Material Engineering

Initial Situation

• 60 million tons of ligning per year remain from papermaking
• Lignin is one of the most occur biopolymer in the world

Issue

• Use of this sustainable an biobased resource by new technologies

Goal

• Development of lignin-compounds for the production of high-quality components by laser sintering

Approach

• Material Development with a customized processing window for laser sintering
• Development of the production process for the laser sintering powders

Goal

• Incoming rheological analysis
• Increasing the molecular weight of standard-PLA by chain extension, chain branching or cross-linking.
• Forming a physical network through the formation of PLA stereo complexes (expensive)
• Test series in the laboratory on extrusion foaming machine

Initial Situation

• More and more filled plastics are available for 3D printing
• Yet, most 3D printers aren’t designed for filled plastics

Goal

• Developing new design tools to optimize 3D printing processes

Approach

• First-time simulation of highly filled plastics in 3d printing
• Developing new models and simulation approaches
• Integral treatment of material and process simulation

Goal

• Increasing storage densities of heat stores
• Improving storage concepts for heat supply
• Enhancing and optimization of sorption heat stores

Work of IKT

• Selecting suitable adsorbens with high storage densities
• Producing honeycombs with suit-able adsorbens and geometries

Partners

• Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg
• Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT)
• University of Stuttgart
• Technical University of Waldau
• ZAE Bayern, Garching

Initial situation

• Use of heat stores basing on zeolite and water
• Using zeolitic pellets in fixed beds as sorption materials

Issue

• Fixed beds suffer from high pressure losses when flown through
• Formation of dust while use can damage system components or block pores of the adsorbend leading to worse soorption behavior

Approach

• Zeolitic honeycombs do not suffer from this problems
• Low pressure losses while flown through
• No dust formation during service
• Kinetics adjustable

Initial situation

• Polyamides are brittle in dry condition
• Impact modification with rubber

Problem

• Loss of stiffness

Goal

• Development of an impact modifier with low reduction of stiffness

Approach

• Synthesis of a PA 6/polyether-block copolymer
• Use as an impact modifier in PA 6 blends
• Increase of the impact strenght
• Low reduction of stiffness

Initial Situation

• Simultaneous enhancement of both toughness and stiffness properties of PA 6 by means of ternary material systems
• Potential of nanostructured filler materials for PA 6
• Microstructure simulation of nanoscale composites (DFG-Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit IMWF, Univ. Stuttgart)

Problem

• Incorporation of nanostructured filler materials
  by melt compounding
• New filler/matrix-interaction
• Identification of suitable morphologies
• Development of simulation models (partner IMWF)

Approach

• Improving toughness/ stiffness balance of polyamid 6
• Application of a nanostructured polyamide 6/ polyether-blockcopolymer as impact modifier
• Stiffness enhancement by incorporation of nanostructured organoclays
• Correlation of morpohology with properties

Initial Situation

• For extrusion of thick-walled pipes the melt viscosity of standard PA 66 is to low: „sagging“-effect
• High molar mass / viscous PA 66 types are quite limited on the market and very expensive

Goal

• Development of a concept to modify the molar mass of standard PA 66

Approach

• rheological researches
• Increasing of melt viscosity by a chain extension process with PA 66
• Reactive extrusion process with a co-rotating twin-screw extruder
• Maintenance of mechanical properties

Initial Situation

• Cast polyamides have got high molecular weights and are used for highly stressed components
• Waste volume is up to 30 %
• Typically thermal recycling

Goal

• Compounding cast polyamide waste into materials for extrusion or injection molding

Approach

• Reactive compounding on a twin-screw extruder
• Selection of suitable additives
• Modification of the process
• Tailoring the properties of the materials

Initial situation

• Plastics are durable, versatile and can be produced in a cost-efficient way.
• This becomes a disadvantage if plastics get into the environment in an uncontrolled and massive manner.
• Major discharge paths are the so-called littering and secondary raw fertilizer.

Problem

• Great durability and high resistance on land and in waters lead to accumulations - seas and soils become a sink

Approach

• Development of new and existing methods for the identification and quantification of plastics in terrestrial systems (remote sensing, in situ ...).
• Development of plastics with environmentally optimized degradability (primary biodegradation).
• Investigation of the effect of plastic contamination on the meso- and micro-soil-fauna as well as the microbial degradability.
• Investigation of social perception and patterns of behavior in dealing with plastics.

Initial Situation

• microscopically small plastic particles enter the environment
• Further fragmentation/degradation creates so-called secondary plastic particles
• So-called primary plastic particles are already produced in microscopic size and e.g. used in peelings and toothpaste

Problem

• Microorganisms in the sea, like water fleas take these particles in so that they can become part of the food chain

Goal

• Investigation of the impact on marine organisms
• Analysis of the behaviour of microscopic particles from bioplastics

Initial Situation

• Due to faulty consumer behaviour, plastic waste enters the environment and the sea.
• Standard plastics such as PP, PE or PET are very resistant and virtually non-biodegradable (~ 1000 years).
• Biodegradable plastics such as PLA are increasingly used in plastic applications.
•  

Problem

• So far the biodegradability is only certified for conditions on land.
• degradation behaviour, i.e. degradation speed, tendency to fragmentation is not known in marine environment
•  

Goal

• Investigation of the degradation behaviour in different marine zones
• Investigation of the resulting degradation products with regard to their toxic effect and the influence of typical additives

Initial Situation

• Increase in thermal conductivity leads to anisotropic properties
• In most cases, the thermal conductivity in the thickness direction is the lowest

Goal

• Increase of thermal conductivity in thickness direction

Approach

• Influencing the filling material orientation during processing
• Alignment of fillers in thickness direction
• Increase of thermal conductivity in thickness direction

Initial Situation

• The critical strain is a plastic-suited design parameter.
• The critical strain is the stain which occurs the first injury in the component.
• The critical strain can currently only be determined very laboriously.

Goal

• Development of a new, fast method for determining the critical strain.

Approach

• Determination of the first injury
• Use of sound emission analysis
• Determination of critical strain in a short-time tensile test