Application of e-tpu in ocean floating ball

Ocean floating ball is a buoy which is set up on the water. It is used for the ship to determine the position, direction, avoid danger and make the safe navigation along the waterway or course as navigation aids by specific signs, lighting, sound, radio signal, etc. With the development of Marine economy in China, there is a growing demand for the ocean floating balls in every port and channel. Most traditional ocean floating balls are made of EVA, PE, PVC and other materials which are smelly and environmentally harmful during the forming process. They often have poor corrosion resistance, poor impact resistance and short service life. The harmful substances decomposed by these materials after corrosion are not conducive to water protection.

It also takes a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to send vessels and personnel to inspect and replace the floating balls in the whole channel periodically.

Ningbo GMF New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. has been committed to the research and development of e-tpu materials for many years. The research shows that, compared to the traditional materials, ocean floating balls which are made of E-TPU special polyether materials have better corrosion resistance, toughness, and higher energy storage modulus that can withstand the changes of natural environment such as sea water and low temperature invasion. Besides, the balls also have better shock resistance and wind-wave resistance. The material itself and the whole process of molding process are friendly to the environment. It is an ideal material for ocean floating ball.

Based on physical foaming method, GMF makes TPU raw materials completely impregnated in supercritical fluid. Undermine the balance state of polymer/gas homogeneous system inside the material by changing environmental conditions. Then the formation and growth of cell nuclei happens inside the material. Thus, we get the expanded TPU foam material. They can expand 5-8 times compared with original volume because of a lot of gas wrapped inside the microcells. The particles contain a large number of internal microcells with diameters ranging from 30µm to 300µm. The particles with closed cell structure have excellent resilience.