3M™ Glass Bubbles S60

What are 3M™ Glass Bubbles?
Revolutionize the production process and improve the quality of finished parts. It’s entirely possible with our 3M™ Glass Bubbles. These high-strength polymer additives are made from a water-resistant and chemically-stable soda-lime borosilicate glass. Our hollow glass microspheres can be used as a low-density filler material that are ideal additives for plastic and rubber parts created from injection molding, extrusion processes and other vigorous processing equipment (Banbury mixers, etc.).

Very Good Strength-to-Weight Ratio
The benefits don’t end there; although these hollow spheres have thin walls, they have an isostatic crush strength of 6,000 psi, making them suitable for a number of rigorous applications. At 6,000 psi, 3M™ S60 Glass Bubbles have a fractional survival rate of 90% for consistent performance and good survivability. Although 3M glass bubbles S60 is primarily used as an additive in automotive injection molded parts, it has numerous applications in other markets, including – construction, electronics, marine – anywhere a strong additive is needed to reduce part weight without compromising strength. Get the most out of your finished products; use 3M glass bubbles to help reduce weight and thermal expansion.

Don’t Wait, Reduce Part Weight
From start to finish, 3M glass bubbles S60 are all about helping you improve your production process and the quality of finished parts. Toward that end, density reduction of 15% or more can be achieved depending on the part, manufacturing process and application. Automotive manufacturers have created molded parts with density reductions up to 40% – a dramatic reduction that has revolutionized lightweighting in that industry. Preserve the quality while substantially reducing density!

Improving Throughput
Reduce cycle time by 15-25%, or more without compromising critical mechanical properties of finished parts. The secret? Faster cooling. Typically, cooling takes up most of a mold cycle. By optimizing resin systems for faster cooling from the melt, cycle times can be considerably shortened. Talc, calcium, carbonate and other additives may reduce cooling times, but they increase density as well. The reduction in part temperature is approximately 1.1°C per each weight % of 3M glass bubbles S60 added to the formulation. Cooling time reductions of 15-25% have been reported in production-scale use.

3M glass bubbles provide both reduced cooling times and reduced density to optimize production and the performance of finished parts. 3M glass bubbles S60 help improve dimensional stability, reduce shrinkage and sink marks and contribute to material and process savings. This allows the user to cut down on rejects and reprocessing. S60 glass bubbles are hollow (like all 3M glass bubbles) yet strong enough to survive injection molding processes, meaning customers can potentially improve process throughput because there is less mass to cool. The end result is an estimated 15-25% cycle time improvement, allowing customers to make more parts per minute, per hour, per day and per year. Increased throughput and improvements to productivity means cost savings. Additionally, with the smoothness of a microspherical filler, users have reported reduced wear on tooling and secondary operations.

Dimensional accuracy in thick injection molded plastic parts is affected by differential rates of cooling in the core compared with the part surface. Using 3M glass bubbles S60, samples have significantly flatter surfaces that more closely follow the profile of the original mold. The addition of 3M glass bubbles S60 not only improves cycle time, but also improves flow and processing throughput. Additional benefits include – improved tensile strength and modulus, reduced shrinkage and warpage, reduced Coefficient of Linear Thermal Expansion (CLTE) and reduced wear on tooling.

Applications Include

• Automotive
• Injection molding
• Transportation
• Oil and gas