Heat resistance
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins offer excellent heat resistance, with high glass-transition temperatures in the range 90–220°C.
Contributes to product weight reduction and high precision
Modified PPE Resin
Overview and Features
What is XYRON™?
XYRON™ is Asahi Kasei's family of modified PPE (modified polyphenylene ether or mPPE) resin products.
Modified PPE resins are polymer alloys formed by compounding PPE resins with other types of resin. PPE resins are engineering plastics featuring excellent heat resistance, flame retardance, electrical properties, and dimensional stability, with low water absorption and low specific gravity. PPE resins are amorphous thermoplastic resins.
Asahi Kasei uses 2,6-xylenol as a raw material to produce PPE, and then to form alloys and compounds with other resins to yield an extensive lineup of material grades. For each type of alloy, we offer various grades to meet a diverse range of customer needs, making us Asia's No. 1 manufacturer* of modified PPE resins.
*Source: Sales volume from Fuji Keizai's 2023 Engineering Plastics Market Outlook and Global Strategy.
Key features of XYRON ™
XYRON ™ is Asahi Kasei's family of modified PPE resins. These products are classified as engineering plastics featuring outstanding heat resistance and mechanical strength.
PPE resins are amorphous thermoplastic, and XYRON ™ modified PPE resins are engineering plastics boasting the following key properties.
Flame retardancy
XYRON ™ resins have a high oxygen index (a measure of the volume of oxygen required for burning), making them highly flame retardant.
Electrical insulation
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins have high volume resistivity (a measure of resistance to the flow of electric current), making them highly electrically insulating.
Dimensional stability
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins have low mold shrinkage, ensuring excellent dimensional stability and dimensional precision.
Low water absorption, hydrolysis resistance, acid and alkaline resistance
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins boast low water absorption, ensuring minimal variation in product dimensions and physical properties due to water absorption. These materials also offer excellent hydrolysis resistance, and ability to withstand acid and alkaline exposure, making them highly durable in harsh environments.
It also has excellent heat resistance, so it is also excellent in hot water resistance and hydrolysis resistance. The table below shows that the deterioration of physical properties of XYRON™ is small in terms of Charpy impact strength after standing for 3,500 hours in a high-temperature, high-humidity environment.
In addition, it is highly resistant to acids and alkalis, and has excellent environmental durability.
Low specific gravity
XYRON™ modified PPE resins are lightweight materials boasting the lowest specific gravities of all engineering plastics.
Choosing XYRON™ resins helps to reduce component weights.
Low dielectric permittivity and low dielectric loss tangent
PPE, the main raw material of XYRON ™ modified PPE resins, features low dielectric permittivity and a low dielectric loss tangent, ensuring minimal transmission losses and making these materials ideal for use in information and communication technologies. The high glass-transition temperature of PPE also ensures that the temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity is lower for XYRON ™products than for other heat-resistant resins.
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins combine the low dielectric permittivity of PPE with the advantages of Asahi Kasei's compound technology to support a wide range of dielectric permittivity needs. In particular, we offer dielectric constant (Dk) / dissipation factor (Df) controlled grades providing a wide range of dielectric permittivity, including grades combining high dielectric permittivity with a low dielectric loss tangent.
Regrindability
The excellent heat resistance and hydrolysis resistance of XYRON™ modified PPE resins ensure that these products exhibit minimal variation in physical properties upon recycling and regrinding, making these materials easy to reuse.
Also, the light weight of XYRON ™resins—which boast the lowest specific gravities of all engineering plastics—reduces the volume of material needed for product manufacturing. Together with the ease of recycling, this ensures that the choice of XYRON ™ resins reduces material-use volumes at every stage of the product cycle, helping to reduce environmental impact.
Reasons for choosing XYRON™
Asia's Number-One Supplier of m-PPE resins*
XYRON ™ modified PPE resins are compounds combining PPE with other types of resin.
