Automotive 10 Years ago Published in bioplastics MAGAZINE In May 2020 Kresimir Hagljan, CEO of FASAL WOOD GmbH, Vienna, Austria commented: After the first projects with HABA, Cuboro, Ravensburger and others 10 and more years ago, the development did not stand still. We still cooperate with some of them and developed new products. New products on our raw material side and new products on the side of the toy manufacturers. And of course, business with new clients was established. In many cases, when a customer comes with a new project, we develop the appropriate compound for the individual application. Bioblo for example presented their toy blocks during the first bio!TOY conference in Nuremberg last year. Another new partner with interesting products is Vertex (Reutlingen, Germany) making coat hangers with Fasal materials. Wood (sawing waste from the wood industry, e.g. from furniture) is still the basis for all compounds. But following the diversification in the demand from the customer side, we use biobased, biodegradable or conventional matrix resins such as fossil based PP, but also biobased PE, PLA or – if requested by a customer- also recycled plastic material so that such reclaimed material gets a second life. Due to the rising demand the production capacities at Fasal were significantly increased by approximately factor five in the last 10 years. A second plant in Croatia was inaugurated in 2015. So all in all we are really satisfied with the development and we are confident that this will go on. Natural Fibres A new game of skill from Ravensburger called ‘Kipp Kipp Ahoi! (see photo left) uses Fasal material in an application that could not be economically accomplished using conventional materials based on renewables such as cardboard and solid wood. The screws are produced in the appropriate colours using an 8-cavity Natural Fibres tool. The body of the ship combines the mating components for the screws with a stable mounting for the printed cardboard element. Musical instruments A special instance of resource conservation was introduced by Herbert Neureiter in the Austrian Tyrol. Clarinets, which are often made from endangered African Blackwood (ABW), can be produced by injection moulding using Fasal material. The risk of splitting and the absorption of moisture are virtually nil. “In spite of the lower weight of about 10% the material shows a very Wood Composites for Toys For more than 15 years the Institute for Natural Materi- good sound behaviour and there are hardly any differences to massive wood,” says Herbert Neureiter. Customers are given a 5-year warranty for dimensional stability. The high density of the Fasal material results in similar sound characteristics to those of solid wood. Furniture The direct moulding of internal and external screw threads represents an interesting possibility for the furniture industry. Overmoulding of metal threads is also a possibility. Both options have already been used for toys and kid‘s furniture by ‘HABA - the children‘s inventor‘. “The synthesis of a technical requirement in combination with materials from renewable resources is Herbert Neureiter makes clarinettes from WPC as an alternative to of African Blackwood Article contributed by Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Rainer Bittermann University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, (IFA-Tulln), Austria als Technology (IFA Tulln in Austria) has been working on wood composites (FASAL) to help establish a place for them in the injection moulding and profile extrusion markets. In a joint research project with the company FASAL WOOD KG, Vienna, Austria, lasting several years, new blends have been compounded and tested. Depending on the customer requirement the wood composites Fasal could be • based on renewables • based on biodegradables • based on conventional WPC materials The easy-flowing type F337/31 in particular has been able to convince some toy makers of its extraordinary possibilities in design and function. Fasal‘s general manager Ing. Kresimir Hagljan works closely with his customers right from the preparation of product drawings through tool making to manufacture of finished parts. interesting for us,“ says Matthias Löhnert, Quality Management at Habermaaß. An additional advantage of this Fasal material is its surface feel, which is very close to natural wood.