Since mid-January of this year, the call for a ban on perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) has been the talk of the town, and not just throughout the industry. And as befits our times, the news, questions, prophecies and prophecies of doom have been pouring in. Time for us to name the facts, to take stock of the situation and to illuminate future scenarios.

In the course of the European Green Deal, the call for environmentally friendly alternatives and closed-loop systems is also becoming louder and louder in the area of technical compounds. More and more companies are therefore already using recyclates when purchasing materials in order to reduce their carbon footprint and thus meet the requirements of the market. High-quality recyclates that can be used technically are in greater demand than ever before. They make a valuable and, above all, verifiable contribution to significantly reducing the ecological footprint.

Lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel. Impressively stiff and unyielding - even when exposed to extreme heat/cold - and at the same time friendly to any mating partners in tribological applications. Already more than 50 years old and, thanks to tailor-made compounding, always in perfect shape for innovations in terms of performance. This characterizes the carbon fiber, or rather the carbon fibers - because, after all, there is more than one.

Welcome to a fight of the extra class, where it is about nothing less than the title "World Champion Industrial 3D Printing" ". In one corner: Extrusion printing (FFF – Fused Filament Fabrication and FGF – Fused Granulate Fabrication) - represented by "Doc Medeiros"; the Brazilian Thiago Medeiros Araujo - known for his passionate, spirited fighting style. And in the opposite corner: the powder pressure - represented by "Doc Rechberger"; the German Marcus Rechberger, known for his extremely persistent fighting style. The fight goes over six rounds ...

Highly stressed plastic parts can be found in a wide variety of applications. From medical technology to the energy industry to the automotive industry. In surgery in the form of breast spreaders and in the field of diagnostics in the form of endoscopic handles; in wind turbines in ball bearing cages and in cars in brake boosters or exhaust gas recirculation valves. As different as the demands may be – they all have an extremely high requirement profile in common. Characterized by high temperatures, mechanical/dynamic loads, the highest demands on strength, impact strength and/or rigidity. How do plastic parts ensure this? How technical plastics or high-performance plastics help to keep people healthy or technical systems running day and night or enable them to perform at their best? You can find the answers here.

3D printing is impressively complex: It is new and also already established. On the one hand, it stands for technology of the future, and on the other hand, many designers - still (?) - don't know what to do with it. It provides answers and at the same time raises questions. For some it is their new hobby, for others it is already an established production technique; for some it is the new hype and for others it is already lived routine. And wherever you are in terms of 3D printing and what you know or think about it - for us at LEHVOSS, it is an industrial application that we have been serving for over 10 years with material developments and, above all, material advancements.

Long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (LFT) are pioneers and enablers. For new ways of thinking, new designs, new components; for breaking down classic manufacturing thought patterns; for opening up new design freedom and thus ultimately for gaining degrees of freedom. The pivot, or rather the art, for the material developer is to ensure that as many long fibers as possible are incorporated into the injection molded part. From the initial state as granules, through processing in the mold, and into the component. Only then can LFT develop their advantages to the full extent.

The role that the material developer plays (or ideally should play) quickly becomes clear if you take a closer look at the entire chain - from product development to application development to the tooling/processing process - in plastics production or plastics compounding. Then you quickly come to the conclusion that the material developer plays a very decisive, major role. The earlier he is involved in the material selection process, the more efficiently the selection of the potentially suitable material can be narrowed down. His range of applications extends from the selection of the potentially suitable polymer base and the appropriate additives to the right tool and process design. This means that a good material developer actually plays several roles at once.

When the keywords "high performance" or "all-rounder" are mentioned, the air is generally thin - at the latest, this is where the wheat begins to separate from the chaff. This applies all the more to plastics and polymers in tribological applications. When speeds, pressure ratios, operating times or temperatures in sliding or ball bearings, for example, increase massively, when the requirements for sliding friction properties and the expectations for TCO optimization grow at the same time, and when the performance capabilities of standard plastics such as POM, PBT or polyamides reach their limits - then high-performance polymer-based compounds come into play.  

The topic of high-performance compounds consists of far more than PEEK and Co. Every designer who is looking for new ways to replace metal, for example - whether for reasons of weight or corrosion - must be aware that, as an innovative pioneer, he is embarking on "winding paths full of stumbling blocks". This article is intended to show what needs to be taken into account to ensure that development projects with high-performance compounds are successful.