DESIGN | INNOVATION
Polymer firms take their seat next to designers
Polymer producers and compounders are finding ways to collaborate with hard-to-reach designers who are influential in furniture and consumer products. David Eldridge surveys their work
Polymer materials companies have been working more closely with product designers in recent years as they have come to appreciate the role designers play in the development of new plastic products. Old assumptions that industrial designers are only involved in the aesthetics of a new product have been replaced by recognition that they can be influential in many stages of a plastic product’s genesis: concept, user research, design iteration, material selection, design-for-manufacturing, toolmaking, production and sometimes the product’s launch. Various polymer producers, compounders and colour masterbatch suppliers are now more active in their engagement with designers and using their collaboration as a showcase for their materials. Product designers can be hard to reach. The majority of independent firms are staffed with no more than ten people, and even the largest firms employ only 75-150 people. It is no easier to
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initiate contact with design teams in multinational groups, as their work is kept tightly under wraps by brand owners for reasons of confidentiality. Nonetheless, plastics exhibitions such as the K and Fakuma fairs can lure designers from their studios as they search out the latest developments in materials and injection moulding for a specific design project or to provide inspiration to fuel new design ideas. Covestro used its stand at Fakuma 2017 as a platform for communicating with potential project partners, including designers. The group had a Sample Bar on its stand at which visitors could see and touch hundreds of samples displaying the variety of colours, effects and surfaces of its wide range of polycarbonates, polyu- rethanes and other materials. Explaining the importance of two-way dialogue with designers, Covestro said: “Designers play an important role on the road to a marketable product. They capture ideas and make the components both
Main image: The frame structure and seat shell of the Belleville chair from Vitra are gas injection
moulded using BASF Ultramid B3EG6 SI polyamide
March 2018 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 65
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