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Composites: Perspectives & Provocations The positive consequences of regulating styrene Bio | Dale Brosius Dale Brosius is the head of his own consulting company and the president of Dayton, Ohio-based Quickstep Composites, the U.S. subsidiary of Australia-based Quickstep Technologies (Bankstown Airport, New South Wales), which develops out-of-autoclave curing processes for advanced composites. His career includes a number of positions at Dow Chemical, Fiberite and Cytec, and for three years he served as the general chair of SPE's annual Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition (ACCE). Brosius has a BS in chemical engineering from Texas A&M; University and an MBA. Since 2000, he has been a contributing writer for Composites Technology and sister magazine High-Performance Composites. Technology (MACT) standards, was met initially by strong opposition from the composites industry supply chain, citing large reductions in industry employment and loss of competitiveness against foreign rivals that aren't restricted by such legislation. Having observed the long-term efects of these regulations, I am frmly of the opinion that their consequences have been mostly positive, well beyond worker safety and reduction of VOCs. How? Te quality and performance of composites produced with polyesters and vinyl esters have greatly improved, making composites ever more competitive against traditional materials, such as wood, concrete and metals. I'm not sure these advances would have been achieved if the industry hadn't been pushed out of its comfort zone. Take, for example, the large-scale migration from open moldn 1859, Tomas Austin imported 24 wild rabbits from England ing to closed molding, in particular, the growth of vacuum resin and released them into the Victoria, Australia, countryside to infusion (in all its various forms and acronyms). Rather than thick, provide animals for sport hunting. Te rabbits, doing what rabbits resin-rich parts made by chopper guns and manual rolling, today's notably do, multiplied voraciously, destroying vegetation and crops boats, bridge decks, wind turbine blades and pollution-control sysas they spread north and west across the continent. With no natural tems incorporate structural multidirectional fabrics and use less predators in Australia, the rabbit population rose to an estimated 10 resin, yielding thinner, lighter and stronbillion by the late 1920s. Te world's The performance of composites ger structures. A whole industry has delongest rabbit fence, stretching 1,138 veloped to support large-part infusion, miles/1,831 km from north to south produced with polyesters and resulting in greater competitiveness and in Western Australia, was erected vinyl esters has greatly new jobs. Where open molding is still with only limited success. Although improved, making composites preferred, sprayup is done by robots Austin's intentions might have been following a preprogrammed path. Te good, the outcome was anything but. ever more competitive. result is less part-to-part variation and Such stories exemplify the proverless resin use. Styrene contents of 45 percent used to be standard. bial law of unintended consequences, in which what is believed to Reformulation and new chemistries have reduced this to 25 to 30 be a simple solution to a problem runs into a complex system of inpercent in many cases. Filament winding, pultrusion and compresteractions that leads to a negative outcome. A more recent example sion molding also have beneftted from these new resins. Workers is regulation that drives the production of ethanol as a fuel additive are better protected, fewer VOCs are emitted, and the industry is to reduce oil imports, but then drives up the demand for corn, remore competitive. sulting in higher food prices. We have all of the above thanks to an industry full of talented Some argue that government regulations always have detrimenscientists and engineers, and the future of styrene-diluted compostal consequences, but one only has to visit Shanghai, China, to be ite resins looks positive. But there is still one major battle to fght: reminded that the 1970 Clean Air Act in the U.S. has been a positive the listing of styrene as a suspect carcinogen in the 12th Report on for our major cities. Tere was considerable gnashing of teeth and Carcinogens (ROC), issued by the National Toxicology Program claims of economic peril in the wake of the law's passage, but out (NTP). Fortunately, through the excellent eforts of the American of the law arose a lot of new pollution-control technology, both for Composites Manufacturers Assn. (ACMA, Arlington, Va.) and othautomobiles and smokestack industries. Te composites industry er industry groups, the National Research Council (Washington, beneftted because of the inherent corrosion resistance of polyesters D.C.) has agreed to conduct a peer review of the NTP's listing. Here and vinyl esters used in scrubbers and efuent piping. is a situation where we should not err on the side of caution. Instead, In the composites industry, we have seen several decades of regwe should trust the real science that shows styrene is safe, and I am ulations targeting styrene, out of concern about air pollution and optimistic that the right outcome will prevail. suspected carcinogenic toxicity. Styrene is an extremely important And that rabbit problem in Australia? Trough the introduction and cost-efective reactive diluent for polyester and vinyl ester resof virus-carrying insects starting in the 1950s, today's population is ins, enabling the low viscosities needed to promote fow, sprayabilestimated at 200 million, a 98 percent reduction since 1930. It's one ity and wetout of fberglass and other reinforcements. Legislation, more example of good science and innovative technology meeting starting with California's Proposition 65 and the later U.S. Environthe challenge. | CT | mental Protection Agency's (EPA) Maximum Achievable Control CT oCTober 2013 I 5