Lawn and Garden

A well-kept yard is often a symbol of suburban tranquility – but it takes a lot of work and a lot of equipment - lawn mowers and sprinklers, hedge and border trimmers, snow blowers, hand tools of various types and so on. Ticona can’t help you do the work, but we can and do support those companies that help make the work easier for you by making good tools and power equipment.

Durability, light weight and ultraviolet (UV) light resistance are some of the attributes desired for lawn and garden equipment that Ticona’s engineering resins can help provide. For small fractional horsepower motors, high precision carburetors have been made using Ticona’s Celcon®/Hostaform® acetal copolymers (POM), replacing diecast metal. Because of their excellent wear and friction behavior, acetal copolymer grades are used in some small motor gear applications.

On the outside of powered equipment, Celstran® long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFRT) is used for housings, footrests and carriers, with the base resin being either polypropylene or nylon. In these exterior applications, UV protection can be provided by incorporation of carbon black, but Ticona also has extensive experience and knowhow in the use of chemical UV stabilizers, where a black color is not desired.

The outstanding resistance to hydrocarbons of Celcon®/Hostaform® POM makes it an excellent material of choice for small engine fuel system components, where long term chemical resistance and dimensional stability is required. Unlike nylon, Celcon®/Hostaform® POM does not absorb moisture or change physical properties or dimensions with varying levels of humidity. Celcon®/Hostaform® POM is easily processable by injection molding, blow-molding, and rotational molding, and is suitable for welding by all of the major techniques in use today, including sonic, vibration, spin, hot-plate and laser.  Finally, due to its extremely low permeability to gasoline and alcohol, Celcon®/Hostaform® POM is currently being evaluated for potential use as a permeation barrier in small engine and marine fuel tanks, in order to meet the latest evaporative emissions regulations proposed by California and the US EPA.