additives feature | Natural fi bres Last year, the licence was extended to North
America, and Sonae is currently looking for a suitable production location. The company says that it has identifi ed a potential partner. In the meantime, it has signed an agreement with a US Midwest distribution/ logistics partner, Lumbermen’s. There are also plans to enter the Asian market in the medium term. Chambonnet points out that the Woodforce produc-
tion process consumes far less energy than that of glass fi bre production. Wood is sourced locally within a radius of 100 km from the company’s plant. Thermo- plastics reinforced with Woodforce are also claimed to have a recyclability “far superior” to that of glass fi bre reinforced compounds. After two cycles, Woodforce retains a much higher level of mechanical properties than glass fi bre compounds. Woodforce is said to be very easy to dose on
conventional compounding lines, on which it can be used as supplied with standard dosing equipment. The free-fl owing pellets have none of the feeding issues usually associated with natural fi bres with low bulk density. The supplier recommends feeding Woodforce with a side feeder port into the molten polymer to limit the wood fi bre thermal degradation. It says a key attribute of Woodforce is that it does not require severe mixing extrusion conditions to fully release the dice into individual fi bres. Woodforce is available in two grades, one containing 5-10% moisture, the other containing under 2% and suitable for compounding operations that do not have any continuous drying equipment. Because wood fi bres are much softer than glass, wear on equipment is reduced. Sonae Indústria claims compounding equip- ment life will be approximately 20% longer. The supplier says that its production process
Woodforce supplies wood fi bres in easy to handle cubes
guarantees that Woodforce dice perform consistently, and are contaminant-free with stable fi bre sizes and constant moisture content year-round. Woodforce includes a dispersant in order to obtain an optimal dispersion in the matrix, “so that bio-sourced reinforce-
Comparison of properties of PP reinforced with glass and Woodforce
ment no longer means inconsistent performance and questionable aesthetics.” Wood fi bre allows a signifi cant weight reduction of
reinforced plastics with equal mechanical properties relative to similar applications with glass or minerals. Wood fi bre has a density of around 1.4 g/cm3
, compared
with 2.4 for glass fi bre and 2.7 for talc. At equal mechanical properties, Woodforce reinforced parts can weigh as much as 15% less than glass reinforced ones, the company claims. Several compounders are already offering commer-
cial products based on Woodforce, including Inno-Comp in Hungary. Balázs Kugler, sales engineer at Inno- Comp, highlights the excellent mechanical properties of the compounds, which at 30% loadings compare very favourably with compounds fi lled with similar levels of talc. “There is signifi cant difference between wood fi bre reinforced injection moulded plastics and wood fl our fi lled products,” he says. Compounds fi lled with anything up to 70% of wood fi ller are extremely cheap, he says, “but their properties are far behind.” Sonae Indústria has been working with Italian
twin-screw extrusion equipment supplier ICMA San Giorgio and French simulation software developer Sciences Computers Consultants (SCC) to further develop compounding technology for Woodforce. Giorgio Colombo, managing director at ICMA San
Giorgio, points out the extensive experience of his company in developing and supplying extrusion equipment for the production of natural fi bre reinforced compounds and also thermoformable sheet via direct extrusion. ICMA San Giorgio was one of the fi rst, if not the fi rst, into the market for wood-fi lled polypropylene, following contacts from the Fiat group in the early 1970s. The company also has an on-going project with Milan Polytechnic on optimizing mixes of natural fi bres in thermoplastic compounds. SCC’s Ludovic software can be used for modelling
14 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2014
www.compoundingworld.com
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