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Horgen, Switzerland - June 12, 2007

Dow Europe GmbH  today announced the introduction of AMPLIFY™ GR 380, an advanced adhesive for plastic pipe manufacturers needing to bond multilayer pipes for use in hot and cold water pipe systems.  The new product, a polyethylene compound that expands the Company’s family of AMPLIFY Functional Polymers, combines superb processing characteristics with the excellent adhesion properties and long-term temperature requirements of hot and cold water multilayer pipes.

“A good quality adhesive is not an optional extra for a multilayer pipe – it is essential to the performance of the entire pipe,” said Katja Wodjereck, Dow’s market manager for pipes in Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa.  “With this new adhesive and further exciting adhesive technology yet to come, Dow is demonstrating its commitment to the long-term future of plastics in hot and cold water pipes across Europe.”

The primary application for AMPLIFY™ GR 380 is to bond layers of polar barrier materials, such as ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or epoxy, with layers of non-polar polyethylene in the manufacture of multilayer pipes.  Adhesion is achieved by a chemical reaction between the reactive elements of AMPLIFY™ GR 380 and the polar components of a barrier layer.

“AMPLIFY™ GR 380 has been specially developed to complement the performance of our DOWLEX™ PE-RT (polyethylene of raised temperature) in plastic multilayer pipes, but it can also be used to bond other ethylene-based polymers in such pipes,” said Detlef Schramm, Dow’s application technology leader for plastic pipes in Europe.

AMPLIFY™ GR 380 has been designed with the long-term temperature requirement of hot and cold water pipe applications in mind. It was tested to resist thermal oxidation based on EN ISO 2578 at the malfunction temperature of 100° C as specified in ISO 10508 in classes 4/5. The malfunction time at 100° C is 100 hours and the adhesive was tested for more than 10,000 hours at this temperature resulting in a factor of 100.  Tests conducted by Dow also show that AMPLIFY™ GR 380 can be extruded using conventional techniques with melt temperatures between 180° C and 230° C.

For more information about AMPLIFY™ GR 380 and Dow’s full range of plastics for use in pipes, please visit www.plasticpipes.com.

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For Editorial Information:

Tania Cook
The Dow Chemical Company
+41 44 728 2481

Simon Dibb
Porter Novelli
+32 (0)2 413 03 40
simon.dibb@porternovelli.com