bioplasticsMAGAZINE_1205

Bioplastics Award
bioplastics MAGAZINE is proud to present the five finalists for the 7 th Bioplastics Award. Five judges from the academic world,
the press and industry associations from America, Europa and Asia have reviewed the proposals so that we can now present
details of the five most promising submissions.
The 7 th Bioplastics Award recognises innovation, success and achievements by manufacturers, processors, brand owners or
users of bioplastic materials. To be eligible for consideration in the awards scheme the proposed company, product, or service
must have been developed or have been on the market during 2011 or 2012.
The following companies/products are shortlisted (without any ranking) and from these five finalists the winner will be
announced during the 7 th European Bioplastics Conference on November 6 th , 2012 in Berlin, Germany.
Full Circle Design: Presentation and
promotion system Clps [’klıps]
The flexible and modular presentation and promotion
system Clps [’klıps] is variable and universally applicable
at the point of sale, for sales campaigns, presentations,
shop designs and fairs.
The extruded profiles are made of grass fibre reinforced
plastic (PP) with a content of natural fibres of about 70%.
They offer better mechanical properties than WPC. After
use Full Circle Design offer to take them back and either
refurbish them or recycle them in close cooperation with
their raw material supplier. This supplier generates his
energy in an own AD plant (biogasification) in kind of a
biorefinery concept.
The textile is a woven PLA fabric, uncoated, optically
brightened, flame-retardant and is being chemically
recycled in cooperation
with Galactic. In future a
knitted PLA fabric (own
development) will be used.
Thin pipes for fastening the
PLA-textile to the frame are
made of a biodegradable
elastomer.
The whole concept is
based on renewable raw
materials and a full takeback
and recycle system.
www.fullcircledesign.de
TAKATA AG: Bioplastic steering wheel and
airbag showcase project
The proposed ‘showcase’
(German word
is ‘Demonstrator’, is a
complete real steering
wheel system) was
developed to present the
possibilities and limits of
using biobased plastics in
such sensitive products
like airbags and steering
wheels. To achieve an
integrated solution the available biopolymers were
benchmarked according the requirements and the most
promising materials were chosen. After this the components
were tested according the specifications of the automotive
industry to verify the material limits in steering wheels and
airbags. Some of the components were already approved
according to these specifications, others are underway. For
certain applications the specifications of the automotive
industry might have to be modified, without sacrificing the
safety of course. But the haptic and optic requirements of
the foam and plastic parts around the steering wheel could
for example be slightly adapted in order to align biobased
material properties to part specification.
Due to this project Takata illustrate their competence
to develop biobased steering wheels and airbags and
support their customers to define the technical limits of
biopolymers.
www.takata.com
14 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/12] Vol. 7