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Among the high performance thermoplastics, which all share the common characteristic of high heat distortion temperature, sulfone polymers stand out for their hydrolytic stability, highly desirable transparency and FDA approval for food contact, making them an ideal choice for medical and food applications where the products must withstand repeated steam sterilization. In addition, sulfone polymers exhibit excellent electrical properties, inherent flame retardancy and radiation resistance, making them well-suited to many electrical and electronic applications such as connectors, printed circuit boards, terminal blocks and aircraft radomes. Sulfone polymers are also known for their toughness, long-term creep resistance and low mold shrinkage, making them highly desirable for other industrial applications requiring close tolerances and good dimensional stability.
The following graph shows world supply/demand for sulfone polymers:
In 2004, the United States was the dominant producing country, followed by Western Europe and Japan. The United States was the only net exporting nation; all other regions were net importers. Solvay in the United States is the world’s dominant producer, followed by BASF in Western Europe and Sumitomo in Japan. Total world capacity for polysulfone polymers is expected to increase to 56.0 thousand metric tons from 2004 to 2009, with most of the capacity increase attributed to a planned expansion by Solvay.
World consumption is expected to accelerate in 2004–2009 and grow at approximately 8% per year to about 55 thousand metric tons in 2009. Comparing estimated capacity wtih projected consumption in 2009, supply is expected to remain tight for the next five years.
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