There’s no better place to take the pulse of the global plastics industry than at the massive, triennial trade show known as “K” (for “Kunststoff”). This year’s K 2016 trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, attracted some 230,000 attendees from 160 countries to visit 3,285 exhibits that filled all 19 halls.
Nearly all of the plastics industry’s global leaders came together for eight intensive days and UL Prospector met with dozens of firms and executives to assess some of the key products and developments likely to impact the industry in the coming years.
We sat down with officials from SABIC, the Saudi petrochemical and plastics giant, to get a sense of what factors they see shaping key industry segments.
Ernesto Occhiello, Executive Vice President of SABIC’s newly formed Specialties segment, looks for clues in global megatrends. To him, two factors stand out:
- Demographic changes — from an aging population that will need more healthcare, to the rise of a larger middle class worldwide with more disposable income, leading to a broader distribution of wealth and a greater demand for durable goods; plus
- Continued advances in technology, specifically electronics, and the greater use of sensors, artificial intelligence, cloud technology, robotics, 3D printing, and the like. One key will be to capture and manipulate the resulting torrent of data and feedback into something “economically relevant.”
Such trends are a good fit for SABIC’s portfolio of specialty materials, which address the dimensions of thermal resistance, mechanical resistance, electrical behavior and optical behavior, and future material demands will keep rotating around those elements.
When it comes to high-end electronics, for instance, the continued miniaturization of devices will mean that heat will always be an issue, and materials will need to operate at high temperatures without deformation or loss of properties. Even in robotics, Occhiello said, heat transfer will be vital since such products, which often include several motors, tend to run hot.
At K, SABIC also highlighted some of its work in 3D printing, including a sleek, prototype aircraft seat. The ergonomically advanced seat, designed by Studio Gavari and printed by Stratasys, using filament made from SABIC’s Ultem™ 9085 resin. In addition, the resulting seat has fewer parts.
Also in the aircraft arena, SABIC highlighted its Clear Lexan™ XHR sheet series. Compared to glass-based transparent products, this polycarbonate sheet is 250 times more impact resistant, up to 50 times lighter, and offers 80 percent light transmission, while meeting all necessary regulations.
Speaking of transparent, lightweight sheet, SABIC also displayed a portion of the ICEhouse™, where ICE stands for “Innovation for the Circular Economy.” The project represents how structures can easily be built, disassembled and reused with advanced materials supporting the circular economy.
The energy-efficient ICEhouse uses an aluminium frame structure and several forms of PC sheeting. Used on the structure’s translucent walls and ceilings, multiwall sheets can offer energy savings of up to 50 percent compared to monolayer glass.
SABIC also is actively developing carbon fiber compounds. “Everybody would love to have a cheaper carbon fiber,” said Occhiello, “but to me the key thing is that we have to get smarter at using it. … Isotropic [design] is current and perfect for metals,” he noted, “but anisotropic has very good potential for composites.” Occhiello suggests that wisely applying anisotropic design will reduce the amount of fiber needed in composite parts, “and by doing so, you automatically get a cost reduction.”
Meantime, Dr. Fabrice Bertinchamps, SABIC’s global leader for all polymer products except polyethylene, referenced a new automotive glazing application that is about to go commercial in China. That application involves the use of polycarbonate in a side rear window in a sport-utility-type vehicle.
Bertinchamps said that the push for lightweighting, good structural properties and lower costs are helping to drive greater penetration of classical thermoplastics – such as long glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene – into vehicles. Automakers tend to use such materials to make large molded components and semi-structural parts such as instrument panel carriers, tailgates, front-end modules and seat structures.
Another growth area, he suggested, is the continued replacement of metals with plastic/metal hybrid structures. Indeed, perhaps the most imposing sight on SABIC’s K show stand was the full-size cab of Scania AB’s latest-generation truck model. This truck includes more than 30 applications with thermoplastic materials from SABIC, totaling some 140 kg per vehicle.
Another megatrend is urbanization. By 2050, the United Nations estimates the global population will swell to 9.6 billion, and 70 percent of those people will live in urban areas. These factors will drive the need for both more energy-efficient personal vehicles and affordable mass-transportation systems.
This in turn will drive greater adoption of electric or advanced hybrid powertrains in cars and trucks, while elevating the need for efficient railroads and subways. The European Rail Research Advisory Council, for example, estimates that up to 9,300 new light-rail vehicles and some 14,000 subway cars will likely be needed over a 20-year period.
Bertinchamps sees another major trend of importance — the electrification of secondary cities in places such as China. Some governments are offering strong incentives for developing low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) — all-electric, lightweight, very small cars that typically have top speeds of 60 km per hour. Since these travel at such low speeds, he explained, they are not subject to the same regulatory requirements in terms of body structure, which means more opportunities for using plastic composites.
The above touches on just some of the emerging and expanding market opportunities for advanced plastics and plastic composites. Stay tuned for further reports to follow in coming articles.
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very good vision and accurate in logic and reason
Current areas of development have been highlighted very well. In immediate future Renewables such as Solar, Wind , Fuel Cells are emerging very fast. Soon the world may be talking about Global Power Grid for 24/7 harnessing of Solar.More and more of advanced and efficient materials will be required. On threshold are opportunities galore for Plastics & polymers to deliver functionally superior materials.
Re: “When it comes to high-end electronics….materials will need to operate at high temperatures without deformation or loss of properties”.
Maybe should have been expanded to “AND still meet ridged environmental requirements.” I find it a little unsettling that environmental restrictions are not even mentioned here when you consider how much it impacts the material specification process in our industry these days.
It would be nice to know that the issue is bright on the radar of those at the highest levels of the plastic materials industry.
Innovative, Excellent as per my view of knowledge K 2016. When it comes to conjugated polymer with Nanomaterials need to operate and high area of applications without degrade properties to other polymers. Renewable area of application as Sensor, Radar, Fuel, Solar and high end electronics of advanced and efficient materials will be required polymer functionally superior materials.