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Quadrant Announces New Stable Machining Grades of Olefin Stock Shapes

READING, Pa.–Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products (Quadrant EPP) has announced a new series of Stable Machining Grade (SMG) materials, developed to improve the performance and productivity of parts made from polyolefin base materials. Quadrant EPP has utilized its R&D capabilities to create the new materials–each to be launched over the next 6 months, Quadrant said in a press release.

"Quadrant's considerable technical experience helped to meet customer needs that simply hadn't been addressed by anyone in the market," said Doug Mahler, product marketing manager, in a press release. "Each of these new materials stretches the boundaries that may have existed for machinable shapes manufactured from PP (polypropylene) and PE (polyethylene)."

Research was done at several facilities in Quadrant's North American operations area, including Scranton, Pennsylvania; Reading, Pennsylvania; Delmont, Pennsylvania; and Fort Wayne, Indiana, the release said.

The new materials each have a special performance characteristic, such as dimensional stability, higher temperature resistance, or enhanced purity. Each formulation was developed based on market feedback–some of it segment-specific–that helped researchers better understand the problems that machine builders were having with existing, traditional olefin formulations.

"Our research staff worked closely with our market development teammates around the world to define the performance for these products. Each of these [new products] will give our authorized distributors some unique solutions that people are asking for," said Bernie Willms, Quadrant's commercial director, North America, in the release.

The products were scheduled to be released in March and June of 2017. Each will hit the market with inventory already in-place, along with a suite of collateral and training materials.

Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products (www.Quadrantplastics.com) offers research, development, and manufacturing of machinable, high-performance engineering polymer materials. The company's materials are specified for use in applications such as food processing and packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, life sciences, power generation, and diverse industrial equipment.