June 20, 2003 / The Polyolefins and Elastomers (PO&E) Business Group of The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) has announced the commercial launch of Dowlex, a polyethylene resin aimed at the rigid packaging sector.

IP-51 Polyethylene (PE) Resin, us a new "freezer-grade" high density polyethylene (HDPE) resin engineered to provide improved performance and processability over traditional HDPE resins. The latest material science innovation from Dow, Dowplex IP-51 PE resin offers fabricators an improved solution for low-temperature rigid packaging applications compared to other products on the market.

"There is growing demand for packaging products that are thinner, lighter in weight, exhibit good stiffness and have high impact strength, especially at cold temperatures," said Spyro Petsalis, market manager for Rigid Packaging, Polyolefins and Elastomers Business Group. "As a leading material science company, we have an obligation to innovate new products that enable us to provide our customers plastics that cover the extremes and everything in between."

With a melt index of 50 and a density of .947, Dowplex IP-51 PE resin offers improved impact resistance, excellent processability and exceptional cold-temperature properties – making it especially well suited for frozen food applications such as ice cream and sherbet containers. Dowplex IP-51 PE resin is also ideal for use in a broad range of thin-wall injection moulded packaging applications, such as yoghurt cups, deli and dairy containers and drinking cups.

By optimising the molecular weight distribution of Dowplex Improved Processing (IP) Resins, Dow says it has further refined the combination of strength and processability. Made via solution technology, the resin is said to bring better flow characteristics compared to other HDPE resins with similar melt indexes. The high melt index also provides several processing advantages, including improved cycle times, high lot-to-lot consistency and the ability to be used in high-cavitation moulds, which improves overall productivity.

"The Dowlex product line has evolved with our customers’ needs, as the result of ongoing innovations engineered to support the new requirements of next-generation applications," said Kelly Polich, development engineer for Rigid Packaging, Polyolefins and Elastomers Business Group. "By providing a different combination of properties than our existing products, Dowlex IP-51 PE resin meets the new and critical needs of our customers and also complements and enhances our growing portfolio."

The new resin is an extension of the broad line of Dowlex Polyethylene (PE) Resins from Dow. The resins have been engineered to provide increased toughness, puncture resistance and tear resistance and support a wide variety of applications in blown and cast film, extrusion coatings, injection moulding and rotomoulding.

Dow is a leading science and technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many essential consumer markets. With annual sales of $28 billion, and 50,000 employees world-wide, Dow serves customers in more than 170 countries and a wide range of markets.