Solvay Advanced Polymers, LLC, announced today that its Greenville, S.C. plant has earned ISO/TS 16949 registration – the automotive industry’s top quality management system standard for suppliers. At the South Carolina plant, the company manufactures a full range of Torlon® polyamide-imide products including glass-reinforced, carbon fiber-reinforced, and wear-resistant grades for automotive and other key markets such as industrial, semiconductor, aerospace, and oil and gas recovery.

ISO/TS 16949 is increasingly being adopted globally by automotive manufacturers and suppliers, according to Solvay Advanced Polymers. Along with other key manufacturing and plant operations, the standard examines quality planning, shipping and receiving, raw materials handling, control plans, production parts approval processes (PPAPs), and failure mode effects analysis (FMEA). ISO/TS 16949 also incorporates the requirements of ISO 9001:2000, a standard for which the Greenville plant earned its registration in 2003.

Torlon PAI’s key benefits include outstanding mechanical properties at high operating temperatures up to 275 deg. C; excellent resistance to wear, creep, and automotive fluids; and exceptional compressive strength and sealing capability. The material is often specified as a replacement for steel, bronze and other metals for automotive uses such as transmission seal rings, thrust washers, check valves, solenoid bushings, and brake components. Similar applications are found in heavy-duty equipment such as agricultural machinery and off-road vehicles.

About Solvay Advanced Polymers
Solvay Advanced Polymers, LLC, produces more plastics with more performance than any other company in the world. This gives design engineers worldwide more ways to solve top design challenges in automotive, healthcare, electronics, aerospace and other demanding industries. Learn more at www.solvayadvancedpolymers.com.

SOLVAY is an international industrial Group active in Chemistry. It offers a broad range of products and solutions that contribute to improving quality of life. The Group is headquartered in Brussels and employs about 19,000 people in 50 countries. In 2009, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 8.5 billion. Solvay is listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Brussels (NYSE Euronext: SOLB.BE - Bloomberg: SOLB.BB - Reuters: SOLBt.BR). Details are available at www.solvay.com.

Press Contact:
Joseph Grande
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