MAXAM
Nitrocellulose´s value
2010.03.15
Press room - News - Nitrocellulose´s value
Nitrocellulose is necessary to develop many of our daily life elements. Packages, sellotape, cardboard, aluminium and gunpowder would not be possible without this product.
In 1833, the chemists Braconnot and Pelouze made nitric acid and paper’s cellulose fibres react, and nitrocellulose’s evolution has been non stop. This first product was highly unstable, so throughout the 19thCentury its composition was improved to achieve new fields of nitrocellulose’s application, such as to manufacture billiard balls and photographic film. It was the 20th Century when these uses were increased and in 1923 nitrocellulose of a low viscosity property was manufactured. This advance, together with the creation of industrial solvent, made manufacturing high content in solid and quick drying lacquers to increase enormously when introduced into the automobile industry. MAXAM started to produce this product at the end of the 19th Century at La Cantabrica factory, later Guturribay, close to today’s facilities in Galda- cano (Biscay, Spain), whose production life continued until 2006.
Two types, different uses
There are two kinds of nitrocellulose: industrial and energetic. The first one has its main field of application in the civilian sphere, manufacturing lacquers, inks and surfacing products in general. These are relatively mature products if considering when they appeared in the arket, and throughout their existence they have improved thanks to the benefits of other filmogenic resins. On the other hand, energetic nitrocellulose is used to manufacture gunpowder and explosives.
