Hostaform® POM

Hostaform® polyoxymethylene copolymer delivers a combination of outstanding wear resistance, long-term fatigue resistance, toughness and creep resistance with excellent resistance to moisture, solvents and strong alkalis.

The Hostaform® product and trademark were established in Europe in 1963 and resulted from a joint venture between the then Celanese Corporation and Hoechst AG. Hostaform POM is comparable to Celcon® acetal copolymer. It is a highly crystalline engineering thermoplastic resins whose balance of properties and ease of processability offer performance and cost advantages over many other materials. Hostaform POM offers high strength and rigidity over a broad temperature range, low wear, toughness (down to –40°C) and resistance to repeated impact. Hostaform products have excellent dimensional stability, long-term creep resistance, long-term fatigue resistance and outstanding resistance to moisture, chemicals and fuels - including fuels with high methanol content. It is widely used in injection molding and is also processable by other conventional techniques such as extrusion, compression molding, rotomolding and blow molding. Hostaform POM is also suitable for 2-component hard-soft molding with thermoplastic elastomers including SEBS, a styrene based elastomer.

Hostaform POM can be supplied as unfilled polymer of varying viscosities and as specialty grades which include glass reinforced, impact modified, UV resistant, static dissipative, low wear, and laser markable products.  Other specialty grades such as Hostaform XAP (low odor), XF (resistance against hot diesel fuels) and MR130ACS (improved resistance against chlorine and aggressive cleaner), further extend the portfolio. Most grades of Hostaform POM comply with FDA and EU regulations (2002/72 EC), and drinking water testing has been conducted successfully at WRAS, KTW and NSF for standard Hostaform products. Medical technology (MT™) grades that comply with USP Class VI guidelines are excellent candidates for dry powder inhalers, insulin pens and other medical devices. For Hostaform MT grades, a Drug Master File (No. 11559) is active. All Hostaform products are available in a wide array of colors which do not contain heavy metals i.e. Cd, Hg, Pb, Cr(VI), and virtually all colors can be matched.

Because they are so versatile, Hostaform products are used in numerous applications such as gears, springs, clips and gaskets in fuel system components, toys, washing machines, electric toothbrushes and shavers, faucets and safety belt buckles. Hostaform is also used to produce sheets, rod and slab stock shapes that can be machined with very tight tolerances.