DIGESTORS. Hydrochloric acid is circulated through this bank of tanks to leach cationic components from glass fiber at Haveg's high silica fiber plant at Wilmington, Del. The plant is part of firm's drive to cut into market for 99% silica fiber cloth
Haveg Steps Up Silica Fiber Activity New plant, new department underscore company's interest in high temperature material A new SI million plant at Wilmington, Del., and a new operating department are the muscles which Haveg Industries is flexing in an attempt to capture 30 to 50% of the market for pure ( 9 9 ' A ) silica fiber cloth. Its one competitor in the field is H. I. Thompson Co. of Los Angeles, Calif. Haveg licenses certain features of its process from Thompson and also licenses an Owens-Corning patent relating to the process. Haveg, however, is no newcomer to the field; it has been acid-extracting silicon materials for over 25 years. Pure silica glass fiber cloth (Haveg calls it Sil-Temp) is made by acidleaching certain types of glass fiber cloth. The product has a melting point of 3000° F., hence finds many uses in high temperature applications, particularly in aircraft and missiles. Right now, missiles are the biggest single outlet for pure silica glass fiber. Up to 3000 pounds of it are used in some missiles and rockets. It goes into ablation resistant reinforced plastics for nose cones and for insulating blast tubes and nozzles. Similarly, it's used for jet engine insulation blankets. Haveg conservatively estimates that a little over 1 million pounds of pure silica glass will go into rockets, missiles, and aircraft this year. At $3.00 to $6.00 per pound, this adds up to S5 to $6 million worth of business. But the company hesitates to predict 30
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the product's future growth, what with the missile program subject to constant overhaul and the chances of new, more exotic materials cropping up. Besides, Haveg sees many possible uses in nonmilitary applications, some of which ma)' pan out and some of which may not. The curve points upward, though, and Haveg hopes to see at least half of its output going to nonmilitary uses within two years. Long History. High-purity silica glass cloth has a long history, dating back to the early forties when OwensCorning first developed a process for acid-leaching glass fibers. Later, H. I. Thompson refined the process. After three years of research and development starting in 1956, Haveg began commercial production in converted asbestos digestion units. Another unit was added in early 1960; late last year, its new plant went on stream. This year, Sil-Temp operations were placed in the hands of a newly-formed Sil-Temp division. Haveg is close-mouthed about process details, although Thompson and Owens-Corning patents are available. Basically, though, E glass (electrical grade glass fiber) is wound on specially designed racks and placed in leaching tanks, or digestors. Strong hydrochloric acid solution containing various salts is circulated through the tanks to remove most of the cloth's cationic components.
The cloth is washed with water to remove excess acids and salts and dried over a tier of revolving steamheated cylinders. At this point, the material, called D cloth, contains about 15% adsorbed moisture. Chemically, it can be considered as bundles of hydroxylated siloxane chains. D cloth shows some interesting ion exchange properties, and uses along these lines may be developed. Most of the D cloth, though, is passed through a shrinker—an oven in which it is heated to 1200° to 1500° F. for from a few minutes to half an hour to bring final moisture content down to the 1 to 8% range. The cloth shrinks both longitudinally and transversely, not only because of moisture loss but also through weight loss during leaching. The material may be sold in the form it leaves the shrinker. Or it may receive a surface treatment if it is to be bonded with phenolic resins, inorganic materials, or metals. Unlike many leached-glass products which are stiff and brittle, pure silica fabric is soft, flexible, and easily impregnated with many resins and elastomeric latexes. It can be made into laminates with good high-temperature resistance and strength. Many Uses. Its biggest outlet is rockets, missiles, and aircraft, but Haveg is eying many other, nonmilitary potential uses. Silica glass fibers or mat are already used in Europe as a die lubricant in extruding high alloy steels or refractory metals. Other potential uses include: • In filtering fine solids from hot, corrosive gases. • In filtering molten metals.
dross or slag from
• As lightweight radiant insulation in furnaces. • As reinforcing filler for ceramic materials. • As catalyst support. • As an ion exchange medium. • As high-temperature electrical insulating material. These are some, but far from all, of its uses. Haveg is already expanding research and development on these applications. Now, however, the new division is concentrating on rocket and missile business, a sure market for the next few years, and will use funds from this business to develop nonmilitary markets.
