Aimplas, the Plastics Technology Center, is attending from 19-26 October a new edition of the K Trade Fair to launch its recent innovations in the field of advanced materials, as well as its latest developments on bioplastics.
This time, AIMPLAS has gone for giving importance to advanced materials. For that purpose, together with a sample of bio-packages, its stand will be showing a series of interactive demonstrators composed by innovative materials with advanced properties, such as conductive plastics, what allows new heating systems by applying the Joule heating or ultrahydrophobic items.
Therefore, the attendants will be able to see the application of the new plastic materialswith conductive properties, such as those developed within the European project POLYCOND, thanks to the incorporation of carbon nanotubes. With these new materials an original lamp-shaped demonstrator has been designed, which responds to touch for its activation.
The attendants visiting the stand of the Plastics Technology Centre will be able to observe the practical application of the thermoelectric Joule heating on a sheet, whose application will have many benefits in the heating systems of electric vehicles due to the substantial savings in the energy consumption, expected to be 30 %.
Another example of the researches made by AIMPLAS on innovative materials is an ultrahydrophobic coating applicable to very exigent sectors, such as the aeronautics, construction or automotive sectors. These materials, impossible to get wet, can be useful in their application in aircraft wings to avoid the formation of ice without adding other systems increasing weight; in solar panels, to keep them clean and get the most out of its capacity of energy production; and even in indoor and outdoor surfaces of houses to avoid water marks.
Bioplastics
The use of plastics in the packaging sector plays a key role in the so-called ‘circular economy’. In this line, AIMPLAS is launching at the K Trade Fair different and innovative solutions to improve its sustainability, where bioplastic materials with biodegradable and compostable properties are key actors. Among them, we find the first tube-shaped biodegradable packaging for cosmetics and packages for dairy products with the same properties that withstand thermal treatments, such as sterilisation and pasteurization. Other examples are packages for juice or patisserie manufactured with sugars obtained from the wastes generated by the industries themselves andmultilayer, recyclable and biodegradable packages allowing preserving products such as cheese or fresh pasta.