Asahi Kasei uses 2,6-xylenol as a raw material to produce PPE, and then forms polymer alloys by compounding with various other resins—including polystyrene (PS), polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), and polyphthalamide (PPA)—to yield an extensive lineup of material grades. For each type of alloy, we offer various grades to meet a diverse range of customer needs, making us Asia's No. 1 manufacturer* of modified PPE resins.
*Source: Sales volume from Fuji Keizai's 2023 Engineering Plastics Market Outlook and Global Strategy.
Modified PPE resin XYRON™ also has "PPE raw material (PPE powder)" which is not compounded with other resins.
The PPE raw material is an amorphous polymer with high heat resistance, low specific gravity, excellent electriclal properties and flame resistance, and excellent compatibility with polystyrene.
Technical support
With offices in many countries around the world, Asahi Kasei supports our customers on a global basis.
Moreover, our “resin CAE technology” service—Asahi Kasei's in-house design-simulation expertise—is available to support customers in the product design and development stages.
→ Click here for an introduction to Asahi Kasei's engineering plastic business locations
→ Click here for details on Asahi Kasei's ”resin CAE technology”
Applications
- Next-generation communication technologies
- PPE, the main raw material of XYRON ™ resins, features low dielectric permittivity and a low dielectric loss tangent, ensuring minimal transmission losses even at high frequencies. The excellent dielectric behavior of PPE, together with Asahi Kasei's compound technology, allows XYRON ™ resins to meet a wide range of permittivity needs, from smartphone cases to base-station antenna covers.
- Environmental energy
- XYRON ™ resins boast high heat resistance and flame retardance, low water absorption, good dimensional stability, excellent electrical insulation, good mechanical properties even in hot, humid environments, and minimal dimensional variation. These properties have led to the adoption of XYRON ™ materials for technologies such as photovoltaics or solar-power junction boxes. The low ion elution of XYRON ™ resins has led to their adoption for components of stationary fuel cells.
- Home appliances / Office equipment / Electrical and electronic components
- The dimensional stability, flame retardance, and heat resistance of XYRON ™ resins makes them well-suited for use as materials for cases or internal chassis bodies—such as inverter covers or printer assembly components—requiring high-precision components with extensive design freedom. The low specific gravity of XYRON ™ products helps to shrink component footprints and reduce component weight.
- Automotive components
- XYRON ™ products have successful adoptions for a variety of automotive components, including relay blocks, NiMH battery components, vehicle-mounted cameras, and inter-cell spacers and bus bar covers for electric vehicles. More recently, we have expanded our range of recommended uses for XYRON ™ resins in fuel-cell vehicles.
Product grades
Asahi Kasei offers a wide range of lineup of XYRON ™ PPE/PS grades featuring various levels of flame retardance and heat resistance, as detailed in the table below. Different choices of filler materials, optimized as requested, also yield grades boasting various mechanical properties (including rigidity, toughness, low warpage, and dimensional stability), conductive grades, the V-series of grades boasting excellent vibration resistance and acoustic noise reduction, and the W-series of grades specialized for water-supply applications.
XYRON ™ alloy grades—alloys combining PPE with a wide range of crystalline resins, from general-purpose materials to super engineering plastics—combine the advantages of PPE with the features of different crystalline resins, from heat resistance to chemical resistance. Our lineup includes: PP/PPE products boasting excellent chemical resistance and low warpage; PA/PPE products boasting heat resistance, low water absorption, and oil resistance; PPS/PPE products boasting high heat resistance, minimal burring, and low warpage; and PPA/PPE products boasting high heat resistance and low water absorption.
Click the entries in the table below for detailed information on each material grade—or click the buttons to see the features of each product series.
Asahi Kasei also offers bare PPE resins (powders) before blending with other resins to yield compound materials. Please contact us to learn more about this option.
Asahi Kasei is also working to achieve carbon neutrality for XYRON ™ products by developing renewable attributed PPE and recycled grades containing 15-40% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics.
Product Data/Tips for Use *Handling Precautions
Please contact us to ask any questions, discuss any concerns, and request samples.