiation initiates a radical chain reaction that cannot stop itself. Hindered amine light stabilizers interrupt that chain, and among them Light Stabilizer 944 (CAS 70624-18-9) has held a leading position for four decades in the applications where permanence matters most – polypropylene fibres, polyethylene agricultural film, pipe,