Plastics News - Show Daily - October 17, 2024 - 10

FAKUMA 2024
10 * Plastics News, October 17, 2024
Covestro invests in R&D,
showcasing circular materials
COVESTRO
B4-4208
Tim Lemacher, key account
manager of engineering
plastics at Covestro, at
Fakuma 2024.
Covestro at
Fakuma 2024 in
Friedrichshafen,
Germany.
Plastics News photos
by Caroline Seidel
By Sarah Kominek
Plastics News Staff
Covestro is tackling monomaterials
as a pillar of its circularity
goals in automotive and
electronics applications to help
customers design parts and devices
that are easier to recycle
at end of life as it invests in R&D
operations globally.
The material supplier created
a design guideline with requirements
for
its customers, partners,
technicians and application
developers to create examples of
ways monomaterials can be used,
Tim Lemacher, key account manager
of engineering plastics at
Covestro, told Plastics News at the
Fakuma trade show.
Components and products
with different textured features
and parts
including fi lms and
overmolding can be made of one
single base material, Lemacher
said, such as polycarbonates or
acrylic, making " more or less the
whole device ... out of the same
class of material. "
At Fakuma, Covestro showcased
a control panel application
for its monomaterial PC, Makrolon.
The panel has PC fi lms on
either side with overmolded, integrated
printed circuit boards connected
to Covestro's new thermally
conductive PC, which creates
the panel's touch functions.
" The disassembly process is
getting easier, " he said, thanks
to overmolding allowing for easy
removal of printed circuit board
and other electronic features.
Once the electronics are removed
from the device, it can
be shredded and mechanically
recycled into " compounds that
we can use in our materials, " he
said, adding that, through collaborations
with customers and
suppliers, Covestro is discussing
ways electronics and automotive
parts can become a part of a circular
industry.
Application development guidelines,
technical data, simulation
data and optical data from every
part of the supply chain is essential
for potential circularity of a
part or device, Lemacher said.
" The world of plastics is large
... and [data and collaboration
are] everything, " he said.
Since K 2022 in Düsseldorf, Germany,
" the whole industry got the
point that sustainability and circularity
will probably be the most
important topic for decades now, "
he said. " Since then, basically all
our exchanges we have ... on a
daily basis with our customers
are ... how can we get back our
waste from the industry? Can we
use biomass - biomass feedstocks,
for example - for our
products? Is there any chance to
use mechanically recycled components
in your compounds to
produce our applications? "
Covestro's recent partnership
with Neste and Borealis focuses
on the closed-loop recycling of
old tires into transparent polycarbonates,
suitable for automotive
components like car headlamps.
Covestro's Makrolon RP product
range incorporates the chemically
recycled raw materials through
mass balance methodology.
" Covestro can put these new
feedstocks into our production
to achieve highly transparent
polycarbonates, " Lemacher said.
" This is one single example, for
sure. There is too much waste in
the world, and this is not a problem
that we can solve on our
own. But this is a great example
to showcase there are solutions
already in place and the chemical
industry can support that. "
R&D investments
The company is investing about
$109.2 million (€100 million) in its
global R&D infrastructure and assets.
Covestro is updating its laboratories
in Leverkusen, Germany,
with automated systems and
new digital capabilities.
" [Customers] are enabling us to
expand and maintain our innovation
pipeline, " Sucheta Govil, chief
commercial offi cer at Covestro,
said in an Oct. 8 news release. " By
this, we are the go-to partner for
more sustainable solutions which
help to meet the climate-neutrality
targets of our customers. Thanks
to this global innovation booster,
we come even closer to our joint
goal to become fully circular. "
" Simulations of chemical processes
are a key element in the
development of recycling technologies
and research on new
molecule classifi cations, " Torsten
Heinemann, head of group innovation
and sustainability at Covestro,
said in the release. " Laboratory
digitalization enables test data
to be recorded in higher quality
and to a greater extent than is
usual in analogue ways. "
" These
laboratories
drive,
among others, application technology
for coatings and adhesives
in core industries like automotive
and construction, but also special
areas such as light guiding applications
as well as medical applications, "
the release added.
In the U.S., Covestro is investing
in a series of modernization
and technical upgrades across its
Pittsburgh location. It's innovation
center in Shanghai, China, received
investments in infrastructure
and digitalization.
Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi
National Oil Co. offered to acquire
Covestro. The materials
supplier said that action will not
affect operations.
Wanhua balancing recycled content, performance for PC
By Frank Esposito
Plastics News Staff
Wanhua Chemical Group Co.
Ltd. is helping customers meet
sustainability goals with recycled-content
polycarbonate and
similar materials.
" Our customers want material
with a higher percentage of
post-consumer resin, " Performance
Polymers Global Business
Head Bruce Wen said Oct. 15 at
Fakuma 2024. " More PCR can affect
characteristics of the material,
so we have to fi nd the balance
that users need. "
Yantai, China-based Wanhua
markets recycled PC under the
Waneco trade name. The materials
are available with recycled content
ranging from 20 percent to 80
percent. Applications for the fi rm's
recycled PC include automotive
lighting and consumer electronics.
In
2024, Wanhua
has
seen
growth in demand for its materials
in home appliances.
" When consumers get more
conservative, they might not
make a big investment like buying
a car or real estate, but they'll
make a smaller investment in an
appliance, " Wen said.
Demand for Wanhua's materials
has increased in electric vehicles,
especially as that market continues
to grow in China, Wen added.
The fi rm also has seen " more progress "
in nylon 12, which it began
making in 2022 at a 45 millionpound-per-year
unit in Yantai.
Wanhua is also showcasing Wanafone,
a new sulfone polymer,
at Fakuma. The material can be
used in baby bottles, medical devices
and food-contact items.
The fi rm also recently launched
a thermoplastic polyurethane
(TPU) paint protection fi lm that
offi cials said offers exceptional
clarity and protection against UV
aging in vehicle surfaces.
Wanhua operates fi ve production
sites in China as well as one
in Hungary. The Hungarian site
makes isocyanates and thermoplastic
polyurethanes. The fi rm
also operates three R&D centers:
two in China and one in The
Woodlands, Texas.
Wanhua was founded in 1978
as a state-owned producer of synthetic
leather. The fi rm later added
chemical products and became a
private company in late 1998.
WANHUA
CHEMICAL
GROUP CO.
FO-25
Bruce Wen, the
performance polymers
global business head
for Wanhua Chemical
Group Co. Ltd., at
Fakuma 2024.
Plastics News photo
by Caroline Seidel
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 17, 2024

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