bioplastics | Innovation
normally injection moulded in polycarbonate. The company has said it is considering series production of the Sissi design in PHA, as well as exploring opportunities in other lines for the future. “Using bioplastics is a social commitment,” says Floss president Piero Gandini. It will be interesting to see how Bio-on
Above: Italian lighting firm Floss used Bio-On’s PHA in a limited edition version of its Philip Stark-designed Sissi lamp
fares with its technology as PHA pioneer Metabolix has certainly not found it all plain sailing. Its strategy has now shifted from marketing its Mirel PHA polymers as direct replacements for traditional petrochemical plastics to one focused more on developing copolymer grades to deliver key perfor- mance improvements to polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic compounds for a variety of packaging and consumer applications. Metabolix says PHA brings a number of desirable effects, including increased toughness, to PLA even at loading levels as low as 5%. Mirel grades are currently
being used in food contact and packaging applications. Metabolix sold another part of its bioplastics
portfolio last year – the PHA-based Mvera biodegrad- able and compostable compounds – to Germany’s Akro-Plastic . The Mvera GP1000 Series consists of a range of semi-crystalline polyester injection moulding grades. Akro-Plastic will produce the compounds at its facilities in Germany and has set up a new branch - Bio- Fed - to market them as a biodegradable alternative to PP, PE, PS and ABS. Last October, lactide producer Corbion Purac – which has been seeding the market with PLA polymers produced by some of its customers for some years - announced plans to build its own 75,000 tonne/ year PLA polymer production plant in Thailand, where it already makes lactic acid and lactides. The move is an indication of the company’s confidence in the future for the bioplastic. “There is an attractive demand outlook for PLA, albeit at a lower growth pace than previously
Right: The
casing of the MiFi mobile router is injection
moulded in a
PLA compound by Supla
assumed,” Corbion CEO Tjerk de Ruiter said at the time of the announcement. According to Corbion, worldwide PLA capacity is
almost sold out and demand is growing at a rate of around 15% a year. The company predicts the total PLA market to reach 600,000 tonnes/year by 2025. Those predictions aside, De Ruiter made clear that the investment would only go ahead if it was able to secure at least one-third of plant capacity in committed PLA volumes from customers. Corbion Purac global marketing director François de Bie said last month that the company is still in discus- sions with potential PLA customers and that it had good reason to believe that the capacity commitment would be forthcoming. In the meantime, it continues to explore other strategic alliances. At present, Corbion’s customers in the bioplastics
sector use its lactides in their own PLA production. One of those is Taiwan’s Supla, which is expected to bring PLA production capacity of 10,000 tonnes/year on- stream around the end of this month at its subsidiary Supla (SuQian) New Materials Co in Suqian, China, where it is also installing compounding operations. Supla has developed a new grade of modified PLA which it says fits the requirements of durability, ease of manufacture and assembly, and impact resistance, but also has anti-bacterial properties. Supla 158 is aimed at the mobile consumer electron-
ics sector. Consumer electronics producer Kuender is already using the material in children’s cell phones mar- keted by Dikon Information Technology (Shanghai) Co.
Developing durability Meanwhile, PLA market leader NatureWorks is certainly not resting on its laurels. Frank Diodato, global segment lead durables, says that as long ago as mid-2013 the company broadened its Ingeo product portfolio with the introduction of three novel HP (High Productivity) base grades for injection moulding, as well as extrusion and fibres (see Injection World March 2014). “Since introducing these products, we’ve developed
formulations leveraging Ingeo HP grades that combine with the latest additive technologies for new durable compounds with bio content in some cases exceeding 90%,” Diodato says. “For example, we now have medium and high impact formulations that essentially bracket the applications space.” Diodato says the new compounds “demonstrate
structural integrity exceeding ABS and in some cases show better chemical resistance.” Price, performance, and eco-profile of the new formulations means they are solving numerous application problems in the toy, consumer, electronics, and appliance industries, he
44 INJECTION WORLD | March 2015
www.injectionworld.com
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