“ Also some other Fasal connecting elements are fixed using PVA adhesive. Biodegradable matrices Because of the continuous development of the bioplastics market a redevelopment of the Fasal compound was an obvious step. At the IFA in Tulln studies and projects for the industry, focussing on renewables and biodegradables, are routine. So a new, upgraded compound, FASAL BIO 322/14, was on the market after a very few months. Compared to conventional Fasal the new injection moulding material based on renewable and biodegradable raw materials features a high degree of flexibility and impact strength. Thus resilient parts can be produced, such as those required by the toy industry. This new material is the first result of the ‘Wood COMET’ research project. As well as testing the compatibility of wood and natural fibres in combination with bioplastics, various ‘bioadditives’ are tested. Requests from manufacturing companies internal and external screw threads are interesting applications for furniture (Photo: Thule G. Jug) Toys ‘Babel Pico’, a strategy game for two people, was presented by Swiss company Cuboro AG at the International Toy Fair 2007 in Nuremberg, Germany. The 30 mm cubes are produced using interchangeable sliding parts and hot runner. Despite the significant volume of the parts no shrinkage occurs. The surface has a soft feel. “We wanted a solid, large cube with a relatively complex shape,“ says Matthias Etter, Project Manager for the strategy game. “The injection moulding technology seemed suitable, but all materials tested had some drawbacks, be it technical, cost-related or ecological. The wood-injection-moulding material comprises different advantages“. show the high level of demand for bioplastics, but prices and process parameters have to be optimised for successful market introduction. www.ifa-tulln.ac.at www.fasal.at www.fasal.at bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/10] Vol. 5 33 32 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/10] Vol. 5 https://t1p.de/2020-toys 60 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/20] Vol. 15
Opinion By: Kathryn Sheridan CEO & Founder, Sustainability Consult Brussels, Belgium Who is responsible for the plastic soup in the ocean? My family lives in Spain and winter beach walks are one of our favourite activities. But I’m not really fun to go on a beach walk with as I see every walk as an opportunity to do some beach clean-up. It’s more bobbing up and down to collect plastic bottles, bottle caps and fragments than actual walking. Like many people, I am horrified by the amount of plastic and other waste that ends up on the beach. Some of it is left by careless people who had a picnic, a beer or an ice cream on the beach and tossed the wrappers. Cigarette butts are another real plague on Europe’s beaches. Other bits come onto the beach from the sea, plastic bottles whittled down to fragments by the tide and the rocks. Torn garbage bags, overturned wheelie bins and overflowing public bins all seem to contribute to waste getting onto the beach and into the sea. Marine litter is a plastics problem but it’s also an infrastructure problem. Plastics should not be getting into the ocean. While I’ve spent much of my career advocating for bioplastics as a way to leave oil in the ground, I don’t believe that today’s bioplastics are the Holy Grail to solving plastic pollution in the ocean. There is an assumption with the public which is repeated in the mainstream media that ‘bioplastic’ means ‘marine degradable’. This isn’t true. While marine degradable bioplastics like PHA are gaining traction, the reality is that most bioplastics on the market today are going to perform very similarly to petroleum-based plastics if they end up in the marine environment. For ‘flyaway’ applications like fishing nets, mulch films and greenhouses, we need a wholescale shift to biodegradable and marine degradable solutions. The European Parliament estimates that 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic go into the ocean every year (cf p. **). According to European Commission figures, 82% of marine litter is plastics. Of this, 27% comes from fishing gear and 49% from single-use plastics. So who is responsible for this floating mess? I don’t see much responsibility being taken. What I see is a lot of blame flying around. Many industry people are quick to blame consumers. Consumers blame industry. Everyone loves to blame politicians yet very few people seem to blame poor infrastructure in some developing countries for clogging up major rivers that lead to the sea. Pointing the finger and blaming doesn’t help us make change. We need to find ways to share responsibility. The plastics industry, including the bioplastics sector, should contribute to cleanup and prevention. Extended Producer Responsibility is an important principle in European legislation. I like to think of Extended Producer Responsibility as the dog owner who picks up after other people’s dogs. This prevents all dog owners from getting a bad name and means that no-one will think that you are the irresponsible dog owner leaving mess on the street. We need to take our share of the responsibility in the plastics industry and find ways to step up and solve the problem. bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/20] Vol. 15 61
