This project is aming to generate a novel superengineering polymer to meet the increasing opperational demands of the seals and bearings sector where the current materials, PEEK, PEI, PPS, PTFE and PFAs, fail to provide adequate performance properties. For example where PEEK is too stiff/hard and PTFE/PFA too soft and blends do not offer an acceptable compromise. Such seals/bearings are used in a very wide range of industries, from aerospace to chemical manufacture and will enable designers and manufacturers to produce devices which will outperform (higher temperatures, faster speeds, reduced maintenance, increased chemical stability) existing materials. The new materials is expected to exhibit exceptional clarity and therefore could find application in high temperature polymeric optical fibre wave guides and other optical applications (sensors?) benefitting from such a material. The market for the seals/bearing applications is $100million from one US corporation alone and globally $450million. Opportunities in the optical markets are expected to be similar.

The HyperMATA project, lead by the specialist polymer development company, Ketonex, will develop a new family of high performance polymer materials intended for use in the Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) industry. The new polymer materials that will be developed will have significantly better mechanical and thermal properties over those presently available. This 14 month project will demonstrate that, with some simple modifications, a standard laser sintering machine will be able to produce high quality parts, with exceptional strength and chemical resistance. End users from a wide range of industries, including bioengineering, aerospace and the automotive industry, will all benefit from the significantly improved performance that this material will lend to ALM parts.

The project will evaluate a new low temperature PEK polymer for a new high speed sintering ALM processing.