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Products

Advancell is a family of acrylic shells, commonly used for foam, adhesion, and texturing applications. Our premiere product family is Advancell Expandable Microspheres or Advancell EM.

Particle Grade
Grade EML101 EMH204 EHM302 EHM303 EM306 EM307 EM403 EM406 EM501 EM504
Average Particle Size 14±3 40±10 20±5 30±5 26±3 40±10 28±5 30±5 26±5 17±5
Expansion Start Temperature (Ts,℃) 125±10 115±10 135±10 125±10 140±10 120±10 165±10 150±10 170±10 170±10
Maximum Expansion Temperature (Tmax, ℃) 160±10 165±10 160±10 160±10 170±10 170±10 200±10 190±10 210±10 200±10
True Specific Gravity After Expansion 0.017±0.005 0.013±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.013±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.016±0.005 0.020±0.005
Master Batch Grade
Grade P403M1 P501E1 P504E1
Average Particle Size 28±5 26±5 17±5
Expansion Start Temperature (Ts,℃) 165±10 170±10 170±10
Maximum Expansion Temperature (Tmax, ℃) 200±10 210±10 200±10
*Base Carrier Material EMMA PE PE

*Can be prepared in base carrier material other than EMMA, PE.

ADVANCELL EM

High-Quality Expansion Effect

Advancell EM consists of thermo-expandable microspheres (tiny plastic spheres) containing a low-boiling-point liquid hydrocarbon inside a thermoplastic polymer shell. When heated, the shell softens and the hydrocarbon inside suddenly expands, forming micro-balloons. Mixing Advancell EM with a resin base material adds a variety of desirable characteristics and features to the material, such as reduced weight and enhanced flexibility. The expansion start temperature and cell size can be optimized by selecting an appropriate grade, which is one of the unique features of this product.

Advantages Over Conventional Chemical Foaming Agent

Since Advancell EM is composed of shells (polymer cells), the micro-balloons feature an independent, closed-cell structure. As a result, Advancell EM offers many advantages over a chemical foaming agent made mainly of ADCA (azodicarbonamide).

Thanks to Sekisui’s patented particle dispersion technology, expansion of Advancell EM is more uniform than that of conventional polymer cells of the same type because of the sharp particle size distribution, thus producing a smooth and refined finish. Since Advancell EM maintains a constant amount of heat necessary for expansion and stabilizes the expansion start temperature, it is easier to control the overall processing temperature.

Advancell EM

Uniform micro-balloons result in:

  • Formation of uniform cells
  • Smooth, refined finish
  • Reduction of expansion loss requiring a small amount of Advancell EM to be added
  • Easy to control processing temperature

Conventional (Polymer Cell Type)

Non-uniform expansion results in:

  • Formation of irregular cells
  • Rough finish
  • Generation of expansion loss due to unexpanded particles
  • Difficult to control processing temperature

Advancell EM

Chemical Foaming Agent