Application News
Application News Biobased cork – but not from bark Most bottles of wine savored by consumers today reach them in a standard format that was first adopted in the 17th century: glass bottles and cork closures. However, in recent years debate has intensified on the ideal method for sealing bottles and the problems involving this type of cork. Cork is made from oak bark. The tree takes 25 years to give up its first harvest and then every nine years its cork bark can be harvested once again. The long production process and the presence of trichloroanisole (TCA), a fault of cork closures that imparts the aroma of mold (wine taint), has intensified the search for alternatives to ensure the longevity of the beverage, which has given rise to the use of engineered alternatives for bottle stoppers. Now wine lovers have a more sustainable option for their beverage. Nomacorc, the world’s leading producer of synthetic corks, has found an entirely new way to use Braskem’s sugarcane based polyethylene (Green PE) in its products. Called Select Bio, the closures are recyclable and feature the same oxygen-management performance as the conventional line, while also preventing deterioration and waste caused by processes such as oxidation and reduction. “The use of Braskem’s green polyethylene made from sugarcane gave us the materials we needed to offer our customers carbon-neutral corks, which not only helps guarantee the consistency and quality of the wines, but also supports the development of a more sustainable packaging solution,” explained dr. Olav Aagaard, Principal Scientist at Nomacorc. To Braskem, using Green Plastic helps strengthen environmental awareness around the world. “Choices such as Nomacorc’s attest to the high viability and excellent growth potential of this technology, which can be fully employed as a sustainable alternative to the use of fossil fuels,” said Marco Jansen, Renewable Chemicals Commercial Director at Braskem. interpack - review New toys for babies Bioserie (Hong Kong) is first to market with a line of toys that will provide health-conscious parents the safety they demand for their babies by using only plant based, renewable resources in their production. Toys and nursing aids is a significant milestone in Bioserie’s diversification into new consumer product markets and it marks a significant step in the availability of fully biobased toys and nursing aids for babies. For these products Bioserie is using Ingeo PLA by NatureWorks and a proprietary blend of biobased components. Even the coloring materials used are specially developed for biopolymers; they are based on sustainable raw materials and meet several global industry and composting standards, including EN 13432 (European Union), ASTM D6400 (USA), BPS GREENPLA (Japan). Stephanie Triau Samman, co-founder of Bioserie says “Most available toys are made of oil based plastics. As a parent, it’s very hard to know for sure that a product won’t have any negative health effects on your baby now or later. The information on toy packages are either inadequate, too technical for a normal person to understand or at times misleading. Bioserie puts an end to this with products derived from plants that are naturally free of any harmful substances associated with oil based plastic toys.” “We believe it is possible to enjoy technology without harming our children’s health and fragile ecosystems of our Earth,” says Kaya Kaplancali, Bioserie CEO. “We are exploring the cutting edge of bioplastics technology to develop products that allow consumers to enjoy life in a healthier, environmentally-responsible way.” Bioserie’s launch product line consists of a Rattle toy, a Stacker toy, a Teether and a Cutlery set. Since the launch of its first accessories for smartphones, starting with iPhone covers in 2010, Bioserie has won international recognition for its technological achievements in the field of bioplastics. It’s one of the first brands in the world to achieve 100% biobased certification by USDA’s BioPreferred program. Bioserie was also nominated for bioplastics innovation awards in 2013 in Germany by Nova Institut and in USA by SPI Bioplastics Council, for developing injection moulded bioplastic products with high durability and heat resistance. MT www.bioserie.com www.braskem.com www.nomacorc.com 22 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/14] Vol. 9
Applications White teeth – Naturally! Bio-polymers for high precision injection moulding AInterbros toothbrush are made primarily from renewable plastics. Furthermore, the packaging consists of a 100 % biobased plastic blister combined with a FSC certified carton board. This high value integrated product is the result of expert knowledge in a broad range of bioplastic materials and their processing on existing production equipment. As a result of its recently extended portfolio, FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, Germany, can now provide integrated material solutions fulfilling the requirements of even the most complex products. For many years Interbros GmbH from Schönau/Germany has been pursuing the strategy of developing an integrated toothbrush system made completely from bioplastics. The most important requirements were the use of the existing high end injection moulding and assembling lines while maintaining the quality of the toothbrushes. However, the fitting of the bristle filaments into the injection moulded handle would be a tough challenge for any new material as it has to be within a 10 µm tolerance. After successfully proving the processability of several biomaterials from FKuR’s portfolio for the injection moulding of the handles, Interbros decided on one of the transparent BIOGRADE ® materials as it is the best solution to demonstrate the performance of bioplastics for a toothbrush. This material offers a very good existing high performance lines with the bio based PA filaments produced by Hahl-Pedex, Germany, and packed into the transparent PLA blister and carton board. If customers require a more heat stable blister pack then a bio-based PET could be used for as a technically proven alternative. This toothbrush impressively demonstrates the success of a combination of several industrial scale plastics manufacturing processes to create an integrated solution from bioplastics. It is another success which proves that the tolerance and stability of FKuR’s materials’ is good enough for industrial scale processing and the injection moulding of very high precision fittings, even with state- of-theart hot-runner moulds. Furthermore, this added value toothbrush has been created without the need for any further investments in moulds or other expensive processing equipment. By: Christoph Lohr FKuR, Willich,Germany Hannes Hauser Sunstar-Interbros, Schönau, Germany www.sunstarinterbros.com www.hahl-pedex.com www.fkur.com bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/14] Vol. 9 23
