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Easy-flow plastic delights designers
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The Story
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| Highly acclaimed designer Konstantin Grcic (right) together with the Italian furniture manufacturer Plank (Martin Plank, left) and BASF’s experts developed the “Myto” chair in the record time of only one year. |
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Slim, elegant and casual it rests on its inclined legs. Its creator enjoys worldwide acclaim, its forerunners are design icons: the object of interest is the "Myto" cantilever chair – the brainchild of much celebrated designer Konstantin Grcic. This supreme example of seating furniture is made completely of the new injection moldable plastic Ultradur® High Speed from BASF and will be exhibited at the world's largest plastics show "K" in Düsseldorf in October. "The chair's delicate design combined with its high strength was only possible with this material," says Konstantin Grcic. "It gives me completely new freedom for the design". The really special thing about Ultradur® High Speed is that it flows twice as far as standard plastic grades when heated. This makes the production of components made of Ultradur® High Speed more cost-effective and energy-efficient, which is why this innovative material has been awarded the eco-efficiency seal.
A vast array of components is manufactured by the injection molding technique – hundreds of different articles without which our daily life would scarcely be conceivable. This includes household items such as electric irons, shower heads and fryer lids or industrial components, especially for the automotive and electrical industries. Exterior car mirrors, plug connectors and electronic boxes for antilock braking control systems (ABS) or electronic stability programs (ESP) – all these parts are made of molded plastic. The starting material used to produce them consists of plastic granules which are melted by heat and then injected into a cavity known as a mold. The plastic assumes the shape of the mold, solidifies again on cooling and can then be removed for further processing.
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| The “Myto” cantilever chair made entirely from the innovative plastic Ultradur® High Speed provides completely new freedom of design. It will be exhibited for the first time at the plastics show K 2007 in October. |
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BASF has for many years been one of the largest suppliers of injection moldable plastics. It has now upgraded its well-proven product line Ultradur® – chemical name polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) – into "Ultradur® High Speed" by adding finely distributed organic nanoparticles to the plastic. The additive allows the plastic to be processed at 230C instead of 260C and improves its flowability by 50 percent. But its mechanical properties – shrinkage and heat distort resistance – are scarcely affected.
With these properties, Ultradur® High Speed offers major advantages both in terms of cost and environmental friendliness. The plastic can be processed at lower temperatures. Only half as much pressure is needed to fill the material into the mold. This also means that much less energy is needed. "Altogether one fifth of the energy can be saved," says Dr. Andreas Eipper, BASF plastics expert and product manager for Ultradur®. "If all injection molding machines were converted from standard grade PBT to Ultradur® High Speed, an amount of energy equivalent to that consumed by 75,000 automobiles a year could be saved". The quantity of material needed also decreases because the mold is easier to fill with the easy-flow plastic. Fewer undesired air inclusions appear which means a lower rate of product rejects. Ultradur® High Speed also increases productivity. And because it is processed at lower temperatures, the injection molded parts need not be cooled for so long. The hourly output increases – by up to 30 percent.
Last but not least, Ultradur® High Speed helps improve the quality of the products. The easy-flow plastic can be reinforced with much higher glass fiber content than before. This allows thinner walled parts to be produced that are also very strong – as with the "Myto" cantilever chair. "We can now produce much more intricate and complicated components," says Martin Plank, owner and founder of the Italian furniture company Plank that made the chair. "Previously this was only possible by using expensive high-performance plastics. With this innovative material, the surface of the mold is also transferred exactly to the product." Large, complex parts also need fewer injection points. This reduces the costs of expensive injection molding tools which improves the customer's competitiveness.
Because of the numerous advantages it offers, Ultradur® High Speed has been awarded an eco-efficiency seal. "The prefix 'eco' stands for both economy and ecology," explains Konrad Hungerbühler. "The seal signifies that the material performs better than conventional PBT in both economic and ecological terms." Hungerbühler is Professor of Safety and Environmental Technology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He has evaluated and confirmed the analysis in an expert report.
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