"Durastar" polymer improves "kid resistance" of plastic toy bins used by day care centers

04-Mar-2002

It's a safe bet that tenacious toddlers in day care centers everywhere have probably at some time or other wrecked havoc on a toy bin. Fortunately, many of the toy bins found in day care centers are made by Community Playthings of Ulster Park, N.Y. They are designed to withstand the most determined assaults because they are molded of Eastman Chemical Company's DuraStar® polymer.

"These bins can take quite a beating," says Justin Peters, Community Playthings purchasing agent. "They are sold by catalog exclusively to group child care facilities. Sometimes, kids toss or drop heavy toys into them. They can also get pushed and pulled around in the course of normal play, so they need to be stable as well as sturdy." This is one problem that DuraStar® polymer helped solve. "We used to mold these toy bins in a styrene-butadiene resin, and we had a serious problem with the bottoms warping," explains Peters. "The rounded bottoms made them unsightly and reduced the capacity of the bins. With DuraStar® polymer, there is no warping thus eliminating this problem." The toy bin is approximately 9 inches wide by 12 inches long. It is available in both a 3-inch-deep and a 6-inch-deep model. Both have a rolled lip at the top for additional rigidity. "Switching to Eastman's polymer eliminated stress-cracking of the lip, which used to be a problem," notes Peters. "It also gives us a harder, more durable surface with higher impact resistance, so even if a wooden block impacts it with an edge or a corner, it is not likely to damage the toy bin."

Higher clarity was also a major factor in selecting DuraStar® polymer because kids need to be able to see what is in the bin and how full it is before attempting to take it off a shelf to avoid accidental spills and injuries," explains Peters. "Also, most day care centers pride themselves on being 'bright and airy' and the polymer outstanding UV resistance prevents it from becoming cloudy with age." Processability was also an important consideration. "The melt flow characteristics of DuraStar® polymer are such that it is very easy to mold relatively deep parts," says Peters. "This is especially important in the case of our 6-inch-deep model." "DuraStar® polymers offer an excellent balance of properties," says Courtland Jenkins, an Eastman business manager, "including outstanding chemical resistance, so they can be used for parts exposed to solvents and cleaning chemicals, for example. They also offer ease of processing and fast cycle times, making them ideal for a broad range of injection molding applications."

The polymer is available in a variety of grades, each with a slightly different balance of properties designed to meet the needs of different applications. All offer outstanding ease of processing and chemical resistance.

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