plastics - The customer magazine from BASF 2/2007

Markets and products
electronics: its customer, Paul Reed
Smith – CEO of PRS Guitars – had been
looking far and wide for a new material
for the bridge, which is where the strings
are located. The envisaged material had
to be hard, in any case harder than the
commonly employed brass. It had to be
easy and inexpensive to make. And last
but not least, it had to impart a special
sound to the guitar. “Of course, sound is
not exactly one of the material properties
that we have specified for our products,”
explains Thom. “But preliminary testing
already showed that the sound was absolutely
pure. The customer was enthusiastic
– and we were in business!”
Material with
a special sound
And so a new electric guitar made by PRS
Guitars was launched onto the market:
the Hollowbody I sporting a bridge made
of Catamold. This BASF product has a
decisive advantage since its hardness, its
acoustics and its low-cost production allow
the integration of so-called piezoelectric
pickups. As a result, the tone can be picked
up by the individual strings directly at the
bridge, and this enhances the acoustics of
the instrument. This is a system that PRS
Guitars has now patented. And who knows,
when Latin rock musician Carlos Santana
plays a fantastic virtuoso solo on his guitar
at his next concert, this might even be in
small measure thanks to products that
came from Ludwigshafen …
Further information:
www.plasticsportal.eu/ultraform
www.catamold.com
Background
Powder injection molding with
Ultraform
Catamold ® consists of granules of
metal powder and a binder system
with the plastic Ultraform ® (polyoxymethylene)
as the main component.
The plastic ensures that the metal
powder remains pliable and retains its
shape. In this manner, it can then be
easily processed by powder injection
molding into complex components in
large quantities. Afterwards, a catalyst
is employed to remove the Ultraform,
leaving a residue of just a few percent.
The metal skeleton that is left behind
is then sintered at about 1300°C
[2372°F]. This gives it the quality of a
forged component but it is simpler and
less expensive to produce. Some of the
uses of Catamold include auto parts,
consumer goods such as watches and
jewelry or electronic equipment.
21