Sustainable engineering plastics in focus
Augsburg, May 2021. Due to regulatory requirements and an increasing sense of product stewardship, a steadily growing number of plastics processors, suppliers and OEMs are looking for sustainable alternatives to conventional materials. This is why Ultrapolymers has greatly expanded its portfolio of engineering plastics with reduced environmental footprints, including Domo's Technyl® 4earth® polyamides. This distributor’s many years of experience in making substitutions of this kind means it can help customers put them quickly and successfully into use.
Technyl 4earth is based on post-industrial or used technical textiles from stable sources, such as automotive airbags, ensuring a consistently high level of properties. Compared to conventional PA6.6 grades, the carbon footprint is reduced by a quarter, consumption of non-renewable resources by half and water consumption by more than two-thirds, while maintaining approximately the same performance. For example, the tensile stiffness of Technyl 4earth is slightly lower or even higher than that of the corresponding comparative grade, depending on the glass fiber content, while impact strength, for example, reaches an identical level with increasing heat aging (3000 h at 150°C). This opens up a promising route to greater resource efficiency in many demanding applications.
Other examples of the extensive portfolio of sustainable plastics available from Ultrapolymers include the Econamid® PA6 and PA6.6 grades, also from Domo, LyondellBasell‘s Moplen and Hostalen QCP PP and PE grades (Quality Circular Polymers) as well as the bio-based Circulen PP and PE grades, Terluran® Eco ABS from Ineos Styrolution, the EcoClear rPET grades from DuFor and the biopolymers from FKuR.
As Maximilian Deurer, Business Development Engineering Plastics at Ultrapolymers, says: "We are seeing continuous growth in demand for solutions with a reduced environmental footprint. At the same time, however, there is also a need for reliably consistent properties over a long period of time as a fundamental requirement for technical parts that are often exposed to high stresses. We can meet this requirement with our environmentally friendly solutions in the form of recyclates or compounds based on them. This is demonstrated by the large number of successfully implemented substitutions in all sectors, in automotive and electrical and electronic applications as well as in general industry and consumer goods."
Kärcher was one of the first users of Domo's resource-efficient polyamide Technyl® 4earth®, which is now part of Ultrapolymers' extensive portfolio of sustainable engineering plastics. © Kärcher