DE'LONGHI, a home appliance company headquartered in Treviso, Italy, recently selected BASF's Ultrason® E 3010 MR material for use in the piston of the brewing unit of its new coffee machine Magnifica Ecam 22. This polyethersulfone (PESU) material can withstand high temperatures and steam up to 180°C, and can maintain good mechanical properties and excellent dimensional stability at various temperatures for a long time, effectively extending the service life of the coffee machine. In addition, it also meets DE'LONGHI's strict requirements for food contact and food safety, material ease of processing and subsequent assembly. The injection molding material is specially optimized for the demolding of complex parts. Because its mechanical properties are hardly affected by temperature and do not contain any harmful ingredients, the overall performance of Ultrason® E 3010 MR is better than materials such as polyetherimide (PEI) commonly used in coffee machines.
DE'LONGHI chose Ultrason® because it needs a piston material that can withstand the test of high pressure and high temperature steam in the coffee making process for a long time during the service life of the coffee machine, and the parts made of Ultrason® E It can be repeatedly exposed to high-temperature steam, and still maintain good transparency and high mechanical strength. Tests carried out according to different ISO standards show that Ultrason® E 3010 MR still maintains excellent mechanical properties and exhibits high stress crack resistance even after 2000 repeated steam sterilizations at 134°C. These features help customers use BASF's simulation tool Ultrasim® for mold flow analysis and develop an ideal mold for the part.
Ultrason® E 3010 MR high-performance thermoplastic has been approved for food contact applications in accordance with European and American regulations and does not contain any harmful ingredients. Ruena Moro, DE'LONGHI European plastic raw material purchaser, said: "We are very satisfied with the characteristics of BASF Ultrason® in the important parts of DE'LONGHI coffee machines. The brewing unit is the core of all coffee machines, and BASF's materials can Help it achieve excellent performance. The upper piston is a very complex technical part, it needs to withstand extremely high stress in a very challenging environment, and we also have higher requirements for its continuous use performance."
This high-viscosity material can be processed by an injection molding process—even for the production of parts with complex geometries—such as upper pistons with elongated screws embedded in thin walls. This means that no air gap can occur when filling long runners. The good mechanical properties of Ultrason® ensure that the screwed piston can be firmly installed on the brewing unit. Georg Graessel of BASF's Ultrason® Global Business Development Department said: "The requirements for household appliances are not only complex and diverse, but they are also uncompromising in performance. We are very proud to successfully cooperate with DE'LONGHI to meet its demanding requirements for complex parts. This cooperation fully proves that with the Ultrason® series of products, we can provide customers with materials with ideal performance, stable and high-quality supply and corresponding technical services to help build safe and durable home appliances."
Ultrason® is the trade name of BASF's polyethersulfone (Ultrason® E), polysulfone (Ultrason® S) and polyphenylsulfone (Ultrason® P) series of products. This high-performance material can be used to manufacture lightweight components, water filtration membranes, and components that need to be in contact with hot water and food in the electronics, automotive and aerospace industries. Thanks to its excellent material properties, Ultrason® can widely replace various thermoset materials, metals and ceramics.