Award And the winner is ... 10 th Global Bioplastics Award 2015 for Mitsubishi Chemical and Sharp This year the prestigious Bioplastics Oskar was again given to two companies, albeit for one new development: Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. and Sharp Corp. (Japan) jointly received the prize for the development of the front panel of Sharp’s new smartphone made from Mitsubishi’s biobased engineering plastic DURABIO. In a world first, a biobased engineering plastic is being used in the front panel of a smartphone. Durabio is a biobased engineering plastic made from plant-derived isosorbide. This high-performance material offers greater resistance to impact, heat, and weather than conventional engineering plastics. In addition, it has excellent transparency and low optical distortion. The panel of judges singled out this application as the first instance of a biobased engineering plastic successfully replacing polycarbonate in a technical application. The development captivates through its high profile and the potentially huge field of applications for a biopolymer that also overcomes one of the big problems of incumbent technology – impact resistance. In addition to Frank Steinbrecher /Mitsubishi) and Michael Thielen being biobased, it also features superior properties. “The winner has invented a highly promising material for very challenging applications – and we applaud this cool product! It’s a great example of a biobased material”, said Michael Thielen during the award ceremony. After our first attempt last year to present a trophy made (at least partly) of biobased plastic materials, we went one step further this year. The entire trophy is 3D-printed from different PLA/PHA based compounds. bioplastics MAGAZINE is grateful to colorFabb (Venlo, the Netherlands) who printed the base-plate using their woodFill filament. The logo is made from brassFill and the two leaves are made from copperFill. Logo and leaves were tumbled and polished to enhance the metal gloss effect. The 3D-filaments made by colorFabb are based on PLA/PHA bioplastic products from FKuR (Willich, Germany) and metal-filled PLA/PHA compounded by Witcom Engineering Plastics (Etten-Leur, The Netherlands). The prize was awarded to the winning companies on November 5 th , 2015 during the 10 th European Bioplastics Conference in Berlin, Germany. MT 10 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/15] Vol. 10
4 th PLA World Congress 24 – 25 MAY 2016 MUNICH › GERMANY is a versatile bioplastics raw PLA material from renewable resources. It is being used for films and rigid packaging, for fibres in woven and non-woven applications. Automotive industry and consumer electronics are thoroughly investigating and even already applying PLA. New methods of polymerizing, compounding or blending of PLA have broadened the range of properties and thus the range of possible applications. That‘s why bioplastics MAGAZINE is now organizing the 4 th PLA World Congress on: 24 – 25 May 2016 in Munich / Germany Experts from all involved fields will share their knowledge and contribute to a comprehensive overview of today‘s opportunities and challenges and discuss the possibilities, limitations and future prospects of PLA for all kind of applications. Like the three congresses the 4 th PLA World Congress will also offer excellent networking opportunities for all delegates and speakers as well as exhibitors of the table-top exhibition. The conference will comprise high class presentations on Call for Papers bioplastics MAGAZINE invites all experts worldwide from material development, processing and application of PLA to submit proposals for papers on the latest developments and innovations. Please send your proposal, including speaker details and a 300 word abstract to mt@bioplasticsmagazine.com. The team of bioplastics MAGAZINE is looking forward to seeing you in Munich. › Register now to benefit from the Early Bird fee of just EUR 799.00 (after Feb 28, 2016 it will be 899). › Contact us at mt@bioplasticsmagazine.com for exhibition and sponsoring opportunities www.pla-world-congress.com › Latest developments › Market overview › High temperature behaviour › Barrier issues › Additives / Colorants › Applications (film and rigid packaging, textile, automotive,electronics, toys, and many more) › Fibers, fabrics, textiles, nonwovens › Reinforcements › End of life options (recycling,composting, incineration etc) organized by
