EoW November 2010

Compounds & colourings

Compounds for solar cables

Fainplast has introduced a new range of halogen-free flame retardant compounds for sheathing and insulation of photo- voltaic cables. An all-in-one solution for the growing market of renewable energy. Fainplast has invested in the development of plastic materials that can be used efficiently for the sheathing and insulation of the solar cables that transport energy from the PV panels to the place of its consumption. Technical requirements for this type of material are very demanding. Despite being halogen-free it is required to be flame retardant with emission of low density smoke and low corrosive gases in the case of fire. The most important requirement for these materials is long term performance in extreme ambient conditions. For this reason, all materials are required to be crosslinked. The specific solution provided by Fainplast is a SIOPLAS crosslinking method, that does not require big investments for the cable manufacturer and can be easily implemented in a standard PVC cable production line. To further improve the performance of these crosslinkable materials Fainplast has significantly improved the long term ageing performances of these materials to comply with the strict requirements of TUV, CEI (Italian Electrotechnical Committee) and other international standardisation bodies. All materials have been tested in ageing ovens according to the Arrhenius thermal endurance method, during a testing procedure that lasted several months. All results were positive, and today Fainplast can offer to the market a valid solution for this specific business. With 12 fully automatic compounding lines and a production capacity of almost 60,000MT of compound a year, Fainplast offers a wide range of PVC, EVA, PE and PP based compounds. Its R&D laboratories are among the most modern in the compounding industry, and with a strong knowledge base built over several years of market-orientated developments, Fainplast is able to give swift and sure solutions to its customers. Faraotti Industrie Plastiche Srl – Italy Fax : +39 0736 403807 Website : www.fainplast.com

Results of Fainplast's endurance tests ▲ ▲

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EuroWire – November 2010