History and Development
The History of Therban®
Therban® HNBR is Bayer's original high-performance elastomer. Bayer, the world's largest synthetic rubber company, invented HNBR more than 25 years ago. Since then, Bayer research scientists have been developing new grades and exploring new ways to meet your ever-changing engineering challenges. The original patent, in 1975, named "hydrogenation of polymers" as Bayer´s invention. The tradename Therban® was registered in 1986.
Therban® is a partially or completely hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber whose vulcanizates offer a unique combination of heat resistance, oil resistance, and high performance in aggressive media. While all HNBR products exhibit certain characteristics such as strength, heat resistance, and oil resistance comparable to standard NBR and other polymers, only Therban® offers a selection of grades that will perform well across a range of the most extreme environments.
Therban® is manufactured in Orange, Texas and Leverkusen, Germany. Both plants feature state-of-the-art production and process control equipment with ISO 9002 certification and a ten-year record of safety. QS 9000 certification was received for the Orange, Texas plant in 1999.
Therban® Development
During the 1970s, the automotive, industrial, and oil-well industries challenged the research and development community to develop an improved heat- and oil-resistant elastomer. It was essential for this new elastomer to perform at 150°C in air, oils, and other aggressive media for extended periods. Although many new elastomers were considered, hydrogenated nitrile rubber (HNBR) emerged as the most promising by demonstrating a unique combination of mechanical properties, oil resistance, and high-temperature performance. Therban® was developed to bridge the price-performance gap between specialty high-performance fluoroelastomers (FKM), fluorosilicone (FMQ), and general purpose oil-resistant elastomers such as nitrile rubber (NBR), epichlorohydrin (ECO), and polychloroprene (CR).
Bayer and Polysar independently researched and developed Therban® and Tornac® HNBR, respectively, resulting in the construction of pilot plants in Leverkusen, Germany, and Sarnia, Ontario, for sampling purposes, process research, and optimization of process variables. In 1990, Bayer purchased the Polysar Rubber division of Nova Corporation. At that time, the Therban® trade name was adopted for all HNBR products.
Evaluation of Therban® elastomers in the marketplace confirmed their unique balance of dynamic properties at elevated temperatures, excellent ozone resistance, superior abrasion resistance, good low-temperature behavior, and very good hot-air resistance. The presence of the nitrile group in combination with the highly saturated nature of the elastomer is responsible for the superior resistance to aggressive fluids such as oils, fuels, and other non-polar liquids.
LANXESS Links
