polymerguru

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share Innovative fibre technology could revolutionize building construction With the Texoversum, Reutlingen University has put into operation a training and innovation center for the textile industry that is unique in Europe. The almost 2,000 square meter textile-like façade of the new building also causes a sensation architecturally: It charmingly combines the innovative power of this industry with the 160-year tradition of Reutlingen as a textile location. The highlight: The components were wound from fibres that are fixed with a special plastic resin. The façade of the Texoversum is just one example of a brand new technology that could completely revolutionize the construction industry. The sophisticated structure was designed on the computer and is based on carbon fibres wound by robots. Similar to networks in nature, for example in spider webs, beetle wings or palm leaves, the fibre structures are also very lightweight, but at the same time highly resilient, ...

  Polyimide: I have completed an assignment on the Polyimide applications and market demand and forecast when comparing with the existing grades for European market for a well-reputed market research company and shared my insights on Polyimide.And also share inputs on existing trends,pricing and comparison over other competitors in the global market. I have covered an overview of the landscape of the market, key players of dominance with their established grades in various segements in the European market and their market share mainly in the European market. Follow: http://polymerguru.blogspot.com #polyimide #marketresearch #europe #pricingstrategy #automotiveindustry #aviation

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: Time for some really basic "LEFM" (linear elastic fracture mechanics). Fracture Mechanics essentially assumes all materials or parts do contain "defects". It is a reasonable assumption if you think about dust and all sorts of contaminants (including fillers with poor surface treatments) present in our polymer plants, compounding facilities and molding shops. If a defect is small enough, a tensile stress (steady or dynamic) will trigger a relatively stable and slow crack growth rate. This is captured by the exponent "m", i.e. the slope of the linear region II of the graph shown above. When the crack "a" reaches some critical length, the stress intensity factor K reaches the value K1c where the crack enters the unstable crack growth region, quickly leading to part failure. Some polymers are good because the stable crack growth is really slow (low value of "m"), some polymers are good because they survive despi...

Covestro’s Newark, Ohio, polycarbonate compounding facility has achieved ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) PLUS certification, increasing availability of the company’s mass balanced polycarbonate products in the U.S. This achievement comes on the heels of the certification of #Covestro’s Baytown, Texas, facility earlier this year and marks a major step forward in the path towards circularity for polycarbonates in the U.S. Contain up to 89% Attributed Bio-circular Raw Materials: Makrolon® polycarbonate, which is compounded at Covestro’s Newark facility, is a high-grade plastic used in the automotive, electronics and healthcare industries, among others. With its ISCC PLUS certification, the site will now be able to manufacture Makrolon® RE grades, which are renewable attributed products. RE grades are produced using existing infrastructure, can contain up to 89% attributed bio-circular raw materials and have the same physical characteri...

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share Some people have an over simplistic perception of polymer melt shear viscosity. In a start-up flow, where you suddenly go from rest to a constant shear-rate (we do that every time when we fill a mold and the screw goes from rest to the prescribed velocity !), the polymer is initially fully entangled and unoriented. As flow starts, within a time comparable to the polymer relaxation time (usually a fraction of a second for a molding grade), you reach a new equilibrium state with less entanglements and more orientation. This lower entanglement state comes with a lower viscosity. So, although our polymer is not "thixotropic", the viscosity is always a bit time dependent. This is why in a capillary rheometer, we need a few seconds to get a stable reading after changing piston speed, by the way. This excess viscosity at start-up means that your molding machine will feel this higher resistance to flow when the screw starts moving. In a hydraulic machine, ...

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: New resin systems from Sugar cane : Last week, we pultruded a brand new resin that will be a much safer option to replace phenolic resins. Crestafire P1-8001 made beautiful test parts. What makes this resin so unique and special is that it takes tremendous amounts of energy to get it to burn without any halogens, no antimony and no FR fillers! If you do get this resin to burn, you end up with sugar, not the toxic brew of by products from phenolic and other resins… You see Crestafire P1-8100 is derived from sugar cane! Another example of how Scott Bader is looking to make the world a better place. This resin is also available in vacuum infusionable grade. We are hoping the testing will be complete by Q1 2024 and we will be bringing this exciting new resin to the market. Mark Kralik and Nicolas Nourry along with the Pulflex team, all did an amazing job! Source:Jeffrey Starcher-Scott Bader #scottbader   #biobasedresin #flameretardant

New coating protects nitrogen-fixing bacteria from heat and humidity, which could allow them to be deployed for large-scale agricultural use. Production of chemical fertilizers accounts for about 1.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. MIT chemists hope to help reduce that carbon footprint by replacing some chemical fertilizer with a more sustainable source bacteria. Bacteria that can convert nitrogen gas to ammonia could not only provide nutrients that plants need, but also help regenerate soil and protect plants from pests. However, these bacteria are sensitive to heat and humidity, so it’s difficult to scale up their manufacture and ship them to farms. To overcome that obstacle, MIT chemical engineers have devised a metal-organic coating that protects bacterial cells from damage without impeding their growth or function. In a new study, they found that these coated bacteria improved the germination rate of a variety of seeds, including vegetables such as corn and bok c...

The BioSupPack project has recently started a new project year aiming to develop packaging solutions based on  #polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) derived from beer production residues and demonstrating a feasible recycling process for these  #biobasedplastics  to ensure that resources remain in circulation. Bringing together 17 partners from 8 countries, #BioSupPack receives funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) and Horizon 2020 framework. Enzymatic Recycling for PHA-based Packaging Solutions: Coordinated by AIMPLAS and with a budget of EUR 8.8 million, BioSupPack is developing a demonstration process for the production and #enzymaticrecycling of environmentally safe, superior and versatile rigid #packagingsolutions based on the new #PHA family of biobased polymers. The main goal of BioSupPack is to deliver novel, cost-competitive and versatile bio-based packaging solutions based on PHA, for the packaging of #food , cosmetics, home...