Röchling Automotive says it is putting sustainable organic plastic on the market.
With the bioplastic Röchling-BioBoom, Röchling Automotive maintains it is the first company on the market to have a patented polylactide (PLA)-based biopolymer that consists of at least 90% renewable raw materials.
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The company says, with the development, it offers an ecological and economical alternative to most conventional materials such as polyester (PC, PET, PBT) but also polystyrene (ABS), polyolefins (such as PP) and polyamides (PA6).
“We want to support our customers in the development of environmentally friendly vehicles and thus help shape the transformation of the industry towards a sustainable one,” said Röchling Automotive chairman and CEO, Hanns-Peter Knaebel.
“With our bioplastics, we are bringing a sustainable solution to the market that originates from a completely self-controlled supply chain – from renewable resources to the automobile manufacturers.”
Röchling Automotive has built up internal expertise in materials development across many years in cooperation with various partners.
With improvements in terms of thermal stability and chemical resistance compared to standard PLA, the new biopolymer family meets the company’s technical requirements and specifications, adds the supplier.
Röchling says BioBoom enables greenhouse gas emission savings which are around 70% higher than those of PP and almost 90% percent higher than those of PA6. The supplier says this means if the proportion of petrochemical plastics in a mid-sized car is replaced by Röchling Automotive’s bioplastics, 515kg of CO2 emissions can be saved per vehicle production.
Three standard types of Röchling Automotive biopolymers are currently available, which are suitable for applications in the engine compartment and underbody as well as for the interior of a vehicle. Each of the three types can be tailored to individual customer needs and respective specific requirements.
Röchling BioBoom can also be used for almost the entire product portfolio of Röchling Automotive.
“We have set ourselves the goal of becoming the leading supplier of bioplastics and recycling materials in the automotive industry by 2035 at the latest,” noted Knaebel.
“This means we will noticeably increase our development activities in this area.”
