To spur innovation and drive biopolymers more widely into injection moulding applications, NatureWorks LLC is making details for its new, high-heat, high-impact bioresin, Ingeo™ 3801X available by providing open source access to both, formulation and compounding procedure.

Now, the full details of the proprietary Ingeo 3801X recipe including impact modifier, crystallisation accelerant and agents for reinforcement and nucleation are openly available to Ingeo customers.

‘With the NatureWorks formulation in hand, independent specialty resin companies and brand owners with captive operations will be in a position to use Ingeo as the foundation for biobased injection moulded products and components, said Jed Randall, NatureWorks Product Manager. ‘Furthermore, the details of the formulation can serve as a basis for research and development in further tailoring biobased solutions for the semi-durable segment of the plastics market’.

Ingeo 3801X bioresin, which is 80 percent biobased, can be used as a low-carbon footprint injection moulding alternative material to oil-based plastic. This formulation offers thermal dimensional stability upto 120º Celsius (248º F), notched Izod impact strength greater than two foot-pounds per inch (107 J/m), and modulus of ~ 450,000 psi (3.10 GPa). Injection moulding cycle times are comparable to those for styrenic resins.

‘In the last 18 months we saw a critical mass developing around Ingeo biopolymer from resin to retail’, said Marc Verbruggen, NatureWorks President and Chief Executive Officer. ‘Ingeo production capacity has doubled to 140 million metric tonnes of resin. Equipment manufacturers and additives and blends companies are independently
developing a host of new solutions. Ingeo is within variable cost parity of oil-based plastics, and brand owners, retailers, and consumers are becoming genuinely focused on lowering overall carbon footprint, which is spurring product development.’