Polypropylene window being commercialized in Europe

As part of its display at K’98, Montell Polyolefins featured a polypropylene window profile it is helping to develop and commercialize with a European partner. According to Patrick Rijks, manager, advanced polyolefins, industrial, at Montell’s Europe Division, the materials supplier has been working with the unnamed company on the project for the past two years in order to develop a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to PVC windows. In Europe PVC has been under even heavier environmental scrutiny than in North America.

The window consists of a reinforced PP core inside a co-extruded outside layer of Montell’s Hivalloy resin. The reinforced core provides a balance of good impact and stiffness properties, while the Hivalloy layer offers superior aesthetics and good UV performance properties, says Rijks.

According to Rijks, the window requires some modifications to a standard extrusion line, which can be accomplished without buying an entire new line. Rijks says the most critical part of the development project has been the design of new dies to incorporate the different shrinkage and melt rates of polypropylene. The windows are presently undergoing a one-year accelerated weathering testing. Performance of the windows in the test is critical to determining the next phase of commercialization for the window, Rijks says.