More particles, less polymer. Enhanced performance and value.
Tundra uniquely processes particles, polymers and coatings to elevate a variety of material performance properties at a competitive cost.
A Revolutionary Additive Technology
A Revolutionary Additive Technology
Our breakthrough interfacial modifier chemistry and coating technology control unique particles of proprietary size distributions and compositions, infusing distinctive rheological and other physical properties into new materials.
The resulting composites can be used in existing processes and manufacturing, including extrusion, injection molding, blow molding, rotational molding, compression molding and 3D printing. A diverse range of products for a variety of applications can also be created.
Particles/fibers and polymers, when combined, don’t naturally create good contact points, and as such, don’t form composites with favorable physical properties or rheology.
Metals, glasses, ceramics, inorganics and other particles/fibers have irregular surfaces with varying chemical states. When a polymer is placed in contact with these surfaces through traditional melt processing, interactions are sporadic and processing is difficult. The final material often lacks the physical properties desired.
Interfacial modification is the key to a strong bond.
Our proprietary coating process:
Tundra’s TundraKoat™ Proprietary Coating technology allows the ability to load particles to a level beyond the competition. The resulting effect is, at critical particle or fiber packing, Tundra’s composite creeps ever closer towards the physical properties of the particle or fiber. All this while retaining the rheological properties of the base polymer system.
TundraKoat™ also allows for composites to manufactured without a polymer with TundraKoat™ being the intermediate process materials.
Better Materials
Our coating technology allows for the creation of composites that are :
- Stronger
- Heavier/Lighter
- Magnetic
- Insulative/ Conductive
- Sinterable
- Polymer Extender
The TundraKoat™ process begins in our proprietary coating process which coats particles and/or fibers with a few atomic layers. This allows the following enhancements:
- Polymerized coating that layers an even surface over the particle, optimizing polymer contact points
- Particles self-ordering by size and packing densely within the polymer
- Particle surface states that are controlled for desired material properties
From these enhancements come the four laws for TundraKoat and what they bring to our customers:
- High packing efficiency due to self ordering of coated particles (typically greater than 30% and up to 87% by volume).
- Increased packing efficiency allows for the composites to act more like the particle or fiber it’s loaded with enhancing the performance of the product.
- Improvement of rheological properties similar to the base polymer (this allows traditional plastics processing equipment to be used with minimal wear).
- Enhanced processing allows for more predictable processing like traditional plastics at high particle or fiber loading without the fear of increased wear.
- Maintains the viscoelastic properties of the polymer while imparting the properties of the loaded particle in the composite.
- Customers get the best of both worlds. The benefits of the polymer they are using while imparting the affect of the particle or fiber.
- The chemical inertness of the particle to the polymer system.
- Many particles/fibers have detrimental effects on the polymer system they are loaded in. TundraKoat™ allows them to become virtually invisible to each other which minimizes the negative effects of the surface state differences enhancing processing and material performance.
Product platforms are created.
Compounding produces a composite material ready for manufacturing. The material preserves the polymer’s rheological and performance properties and the particle’s chemical inertness, making elevated performance characteristics available through a variety of Tundra product platforms.
The TundraKoat™ Process:
