Alexium has announced a major advancement in the development of its Flame Retardant (FR) treatments and curing methods. The company has developed its novel, non-halogenated FR chemistry for nylon so it can be applied with a standard oven as well as Alexium’s microwave technology. The ability to use traditional heat curing methods, aims to significantly lower entry barriers to key markets and speed up market introduction.

While Alexium’s original FR nylon chemistry was applied via microwave curing methods, developments over the last six months have led to formulations that can also be applied with a conventional heat curing oven.

“Equipment of this type is available in nearly every fabric finishing facility in the world. Alexium’s advancement is anticipated to speed up the transition cycle, providing nearly instant production capabilities at typical production speeds,” the company said in a statement.

“While Alexium has generally used microwave chemistry to develop novel products, we identified the opportunity and the benefit for adapting our FR chemistry for a traditional thermal cure. For other applications (such as the treatment of heat sensitive polyolefins), the microwave technology is integral and irreplaceable. With our FR technology, microwave and traditional heat curing methods are equivalent, which we believe will facilitate how customers adopt it.” added Dr. Bob Brookins, CTO of Alexium.

Alexium will be serving its commercial partners as an FR chemical solutions developer and supplier and is currently working with commercial partners regarding high volume production.

“We are currently resolving a number of common scale-up, process and engineering issues. This work is progressing well and Duro Textiles is aiming to have production capacity established in the US spring of 2013. We are currently optimizing our FR chemistry to a range of different nylon fabrics and planning for a number of scale-up and initial production trials.” explained Stefan Susta, COO and Executive Director of Alexium.

In August, Alexium finalized and announced a commercial deal with Duro Textiles to license Alexium’s novel, non-halogenated, flame retardant (FR) treatment under an exclusive commercial agreement in North America. Alexium is currently in discussions with potential partners in other global territories.

Alexium International Group Limited holds proprietary patent applications for a process developed initially by the US Department of Defense , which allows for the surface modification and attachment of nano particles or multiple chemical functional groups to surfaces or substrates to provide functions such as fire retardance, water proofing, oil proofing, anti-microbial, non-stick and UV protection.

Applications under development include but are not limited to textiles, composites, paints, packaging, glass and building materials.

www.alexiuminternational.com