It is no accident that Benvic’s K 2022 showcase for its Plantura biopolymer application will be in the area of technical parts.
A large part of Plantura’s future will be founded on the gradual replacement of certain technopolymers with leading eco-technopolymers. High-value sectors such as electrical, medical and automotive are expected to be early adopters and large life cycle analysis (LCA) benefits are expected from these materials.
Insight
A new project from Röchling, for example, together with chemicals giant BASF, is now addressing some of these concerns for the automotive market in a way that will deliver environmental benefits through these polymers. Europe’s leading compounder, Benvic, is a partner in Röchling’s BioBoom program and the first fruits of the tripartite collaboration will be presented at 1pm, Friday Octobr 21, on the BASF booth at the K 2022 show, Düsseldorf.
For some time now, Benvic’s Plantura PLA biobased polymer compounds have been challenging materials such as PA ABS/PC or PP formulations for the automotive industry.
In the past, bio-sourced polymers provided ready environmental improvements in terms of carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. However, such polymers have typically been poor in providing thermomechanical performance and also climatic resistance properties.
Enter Benvic with its Plantura formulation technology that has taken these compounds to the next level - higher structural performance: increased thermal resistance, hydrolysis, fatigue resistance, and resistance at impact.
UV resistance – and thus improved weathering and reduced colour fade - is another key parameter for which Benvic has found improvements, thanks to the company’s customised materials work that has succeeded in improving bio parts continuously exposed to sunshine.
Despite its upcoming shift to biomaterials the automotive industry has not relaxed its need for efficiency or for component performance and cost.
Here again, Benvic’s work with Plantura has meant that parts such as grill shutters, for example, can now rely on a very good materials rheology that will fill out mold cavities quickly and will also optimise the moulding cycle time. This represent a great advantage to optimize part sections to balance higher PLA density.
In summary - thanks to Benvic’s research into processability and applications - Plantura compounds now provide a materials platform where environmental aspirations and ambitions can become a cost-effective reality for customers in automotive, electrical and other demanding markets for engineered parts.
