Low-Density Lightweight Polyurethane Slipper System

Tekpol, the polyurethane systems house within Ravago Petrokimya Üretim A.Ş., serves primary applications in footwear, rigid, C.A.S.E. and flexible systems. In the footwear product group, polyurethane systems enable the production of winter, summer, sports and spring soles, as well as single and dual-density occupational safety sole systems. As a new development under the Ravago Petrokimya Üretim A.Ş. Tekpol umbrella, work on a low-density lightweight polyurethane slipper system has been completed and the system has been brought to market. The slipper system we present as a polyurethane systems house comprises three components with the following product codes: • Evosole Polyol 8625 • Evocat 8625-190 • Evosole Isocyanate FW813 As a three-component package, the newly developed slipper system possesses numerous advantages designed to meet customer expectations. These are outlined primarily as follows: • Low density • Lightness • Leather-like surface • Soft internal structure • High elasticity • Good tear elongation • Durability • Non-shrinking, stable structure With all these advantages, our slipper system, as shown in Image 1, is suitable for use in both summer and winter applications and enables both applications with a single system. The use of a single system for summer and winter slippers also provides ease of use as an advantage for customers. When the technical properties provided by the slipper system are evaluated under laboratory conditions, the results obtained are as shown in Table 1. The results of these tests conducted in the Ravago R&D Center Laboratory were obtained using a 6000 rpm mechanical mixer. As shown in Table 1, while maintaining the system's technical properties and quality, and without compromising the stability of the finished product or encountering any shrinkage problems, it is possible to achieve a molded density of 280 kg/m³. In this way, a slipper system has been created that is low-density, lightweight and simultaneously maintains integrity in terms of technical properties. In addition to technical properties, the slipper system demonstrates positive results when evaluated in terms of mechanical properties and performance. Tear elongation values are 220%, which is higher than competitors and is intended to meet market expectations. The polyurethane material tear elongation tests shown in Image 2 have been completed in the Ravago R&D Center laboratories in accordance with ISO 37 standard. This newly developed system has passed the flexing test, one of the most important properties desired in a footwear article, with high performance in accordance with TS EN ISO 20344 standard. While the flexing test expectation in the slipper system is not as high as it would be on a standard shoe sole as required by customers, the developed low-density lightweight polyurethane slipper system has delivered quite successful results at 50,000 step levels. When this three-component slipper system is used, the final product exhibits a leather-like structure on the outer layer and a soft spongy structure inside, providing a comfortable slipper for the end user (Image 3). With all these technical advantages, the low-density lightweight polyurethane slipper system has been developed in the Ravago Petrokimya Üretim A.Ş. R&D Center and is being presented as a quality polyurethane system designed to meet the expectations of our customers and end users (Image 4). Özlem Ergün / R&D Engineer / Ravago Petrokimya Üretim A.Ş.