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Linkflex HF

Today’s headlines are mostly about software, apps and the user experience. However, this quantum expansion has need of greatly increased amounts of hardware and energy.

And new materials. These new polymer compounds will have to safely contain electrical activity, heat and other operational factors like never before.

Enter Benvic – with its Halogen Free (HF) polyolefin-based technology for the cabling industry. The product group is titled Linkflex HF and Benvic’s successful first-time exhibition at Düsseldorf’s Wire 2022 June showed proof that the global market wants as much Linkflex HF as the company can manufacture.

These recent moves are testimony to the targeted product marketing that Benvic is now deploying in a number of high value polymer processing markets

Insight

Linkflex history

According to Benvic Product Marketing Manager, Eric Grange, all of these changes have been driven by a need to anticipate customer needs and to find and provide new polymer compounds of value in an emerging and circular global economy.

Linkflex HF cabling compounds have partly been created to complement Benvic’s existing and extensive PVC strengths in the building and construction markets,

Benvic set about serving the cabling market in a very pragmatic way. First and foremost, Benvic created a dedicated cable product development team. This unit – based in Spain - is primarily staffed with engineers from the cable manufacturing sector.

Based on decades of cable manufacturing experience, the Benvic cable team was therefore able to imagine and develop new product solutions for the market, directly address problematic legacy issues, and also optimize the material content for existing applications and make it bespoke for new and custom applications.

‘From the beginning,’ says Eric, ‘our Linkflex team saw that we could make and supply a compound that made for a superior cable product – and also could be processed under easier and less costly conditions.’

After a extensive programme of development and trials Benvic launched its Linkflex Low-Smoke Zero Halogen polymer compounds in 2020. The success with the first customers has meant that Linkflex HF production volumes will be increased in the coming months.

The new story

The Linkflex HF product family is designed to comply with new European Construction Products Regulation (CPR) requirements. Initial applications mainly targeted low voltage requirements in the building market.

In May of this year – ahead of Wire 2022 - Benvic also launched two new Halogen Free Linkflex HF grades. These compounds provide superior performance for data cable communication uses - mainly in the fiber optic field.

Benvic’s expansion into these grades - Linkflex HFS606 and HFS607 – is proof of the original concept; the market need for the basic range has quickly been established and further niches and customised grades are already being produced. In this case, excellent sheathing and fire-resistant properties of compounds are being supplied to the fiber optic and data comms markets.

At this moment Benvic anticipates further materials development in line with the building of the world’s new energy resources. Alternative power systems such as solar and wind mean the creation of diverse forms of electrical infrastructure and new Linkflex HF grades are now expected in 2023 for medium and high voltage applications.

The main body of Linkflex HF compounds has been developed and produced at Benvic’s Spanish factory and the contribution of Benvic’s Spanish team has been key to the success of these materials through Europe. Benvic’s recent US compounder acquisitions are also expected to make significant contributions to the range with Trinity Specialty Compounds in particular capable of designing on-demand compound formulations for the cable industry.

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