The company says that the launch aims to help finished goods manufacturers provide more sustainable solutions, in line with consumer demand for products that are easier to recycle and have a lower impact on the environment.
Sabic’s answer to this is the launch of two products in a line of LNP Thermocomp specialty compounds which are made from curaua fibre and wood flour natural reinforcements.
The two new compounds were showcased at last month’s NPE event in Chicago, one of the world’s leading events for the plastics industry.
Compounds with sustainable components
LNP Thermocomp PX07444 is a polyamide that is reinforced with up to 20 per cent curaua fibre, from the South American curaura plant, which has very similar properties to glass fibre.
The other new launch is MX07442, which is a polypropylene reinforced with 30 percent wood flour. The company chose wood flour to replace wood, and says it has benefits that include being fungi resistance as well as having better dimensional stability than real wood, which gives a strength-to-weight advantage.
The launches aim to give Sabic an improved range of offerings for the growing number of companies that want to produce sustainable products, giving them both market differentiation, as well enabling businesses to increase productivity and profitability.
No company can afford to ignore sustainability
“No company can afford to ignore the increasing call for sustainable products. On the other hand, creating sustainable products simply for the sake of creating sustainable products makes no business sense,” said Robert McKay, Sabic programme manager for sustainable products.
“By drawing on our global application technology resources we are replacing traditional glass fibre and mineral fillers with natural reinforcing materials, and, in the process, are giving customers advanced new solutions for exceptional performance in a broad array of important applications.”
These natural fibres are beneficial because they are renewable, biodegradeable, and also require less energy to manufacture, while also being lighter, which makes them easier and cheaper to transport.
The company says it aims to continue to raise the bar for sustainable plastics and in line with this it will aim to make a series of similar launches to it customers worldwide in the future.