QUALITY MCA Still Opposes Sales to Soviet Union Once again the Manufacturing Chemists' Association is strongly urging the Government not to sell key chemical products or production know-how to the Soviet Union. In a letter to Luther B. Hodges, Secretary of Commerce, MCA president John E. Hull says "such sales would not only contribute to the Soviet's military strength but could be used by her in economic warfare, which she has declared openly against the West." General Hull also suggests that the U.S. Government use its influence with other western nations to encourage their support of a similar policy on trade. "We deplore the apparent more liberal policy on the part of other countries in the western world who have made, and are currently making, deals for [chemical] items not permitted by our export policy," General Hull says. MCA suggests that the U.S. get together with other western nations and set up a common policy on the sale of know-how or plants for making key
basic and intermediate chemical products to the Soviets. MCA actively opposed selling advanced chemical know-how to the Soviets during 1958 and 1959, when the Soviets were making requests to buy plants and know-how for synthetic fibers, elastomers, and plastics. How Much. During the fourth quarter of last year, meanwhile, the Department of Commerce granted export licenses to eastern Europe valued at $15.6 million and rejected export licenses valued at $10.6 million. Products approved for export included tire fabric ($2.4 million worth), rubber processing chemicals ($1 million), and synthetic rubber ($891,000). In addition to export licenses, the Commerce Department granted eight applications—none were chemical—and turned down 15 to ship technical data to the Soviet bloc. Technical data denied dealt mostly with carbon black plants and rolling mill equipment. At the same time, 59 export licenses were granted U.S. firms to file patent applications in East European countries. Most of these covered chemical and pharmaceutical processes.
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Ashland Starts Shipping Petroleum Naphthalene These tank cars, each capable of holding 10,000 gallons of molten naphthalene, are among the first to be loaded at Ashland Oil and Refining's new Hydeal unit at the company's Ashland, Ky., refinery. First deliveries were made early this month to such customers as Reichhold, American Cyanamid, Sherwin-Williams, Witco, and Standard Naphthalene Products. The new Ashland plant can turn out 75 to 100 million pounds of naphthalene a year, as well as 6 million gallons of benzene. The hydeal process was developed by Ashland and Universal Oil Products, which handles licensing.
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MARCH
13 f
1961
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Higher Pay Urged for Consultants
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Some of the best qualified engineering firms may turn clown government consulting jobs unless the maximum per diem fee for experts and consultants is raised to 8100. So said Paul H. Robbins, president of the National Society of Professional Engineers, in a letter to the, appropriations committees of both House and Senate. Several prominent consulting engineers have reported that high overhead expenses make consulting work uneconomical at less than $100 per day, Mr. Robbins says. He points to the growing trend toward reducing maximum per diem rates in appropriations measures. In some cases, he adds, appropriations bills have reduced consultants' pay to $50 or $75 a day in agencies where the maximum once was $100. Mr. Robbins points out that statutes creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal Aviation Agency permit payment of a $100 per diem. Sen. Warren Magnuson (D.-Wash.) has introduced a bill (S. 884) which would permit the Commerce Department to increase fees for consultants.
BRIEFS Ethyl Corp. has set up an agreement w i t h Catalysts and Chemicals, Inc.,
Louisville. Ky., under which the two companies will work together on developing a commercial catalyst for use in catalytic converters for automobile exhaust gas.
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Syntex Laboratories has set up a new division, Clark-West, to manage manufacturing and distribution of its nonhormone ethical drugs. One product Clark-West will handle is Aqua Ivy, an oral and injectionable drug for use against poison ivy. This summer, Clark-West plans to market a new higher potency Aqua Ivy tablet.
U.S. Industrial Chemicals is no longer marketing products produced by Food Machinery and Chemical at Fairfield, Md. The products (acetoacetanilide, other acetoacetarylides, ethyl acetoacetate, ethyl benzoylacetate, sodium
ethyl oxalacetate, diethyl oxalate, and diethyl carbonate) are now being marketed directly by Food Machinery. These products have been sold by USI since 1954, when Food Machinery acquired the Fairfield plant from USI.
NEW FACILITIES Dow Chemical's Texas division has
started producing commercial quantities of propylene carbonate at its new facility in Freeport, Tex. Dow has been making pilot plant quantities for several months.
Diamond Alkali has started semicommercial production of isophthaloyl and terephthaloyl chlorides at Greens Bayou, Tex.
Allied Chemical's General Chemical Division is now operating its new phosphoric acid plant at East St. Louis, 111. The plant has a capacity of 50,000 tons per year of wet process acid. Output will be sold to fertilizer companies serving the Midwest.
California Chemical Co.'s Oronite division is building a SI million addition to its Oak Point, La., plant. The new addition wrill be used to manufacture an oil additive used in the company's 500 and 1200 series of lubricating oil additives.
Titanium
Metals
Corp.
of
America
plans to install new facilities to make titanium tubing at its Toronto, Ohio, plant. The facilities will cost S2 million and will allow Titanium to make seamless and welded-and-redrawn tubing ranging from 1 / 2 inch to 3 inches in diameter and up to 30 feet in length.
FINANCE Rexall Drug & Chemical has sold 835 million worth of notes to a group of seven insurance companies. The funds will be used to help pay for Rexall's share of its joint petrochemicals venture with El Paso Natural Gas Products at Odessa, Tex. (C&EN, Dec. 12, 1960, page 34).
