bioplastics | Innovation Right: Nager


IT’s new mouse is made from Corbion’s PLA


heat resistance and balanced mechani- cal properties, together with biodegrada- bility. “The blended properties of PLA and PBS are interesting for various applications, such as food serviceware, food packaging and coffee capsules,” it said. Another company looking for a piece of the PP pie is Biomer in Germany, with its polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). Company founder Urs Hänggi says a customer using one of its formulations based on PHB realized 30% faster cycle times than with PP. “PHB-based resins are prone to be brittle as they have almost no free amorphous mass,” he says. “We were [previously] able to get [unnotched] Charpy values that can compete with PP, but not in notched Charpy. In recent months we managed to equal PP also in notched parts. We now are verifying the lab results and think that by end of summer/early fall we can offer the new grades.” PHB is a member of the family of polyhydroxyal-


kanoates, or PHAs, which are particularly suited to injection moulding. “They don’t require any modification or replacement of the standard equipment in use for standard polymers,” says Marco Astorri, founder of PHA developer Bio-On. In order to develop and demonstrate new applica- tions based on this technology, Bio-On has opened a pre-industrial plant dedicated to PHA formulation and pellet extrusion. The company says it has also estab- lished partnerships for manufacturing and development


with various major private companies, universities and research centres, in design, automotive, toys and food packaging (see Injection World March 2016). It is believed that PHA production at partner manufacturing companies could begin in 2018 or 2019. One partnership, launched in March 2016, is with Italeri, a production and distribution


leader in the toy modelling sector. The agreement includes the manufac-


ture of scale models in a new PHA being developed by Bio-On for toys. “We chose Italeri products because they are very


complex to produce,” says Astorri. “Tolerance is minimal and managing to guarantee such a high quality level will enable us to make future developments in every other item in the sector.” The Minerv PHA Supertoys R&D project launched in


December 2015 is dedicated to all companies around the world working on toy design and aims to create two types of bioplastic by the end of 2017: Minerv PHA Supertoys type R, which is rigid and strong, and Minerv PHA Supertoys type F, which is ductile and flexible (see also Injection World March 2016). Bio-On is also very enthusiastic about the potential


for PHA in microbeads for cosmetics, replacing non-biodegradable plastics that have come under attack in recent years for polluting waterways. The company will begin producing PHA microbeads at a new 1,000 tonnes/year factory near Bologna, Italy, early next year. As well as optimization of material properties, ways


of processing biomaterials form another subject of ongoing research. The Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) is working with others in two research projects focusing on processing charac- teristics of biomaterials. Bjoern Bergmann, Group Leader compounding/


Chart shows the force required to deform the new Ingeo-based formulation cutlery at 90°C is more than PP but less than PS. The new formulation exceeds the toughness requirements for most serviceware applications, NatureWorks says


22 INJECTION WORLD | March/April 2017


extrusion at the Fraunhofer ICT, says that in the EU funded Bugworkers project (co-ordinated by Aimplas) a consortium developed new, cost-competitive and environmentally friendly bio-nanocomposite materials. The materials were based on the combination of a PHB matrix with new chemical structures produced by fermentation culture technology with two types of nanofibres (cellulose whiskers and lignin-based fibres). “The aim was to develop a true alternative to engineer- ing thermoplastics in two main sectors: household appliances, and computers and telecommunications applications,” Bergmann says. One of the key results of the project was the develop-


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