Incorporating Styrene Suppressants in Your Manufacturing Process
Low HAP resins and styrene suppressants are two methods used by composites manufacturers to reduce emissions. During a Composites 2010 education session titled The Key to Reducing Emissions and Improving Quality, Bob Lacovara, president of consultancy Convergent Composites, will talk about both and how they affect the manufacturing process.
“Low HAP resins get you down in the 32 percent range,” he says. “In order to effectively handle those materials, you wet out the glass fiber differently than with high-styrene resins. The wet out procedure and the roll out procedure need to be a little different.”
Using different resins may require employee training to be successful. “If you walked into a shop and substituted this low HAP resin, the workers would say ‘This doesn’t wet out,’” he says. “So there needs to be some retraining to wet out properly.”
Incorporating styrene suppressants also requires some skill and training. “The very first question that will come up is, ‘What about secondary bonding?’” he says. “The background is that styrene suppressants are essentially a wax film that shields the styrene from evaporating.” In certain circumstances, the suppressant can affect the bond with the secondary layer of laminate. “There were some notable failures that led to delaminations,” Lacovara says. “In order to use styrene suppressants, you have to change the timing of your laminate schedule and put procedures in place.”
