ABSTRACT
The markets which are served by engineering thermoplastics continue to evolve and grow. Being a member of the engineering thermoplastics family, flame retarded acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (FR-ABS) polymers have followed this trend. With the growth of the electronics industry, as well as the regulatory and agency requirements this evolution has been challenging and dynamic. It is evident that the market for engineering thermoplastics is going through a dramatic cost reduction phase. These cost reductions often demand that polymer performance is maintained or improved without the benefit of increased polymer price. Added to this is the expectation that the polymer suppliers will provide globally acceptable materials to a global market place. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the market and applications, material test standards, polymer producers, competing materials and finally a review of the issues and opportunities for FR-ABS. Insight to the markets, market demands and pertinent opportunities for FR-ABS polymers will provide flame retardent producers as well as polymer producers an understanding of the trends for all engineering thermoplastics. THE FR-ABS MARKET
There is a broad mix of applications into which flame retarded acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (FR-ABS) resins are sold. The FR-ABS market is a vital and growing market where the market influences go beyond the US shores. Often the application specification occurs offshore, initial production may begin offshore and finally as the product is roled out in the US, production may finally be in a US facility. This is particulary true for the largest market segment which encompasses high technology electronics applications such as personal and business computers and computer monitors. For the most part the major customers for FR-ABS are global customers. These customers operate on a global basis, defining strategy that includes manufacturing anywhere in the world, with products from these sites also being focussed globally. To accomodate this situation the customer base specifies materials that are available and compliant worldwide.Furthermore, the computer and electronics markets demand relatively short product life cycles. Such short life cycles demand equally short development cycles. These
development cycles are demanding for the customer as well as the polymer supplier. Quick response is essential to successfully serve this market with a “just in time” materials system. This requires local or regional availability of materials. The ability to serve this market is further complicated by an annual average growth rate (AAGR) in excess of 10%.The diversity of the FR-ABS market is great with more mature markets growing at the low AAGR values of less than 5%, while other segments indicate significant growth, such as in the computers, computer monitors and cellular telecomunications.There are also significant geographic growth differences in growth rate. The US market is difficult to judge, primarily due to the amount of offshore equipment builds that are imported. The vast majority of this volume is being consumed in the computer and information systems arena, much of which is being manufactured outside of North America(l). These applications are being designed and specified for manufacture and distribution to a global market. As such, the users of FR-ABS materials for these applications require that the materials are available worldwide and meet all regulatory and agency requirements for this market.Figure 1 is a representation of the broad range of applications in which FR-ABS is found. From this figure it is seen that there is a very strong market in the areas of computers and informations systems, document management and communications. In addition to these large market segments, FR-ABS is used in a broad expanse of applications which require the attributes of ABS as well as flame retardancy. These would include such areas as video TV games, batteries, electric motor enclosures, automotive parts, electrical connectors etc.In general, these markets are global in nature, but there are certainly differences in geographic demand depending where manufacturing is done or where emerging markets exist. The vast majority of manufacturing for the electronics industry is concentrated in the Pacific Rim. Therefore, much of the molding of FR-ABS is also performed there. There is tremendous demand for materials to be supplied to the Pacific Rim, even though the largest market for personal computers and computer monitors is the US. The largest emerging markets are China and India. In China the demand for ABS is requiring significant domestic ABS capacity to be brought on line by 1998, all of which is expected to be consumed by China. The vast majority of this market will be general purpose ABS, but as with the existing global volume, there will also be a growing demand for FR-ABS in this region. This is primarily due to the huge annual growth in durable goods, and electronics.The market segments can be broken into three generally large catagories, all of which are considered in the electric/electronics market. These are computers and monitors, document management, and telecommuunications. As mentioned previously, the application s in which FR-ABS are found go beyond these three segments. Although by far the vast majority of FR-ABS consumption is in these three general market catagories.
