INNOVATIVE POLYESTER POLYURETHANE FOR A LONG-LASTING SHOE

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INNOVATIVE POLYESTER POLYURETHANE FOR A LONG-LASTING SHOE
21 April 2005 - Bayer MaterialScience AG

Polyester polyurethane is an excellent material for manufacturing shoe soles that are likely to be subjected to rough treatment – safety boots, for example. The problem is that many polyester-based plastics react with water, which means that they age relatively quickly in hot, moist climates – a process known as hydrolysis.

At Simac 2005, Bayer MaterialScience AG will show the optimized version of an extremely durable polyester polyurethane called Bayflex® Longlast. The process of hydrolysis, which weakens the molecular structure over the course of time, occurs much more slowly in the new material than in conventional polyester polyurethanes. This provides shoe manufacturers with all kinds of potential new fields of application and strong sales arguments, because they can offer their customers longer-lasting and thus more valuable shoes.

Shoes with soles made of Bayflex® Longlast are lightweight and comfortable to wear. Good long-term performance properties and high resistance to mechanical and chemical influences make the material ideal for long-term professional use under harsh environmental conditions, for example in safety boots. In production, Bayflex® Longlast is easy and flexible to work with, being suitable both for direct molding and for unit sole production.

“Its sensitivity to hydrolysis used to be one of the material's big disadvantages,” says Dr. Erhard Michels, a shoe expert in the Polyurethanes Business Unit at Bayer MaterialScience. This is why shoe manufacturers normally opt for polyether polyurethane when designing shoes for humid climates. “With Bayflex® Longlast, we introduced a material onto the market with much greater stability to hydrolysis,” says Dr. Michels, “but now, with the new Bayflex® Longlast generation, we have again increased the aging resistance quite significantly, as tests in the climatic chamber prove.”

This means that shoe manufacturers will be able to exploit the full range of benefits that were previously the preserve of polyether materials, especially for markets in southern Europe and tropical regions. But even in temperate climates, Bayflex® Longlast makes a significant contribution to extending the life expectancy of shoes and is certainly a worthwhile proposition whenever more stringent demands are made on durability.

“In optimizing and developing our new soling materials, we can build on decades of experience with polyurethanes and their use in polyurethane soles. This means, first and foremost, that we can help to make our customers more competitive,” says Dr. Michels.

http://www.bayermaterialscience.com

About: Bayer MaterialScience AG
Bayer Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is part of the worldwide Bayer Group, an international health care, nutrition and innovative materials group based in Leverkusen, Germany. Bayer employs 23,300 in North America with net North American sales of 8.8 billion euros in 2003. Bayer’s three operating business areas – HealthCare, CropScience and MaterialScience, improve people’s lives through a broad range of essential products that help diagnose and treat diseases, protect crops and advance automobile safety and durability.

Bayer MaterialScience AG is one of the world's largest producers of polymers and high-performance plastics. The main customers for Its innovative developments in coatings, adhesives, insulating materials and sealants, polycarbonates and polyurethanes are the automotive and construction industries, the electrical/electronics segment and manufacturers of sports and leisure goods, packaging, and medical devices.

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