Dec 6 2007
Under the slogan "VisionWorks", Bayer MaterialScience will be presenting both itself and many of its innovative developments at the 14th Euromold world fair for mold-making and tooling, design and application development (Hall 6.1, Stand C61). The company works closely with plastic processors, product developers, users and designers to develop customized solutions. With its theme "From design to prototyping and series production", the Euromold trade fair offers Bayer MaterialScience the ideal forum for exchanging ideas with these target groups.
The company - one of the world’s leading producers of engineering thermoplastics - is continually further developing Fantasia, its collection of technologies for coloring plastic parts, which is aimed directly at designers. The latest example of this "trend scouting" can be seen in well over 20 new products for Leda, a technology for color compounding that is designed for the large-volume production of injection moldings. Bayer MaterialScience’s Color Competence Centers additionally provide design engineers, stylists and processors with a wide range of services.
The Shadow easy chair by the leading Italian designer Gaetano Pesce owes its styling and comfort to the Bayfit® polyurethane foam system. Instead of manufacturing the seat upholstery in a fixed shape in the usual way, the chair’s textile covering is filled directly with the liquid polyurethane mixture. The furniture is given its individual shape by filling out the seat surface with a life-size doll. In doing so, the flexible polyurethane foam encases the silhouette of the dummy, thus forming the seat of the easy chair and creating the "Shadow". Each chair is therefore unique.
Bayer MaterialScience products make a key contribution to climate protection
Bayer Sheet Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer MaterialScience, has made a key contribution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and thus to climate protection in recent years with its i-Line range of energy-saving polycarbonate multiwall sheets. Since the launch of the product line in 2003, the multiwall sheets have been fitted over several million square meters of roof area, thereby reducing CO2 emissions by around 65,000 tons.
Makrolon® multi UV six-wall sheets provide particularly efficient heat insulation. They enable energy savings of up to 25 percent more than standard sheets of the same thickness.
Polyurethane raw materials based on renewable raw materials such as vegetable oils also have the potential to help reduce emissions. Bayer MaterialScience has developed polyols of this type for use in a wide range of polyurethane applications. With additions of up to 95 percent by weight, they enable natural resources to be used as a supplement to fossil raw materials. Polyol products have been developed to such a level using Bayer MaterialScience’s extensive know-how that the polyurethanes formulated using them achieve performance levels on a par with conventional products or even superior to them.
Forum for new technologies
Dr. Michael Merkel, an expert in the Polyurethanes Business Unit, will give a presentation at the "design + engineering forum" during the trade fair, in which he describes modern methods of surface-finishing polyurethane molded parts produced using the reaction injection molding (RIM) method.
With the in-mold coating method, the molded parts are coated while still in the mold, thus dispensing with the need for any additional processing steps. Alternative methods such as film-back-injection and direct skinning of the molded parts will also be discussed.
Light has a direct affect on people’s wellbeing, which makes it one of the most important environmental factors. This places a particular premium on the design of artificial sources of light. In another presentation, Dr.
Klaus Reinartz, an expert in electrical and electronic applications in the Polycarbonates Business Unit at Bayer MaterialScience, describes ways in which the choice of raw materials and processes can help designers in the creative process.
Prize-winning young designers
Continuing with the theme of creativity, this year’s K 2007 plastics fair witnessed a special premiere as, for the first time, Bayer MaterialScience presented the VisionWorks Award "People in Motion" to young designers. In all, 70 students from five selected European universities combined the results of the "Future Living 2020" study with the material know-how of Bayer MaterialScience to develop new application ideas that provide innovative solutions for improving people’s mobility in cities. Maciej Puzon from the Cologne International School of Design won the first prize in the Works category for his "Pumpboard", a lightweight skateboard that rolls up like a liquorice wheel and fits in any pocket. First prize in the Vision category went to Krystian Majewski from the same university. His vision of a wall climber - which can master any wall no matter how steep - goes under the name "Delto". Second prize in the Vision category was awarded to the "Seaguard" model by designer Marcin Jez from the College of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His overalls are a life-saving device for anyone who falls into freezing water. A deformable speed bump by young Hamburg designers Ina-Marie von Mohl, Andreas Schöller, Robert Korn and Christian Dobbert could replace speed checks in the future. They took the second prize in the Works category with their "Sleeping Policeman". All four winning exhibits can be viewed on the Bayer MaterialScience stand at Euromold.