Cost performance, commercial products

Proprietary blend formulations based on polysulfone, polyethersulfone, and polyphenylsulfone are sold commercially by Amoco Corporation to meet various end use requirements. The blends based on polysulfone are sold under the MINDEL trademark. A glass fiber-reinforced blend based on PES is offered under the trade name RADEL AG-360. This offers most of the performance characteristics of 30% glass fiber-reinforced polyethersulfone but at a lower cost. Two blend product lines are offered based on PPSF. These are designated as the RADEL R-4000 and R-7000 series of products. The former is a lower cost alternative to RADEL R PPSF homopolymer offering most of the performance attributes unique to PPSF. The R-7000 series of resins have been formulated for use in aircraft interiors for civil air transport. They exhibit a very high degree of resistance to flammabihty and smoke release. 

Sihcon carbide is also a prime candidate material for high temperature fibers (qv). These fibers are produced by three main approaches polymer pyrolysis, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and sintering. Whereas fiber from the former two approaches are already available as commercial products, the sintered SiC fiber is still under development. Because of its relatively simple process, the sintered a-SiC fiber approach offers the potential of high performance and extreme temperature stabiUty at a relatively low cost. A comparison of the manufacturing methods and properties of various SiC fibers is presented in Table 4 (121,122). 

The demand for mass-producible, low-cost diagnostic chips has had a significant impact on the development trends for optical sensor platforms. Arguably the most important characteristics of recent systems are the integration of multiple functionalities onto a single platform, the ability to perform multianalyte detection and the production of low-cost sensor platforms. These strategies are intended to maximise the viability of a device for development as a commercial product. 

The performance of a pigment which is produced by mixed coupling does not always equal the sum of the characteristics of the individually coupled products. A new crystal modification, for instance, may lead to an unpredictable deviation in the application properties. On a cost-performance basis, the best approach is to add to the reaction mixture traces of a costly coupling component which is known to confer excellent properties on the product, in an attempt to promote a more favorable crystal modification. The resulting mixed product is expected to assume the modification of the trace coupling component and thus to improve its commercial performance without representing a financial strain [7]. 

From the anionic surfactants (Table 1.1) the most relevant is LAS with an annual global production volume of more than 3 X 1061 in 2001. LAS has a wide application because of its excellent detersive properties and cost-performance ratio. Commercial LAS is applied mainly in the formulation of powder and liquid laundry detergents. The calcium salts are used as an emulsifier in pesticide formulations their amine salts are used in dry cleaning and as degreasing agents in the metal industry [14]. 

Despite the simplicity of chemistries presently employed for the commercially available hyperbranched polymers, these materials are still relatively high priced compared to traditional commodity polymers. This is undoubtedly related to the early stage, low volume demands for these products. Hyperbranched polymers will evolve as substitutes for traditional polymers as their unique properties are used to greatly enhance products on a cost-performance basis. In summary, the enhanced used of hyperbranched polymers in engineered products will depend upon many of the following prerequisites ... 

Of course, if not accompanied by a full understanding of the working principles of these devices, the status of their development, and their potential, the results of this test would be misleading when deciding on the choice of the right type of sensor for further development. It has been shown by later development, as discussed, that the lifetime-based scheme is much to be favored in terms of performance and cost. This was the reason that a major manufacturer, Luxtron, substituted the lifetime-based thermometer for the early, intensity-based one in its commercial production/5 ... 

Production of polymers contributes to pollution during synthesis and after use. A polymer produced by microorganisms is already a commercial product (Biopol). Unfortunately, however, cellular synthesis remains limited by the cost of downstream processing and the fact that the synthesis is aqueous-based, and it is impossible to perform the synthesis in the absence of a solvent. Recent research describes an enzyme-catalyzed polymer synthesis in which there is no solvent. This bulk polymerization mirrors conventional synthesis but eliminates the needs for extremes of temperature and corrosive acid catalysts. This represents the first rapid and efficient synthesis of polyesters from bulk polymerization under ambient conditions with very low concentrations of a biocatalyst (Chaudhary et al., 1997). 

There is a range of difficult technological and scientific hurdles that will need to be overcome before reliable products can be manufactured with the required performance at low cost by commercial printing techniques. A complete set of solution processible materials including not only conductors, semiconductors and di-... 

This poor cost performance ratio is one reason for the relatively small market penetration by this formaldehyde-free finish. Another reason is that a completely formaldehyde-free finish is not as commercially important since the advent of the ultra low formaldehyde products. However, a 1 1 mixture of DMDHEU and DMeDHEU is popular because of its reduced formaldehyde levels with only slightly inferior physical properties at an acceptable cost. 

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