For four consecutive years, Milliken technologies have been honored with R&D 100 Awards as some of the most technologically significant of their time. Coined the “Oscars of Invention,” the awards program has recognized revolutionary technologies since 1963.

We’re proud to say that 2016 is shaping up in a similar fashion. Two Milliken innovations have been named finalists for the 2016 R&D 100 Awards: Westex ShieldCXP™ and DeltaMax™ 3000i.

These innovations perfectly embody Milliken’s commitment to provide products that improve health and safety, as well as create a more sustainable world. Read on to discover how.

Westex ShieldCXP™

Open flames and exposure to pyrophoric chemicals put laboratory workers in high-risk situations, and their handling of toxic, corrosive or flammable liquids is routine. In labs, an adequate protective coat must be worn correctly and be a solution to multiple risks. Westex ShieldCXP™ fills this need as a comfortable fabric designed for for daily wear that is at once resistant to flames and inadvertent splash of a variety of solvents and chemicals.

Westex ShieldCXP™ reduces laboratory personal protection equipment from a combination of four single-hazard layers to one simple garment - without compromising comfort. It is the first fabric of its kind to repel a wide variety of acids, bases and organic solvents while maintaining excellent breathability, making it ideal for university and industrial research lab coats. 

DeltaMax™ 3000i

Polypropylene is used in a wide range of applications, from car bumpers to prescription pill vials. To improve its impact resistance, rubber is often added to create heterophasic polypropylene. The three leading performance factors of heterophasic polypropylene are processability, stiffness and impact properties. However, this balance is very difficult to achieve.

When polypropylene is recycled into new products, the balance of processability, stiffness and impact performance needs to be improved to expand its end-use markets. Traditional methods to improve one attribute significantly hinder performance in the remaining attributes. That is where DeltaMax™ 3000i stands out. The novel reactive modifier for polypropylene at once improves the balance of all three performance attributes - processability, stiffness and impact.

Recycled polypropylene significantly benefits from this improvement in the property balance. When you place a yogurt cup in the recycling bin or exchange a dead battery for a new one, the old polypropylene components are recycled into new products, such as paint cans or trim elements for cars. Because of the wide range of sources of recycled polypropylene, the resulting physical properties can be highly varied. Polypropylene recyclers achieve uniformity by adding rubber to improve impact performance and organic peroxide to improve processability. By using DeltaMax™ 3000i in recycled polypropylene, the balance of physical properties can be improved in a cost-effective manner, allowing it to perform as well as new polypropylene. 

Previous Milliken R&D 100 Award Recipients

To date, Milliken has won eight R&D 100 Awards, beginning in 2008 with Millad® NX^TM 8000 and every year since 2012, many years winning two awards. Stay tuned for the winners to be announced in November. 

2008

• Millad® NX^TM 8000: A polypropylene clarifying agent that results in less energy use when making a wide range of products, from deodorant barrels and CD cases to baby bottles and appliance parts

2012

• ResQ^TM: A fabric with a thermal barrier that can reduce the likelihood and severity of burns caused by explosions and fuel fires by up to 50% with twice the tear strength of other flame resistant materials
• Concreate Cloth^TM: A three-dimensional fabric impregnated with a cement mix that is a unique substitute for concrete

2013

• Conceal® Camouflage Technology: A wearable technology applied to textiles designed to camouflage personnel from thermal imaging and other infrared detection devices

2014

• iQ Series^TM Comfort Knit with Amplitude G2 Fabric: A flame-resistant fabric, co-developed by Milliken and Bulwark® FR, which provides flash fire and arc flash protection while delivering qualities of performance wear
• ASSIST Silver: A low-adherent burn care dressing that optimizes ease of use for the clinician and minimizes patient pain

2015

• Milliguard® AOX-1: An antioxidant designed to help the automobile industry meet increasingly rigorous vehicle indoor air quality standards
• Hyperform HPN 210 M: A groundbreaking nucleating agent that improves the mechanical performance of high-density polyethylene