Polytives GmbH, a specialist in the development and production of special polymer additives, announces the successful completion of a research project in collaboration with the Thuringian Institute for Textile and Plastics Research (TITK). The research project was part of a partnership within the Thuringian technology competition “get started 2gether” and pursued the goal of improving the processing and material properties of biopolymers, especially polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), by adding innovative additives. This is the second project within the “get started 2gether” funding program that Polytives has successfully completed with the business-oriented research institute TITK.
PHAs are a promising alternative to existing synthetic materials, as they come from sustainable resources and are also biodegradable. They belong to the group of thermoplastics, but are rarely used as they are quite brittle and have low thermal resistance during processing.
The aim of the research project was to optimize the processing possibilities and thus significantly improve the usability of PHA for industrial applications. Using the processing aid bFI A 3745 from Polytives, different PHA types were compounded and then tested for their processing quality and the resulting plastic properties. These TITK tests show that even a small amount of the additive significantly improves flowability and increases the melt flow rate (MFR) by up to 30 percent. The improved flowability increases the temperature window in which the bioplastics can be processed more easily.
This opens up completely new application and market potential for PHA. In particular, they can now make a significant contribution towards the more extensive use of sustainable plastics.
“Our collaboration with the TITK is an excellent example of cooperative research and development in Thuringia. Together, we have made important progress in making biopolymers such as PHA more attractive for industrial applications and thus driving sustainable innovation from our region,” says Oliver Eckardt, Managing Director at Polytives.
For Benjamin Redlingshöfer, Managing Director of the TITK and Chairman of the Thuringia Research and Technology Association (FTVT), this successful project is another example of how the “get started 2gether” competition initiated by the FTVT acts as a real accelerator for start-ups. “Our mission is to successfully transfer innovative ideas to industrial market maturity,” says Redlingshöfer. “With Polytives, we have now been able to achieve this in an exemplary manner for the second time. We provided the company with intensive support from the first laboratory tests in Jena to the move to the new site with its own production facility in Rudolstadt. And we will be very happy to continue doing so.”
