Extrusion International USA 5-2021

63 Extrusion International 5/2021 polyketone grades belonging to the Hyosung brand POKETONE™ in Germany and Europe, after the sister company K.D. Feddersen Ue- berseegesellschaft mbH with its Polymers & Compounding Technol- ogy business unit has been selling mainly its extrusion grades to the compounding industry since 2015. Thermal management will become increasingly important in future developments of alternative drive concepts. To ensure all this, suppli- ers to the automotive industry must use application-optimised materi- als, such as Hostacom EKG 2087T from Lyondellbasell. This grade is a polypropylene (PP) copolymer rein- forced with 30 % short glass fibres. The PP compound shows superior performance in terms of creep re- sistance compared to standard grades. Notably, the distributor has also ex- panded its range of materials from alternative, sustainable sources, accessing many new, special prod- ucts from its partners Celanese, TRINSEO, AURORA Kunststoffe GmbH and BIO-FED, Branch of AK- RO-PLASTIC GmbH and member of the Feddersen Group. The thus expanded portfolio includes addi- tional biobased and biodegradable plastics as well as high-quality recy- cled materials from post-industrial as well as mass-balanced sources with a property and quality level that is close to or even equal to that of virgin materials. In terms of the circular economy, the new alterna- tives offer potential solutions for reducing the carbon footprint. Cologne-based BIO-FED will also be exhibiting on the group’s joint stand and focuses on its biocom- pound product range, which is suit- able for flexible and solid applica- tions as well as for a wide range of manufacturing processes. BIO-FED offers transparent and filled biocompounds for thermo- forming and profile extrusion. Cer- tification according to OK compost INDUSTRIAL is currently in prepara- tion. Materials are also available for blow moulding applications and for monofilaments. For fi lm extrusion, the company of- fers biocompounds with OK compost HOME certi fi cation, for example for fruit and vegetable bags. Special soil- degradable grades for mulch fi lms are also available. The correspond- ing SOIL certi fi cation according to EN 17033 by DIN CERTCO is also current- ly in preparation. A steady expansion of the portfoliowith further biobased and biodegradable products in the sense of the circular economy and the Green Deal is in the works. Together with AF-COLOR, also a branch of AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, the company works on color and additive concentrates for numer- ous problem solutions in the field of recycling management. The products resulting from the coop- eration make a significant contri- bution here. The soot-free masterbatches of the AF-Color® IR product range con- tribute to improved NIR detection of different kinds of plastics in the field of waste sorting. Likewise, the in-house research and development department of AF-COLOR and BIO-FED products is working on an odour absorber on the basis of biobased, biodegrad- able and environmentally compat- ible additives for example. These special additive masterbatches will be available as AF-Eco ® after certi- fication within EN 13432, or other- wise distributed as part of the AF- Complex ® portfolio. Furthermore, within the AF-Color ® - HP product range for high-temper- ature polymers, AF-COLOR offers you new color shades for the color- ing of polyamide, such as a bright orange for e-mobility applications. A newly developed PA-compatible blowing agent product range en- ables a variety of different appli- cations in the field of lightweight construction. Sustainability is a high priority at AKRO-PLASTIC. CO 2 -neutral elec- tricity and gas have already been used for production and the ad- ministration buildings since 2019. At Fakuma 2021, the new sustain- able product ranges AKROMID ® NEXT and PRECITE ® NEXT will be presented for the first time. One representative of the future- oriented AKROMID ® NEXT portfo- lio is the partially bio-based AKRO- MID ® NEXT G based on PA 6.9. As a density-reduced “LITE” compound, with a proportion of bio-circular PP and processed carbon fibres, sustainability is raised to a new level. By combining it with chemi- cal or physical foaming processes, the idea of lightweight construc- tion can be taken even further. The combination of sustainability, low density and hydrolysis resis- tance predestines the material for the cooling water circuits of future electric vehicles, for example. In addition, AKRO-PLASTIC and its subsidiaries BIO-FED and AF-COL- OR will have various sustainable products certified according to the leading sustainability certification systems ISCC PLUS or REDcert2. The Aachen-based engineering company M.TEC ENGINEERING GmbH, which is also part of the company group, is expanding the AI-based development method for warpage optimisation of plastic components into a group of simula- tion-based development tools. This allows topics such as sustainability, economic efficiency and innovation to be integrated into the engineer- ing of products and processes. How exactly this works will be explained to the interested trade fair audi- ence on site. Feddersen-Gruppe holding.kdfeddersen.com Feddersen-Gruppe B2-2209