ICOD’s Mission is to provide our customers with an easy and proven approach to global sourcing
My 39 years of marketing and sales experience in the plastics and polymer related industries, our roster of associates, and our partnerships with ChemCeed, Beeline, PMI, Zochem, and HPL Additives come together to bring a level of concentrated focus on meeting your sourcing needs.
Our Story
Icod de los Vinos, meaning ‘the local wine,’ is a town located in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands – Spain. The town is 230 meters above sea level, and has almost 10km of shoreline running along the northern coast of Tenerife and is surrounded by a lush and fertile valley responsible for producing many of the islands crops. Idyllic cobble stone streets pave the way for tourists to explore and enjoy on foot, and offer views of the volcanic mountain Teide, the highest point on the islands.
Icod’s main tourist attraction is the Drago Milenario or the Dragon Tree, which is reputed to be over a thousand years old. The dracos trees only grow in the region and do not produce annual rings with which to tell their ages, but is the tree that remains the long-time symbol of Icod.
A Look at Azodicarbonamide
Foaming agents, also known as chemical blowing agents or (CBA), can be used in all conventional plastics processes including extrusion, calendering , injection molding, coatings, rotational and slush molding and many others. One of the advantages of foamed plastics are the reduction in density, savings in material costs, improved thermal and electrical isulative properties, increased strength to weight ratio and the elimination of shrinkage, warpage and sink marks in injection molded parts. ICOD offers Azodicarbonamide, a widely use chemical blowing agent in both the plastics and rubber industries. This material is a yellow-orange powder which decomposes exothermically at 400degrees F, its 220cc/g of gas is released accounting for about 30% of weight of the agent. The gas comprised of 65% nitrogen and a mixture of other gases dissolved into the polymer matrix to form a foamed product. Azodicarbonamide is approved for use by the FDA for several food contact uses including sealing gaskets under 21 CFR 175,300, 177,210, 177,2600 and 178,3010, it is use as a food maturing agent under 21CFR 172,806. Factors in the proper AZO particle size selection are very important in order to best match the decomposition temperature to the polymer processing range. The average particle size diameter of AZO measured in microns can range from 2 to 20 microns and plays a key role in the polymer to be foamed as well as the process to be used. A fine particle AZO (2 microns) decomposes at lower temperatures than a coarser material (15 microns), medium particle size AZO (3 microns) is the most widely use for the majority of the applications. AZO can be activated to release its gas at lower temperatures, and ICOD can discuss with you various additives available for this purpose