SK Institute of Technology (“SKIT”) was granted KT Mark (new technology certificate) for its low-hardness TPV manufacturing technology for car door sealing in the awarding ceremony held on March 14, 2005 at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The low-hardness TPV of SKIT, which was certified as a new technology, is a thermoplastic resin with outstanding grease and heat resistance. The SK Corporation (“SK Corp”)’s proprietary bridge technology is applied to this to overcome the current limit of hardness of existing TPV products, which remains at 50. Therefore, this TPV can replace PVC, which can’t be recycled and causes pollution, since it is an environmental-friendly material.

Lab chief Gyu-jong Lee, who led the development of low-hardness TPV, explained that the new product has dramatically enhanced machinability of existing TPV and overcome the minimum hardness of TPV, so that it has laid the foundation to replace the rubber market as a whole.

With this technology, TPV products with a wide range of hardness can be produced, say, ranging from 20 to 90. Its applications include automobile rubber devices (weather strip, bellow, tube, etc.), rubber materials for electric and electronic goods (electric line insulator, feet of electronic goods, refrigerator gasket, etc.), and rubber replacement in construction and industrial areas (window gasket, piston tip, grip, etc.).

Hae-won Lee, a senior researcher of the Korea Chemical Research Institute (KCRI), stated that SK Corp is the only company in the world which has the capability to produce low-hardness TPV, and as the first product, it is anticipated to serve as an environment friendly material, replacing rubber. He confidently said that more product families would be developed targeting the global market.