Building codes are adopting increasingly stringent standards for indoor air quality, and earning certification for programs — like FloorScore® and UL Greenguard – is a major advantage for indoor construction material manufacturers.
To keep pace with these pressing regulatory issues, our team of chemists has created a diversified portfolio of new flexible PVC compounds for indoor construction products that exhibits up to 90% lower emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than a comparable standard PVC.
These diverse innovations help enhance interior air quality, provide alternatives to phthalates, and further reduce the carbon footprint of PVC with “bio-based” plasticizers derived from renewable plant byproducts.
Depending on how these innovations are combined, compounds are available with reductions in VOC emissions ranging from 37 to 90%.
These products are ideal for extruded, calendered, coated, and molded applications for institutional and residential indoor building and furnishing products – including office partitions, furniture trim, window treatments, baseboards, and flooring.
Among many environmental advantages, the substitution of bio-based plasticizers for conventional phthalates significantly reduces cumulative energy demand (feedstock and production), because typical plasticizer loadings are 30%. The fact that over half the content of PVC resin comes from sea salt results in PVC compounds made with bio-based plasticizers having a very high sustainable content.
Teknor Apex is continually taking advantage of innovative chemistries to provide customers with a wide selection of options for meeting a diversity of market needs. Custom formulations of the low-VOC compounds are available.
For more information on indoor air quality certification programs, visit www.greenguard.org and www.rfci.com.
