In construction, the devil is in the details. A small part can ruin everything if deficient, for example, a glazing seal to prevent water leakage.
Santoprene TPV grades from Celanese (previously belonging to ExxonMobil)* come with all-weather resistance and long-lasting sealing performance for windows, door seals and gaskets, both in residential and in commercial buildings. With its unique combination of rubber performance and thermoplastic processing, Santoprene TPV is the construction and glazing seal gasket material of choice for long-term reliability in functionality.
Throughout the years, many impressive architectural landmarks have been built using Santoprene TPV. Some of these buildings are shown below:
Pictures are courtesy of the ExxonMobil Coorporation.
UOB Plaza in Singapore
A particularly interesting case is that of the UOB Plaza in Singapore. This office building was built in 1996 and was one of the three tallest skyscrapers in the city for many years.
During its construction, Santoprene TPV 591-65W175 was used for the curtain wall sealing. 22 years later, the tower was retrofitted with new seals extruded from the current Santoprene TPV 121-67W175 grade for window profiles. ExxonMobil took this opportunity to examine the old profiles and compare them to the newly fitted seals. The test done at ExxonMobil’s Shanghai Technology Center (STC) confirmed the original UOB profiles remained remarkably similar in their retained properties to the new Santoprene TPV 121-67W175 profiles, although they have been exposed for 22 years to various external elements, like heat, moisture, UV radiation, etc.
Even after such a long period of extended wear and tear, the original Santoprene TPV profiles were shown to still deliver very good tensile and elongation results. In fact, they are almost identical to new materials and seem completely unaffected by the passage of time.
Click here to download the full case study on the UOB Plaza Tower, with all technical data included.
Bjørn Thorsen – distributor of Santoprene TPV
Santoprene TPV combines the characteristics of vulcanized rubber with the processing ease of thermoplastics. It offers sealing solutions that are both durable and attractive for a variety of market segments such as automotive, building & construction, consumer products, industrial, healthcare and medical.
Bjørn Thorsen A/S is the distributor of Santoprene TPV in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Baltic countries, as well as in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. For more information about this material, please contact our Sales Manager Mikko Långström at mol@bjorn.thorsen.com.
*This post was updated in January 2023
About the Bjørn Thorsen A/S group (BTG)
The Bjørn Thorsen group (BTG) is built around the privately-owned Bjørn Thorsen A/S distributor. Its core team focuses on sales of a wide range of products from leading chemical manufacturers to Northern European customers active in diverse end uses in Automotive, Coating, Construction, Industrial, Medical, etc. For more information regarding the distribution portfolio, visit www.bjorn-thorsen.com.
In recent years, BTG has increasingly acted as true solution provider, leveraging its considerable application and processing technology know-how, together with flexible and efficient logistics services from warehouses in several European and other locations around the world. This broader capability is reinforced by the development expertise of its affiliates, Customized Compound Solutions A/S (CCS), Nordic Grafting Company A/S (NGC) and Nordic Formulation Technology A/S (NFT) that complement BTG’s offering with their own ranges of customized alloys, compounds, reactive polymers, dispersions and solutions, available globally in response to individual needs. Through its recent acquisition of Digital Serigraphic Technologies A/S (DST), the group is also engaged in the development and commercialization of innovative and flexible solutions for the transfer industry with a unique combination of dedicated materials used in digital printing. Find out more about BTG affiliates on their websites: www.ccs-nordic.com, www.ngc-nordic.com and www.dst-digital.com.
