NATURAL FIBRES AND FILLERS | REINFORCEMENT
agreement with Ravago Americas in January this year to engineer hemp additives for polymer compounding applications. Hemp-filled plastic compounds are said to be “lighter, cheaper and more sustainable [with] enhanced thermal and acoustic properties.” Ravago, which is a plastic recycler, compounder and distributor, is guiding Heartland in formulation of additives that will not require retooling for compounders or moulders. Heartland’s quality control of hemp fibre
provides consistent size, moisture and surface area, while a proprietary engineering process improves processing and bonding with plastics. “The goal is to provide manufacturers with a 1:1 alternative that costs less with all other perfor- mance characteristics kept equal,” says Ely. As one example, the company is working on a hemp-filled alternative to 20% talc-filled PP compounds. The fibres have also been evaluated in polymers such as PE, PVC, ABS, and PET. According to Ravago, a 20% hemp-filled PP compound will have approximately the same tensile strength as a 20% talc-filled PP, with a 20% lower flexural modulus and 20% higher Izod impact performance. It also offers the additional benefit of
reducing part weight by about 20%, says Chuck Taylor, Technical Director and Tolling Business Director, Ravago Manufacturing Americas. Taylor says that it would be desirable to replace
glass fibre with hemp fibre, but that is not yet possible. “We need to develop a viable chemistry to treat the hemp to get it to bond into the resin matrix to create a reinforcement. Until that time hemp will act as a filler,” he says. However, that aside, he says customers are increasingly request- ing renewable and sustainable products, and even seem to understand that these solutions might have an increased cost. This willingness to pay for sustainability “is dramatically different from what we have seen in the past,” he adds.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.performancebiofilaments.com �
www.greendotbioplastics.com �
www.aimplas.net �
www.rise-pfi.no �
www.norskeskog.com �
www.upmformi.com �
www.heartland.io �
www.ravago.com
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