Thermally stable polyoxymethylene compositions

1. A polyoxymethylene composition consisting essentially of:

(a) 95.85 to 99.94 weight percent polyoxymethylene polymer,

(b) 0.4 to 0.6 weight percent of an amine polymer selected from the group consisting of polyacrylamides, polyallylamines, polyacrylic hydrazide, polymethacrylic hydrazide, polyaminoalkyl acrylate, polyaminoalkyl methacrylate, poly vinylalkylamine, and mixtures of these;

(c) 0.008 to 0.08 weight percent of a polyamide having a melting point of about 140° C. to about 240° C. and wherein said melting point ranges between 40° C. below the melting point of (a) to 40° C. above the melting point of (a), and

(d) 0.01 to 4.0 weight percent of an antioxidant, wherein the polyoxymethylene composition, when molded, exhibits:

a tensile creep to 10% strain at 90° C. and 25 MPa pressure of at least 0.32 minutes, as determined according to ASTM D2990;

a time to mold deposit of at least 12 hours; and

a thermally evolved formaldehyde of less than 0.50 percent, as measured at 250° C. for a period of 0.5 hours.

2. The polyoxymethylene composition of claim 1 , wherein (c) is an aliphatic polyamide.

3. The polyoxymethylene composition of claim 2 , wherein the aliphatic polyamide (c) is polyamide 66/610/6 terpolymer.

4. The polyoxymethylene composition of claim 1 , wherein (b) is selected from the group consisting of polyacrylamides, polyallylamines, polyvinylalkylamines, and mixtures of these.

5. The polyoxymethylene composition of claim 1 , wherein the antioxidant is a hindered phenolic antioxidant.