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.

Cycle chic, e-bike boom, bike culture, low-tech, high-tech, bike highways - the bike is in the midst of its reinvention; in the midst of a transformation from a mere means of transportation and sports equipment to an expression of a serene, sustainable, individual attitude to life. More and more people around the world are attaching the same emotional significance to the bicycle as they once did to the car. This makes the bicycle one of the main players in the mobility megatrend. In the midst of this megatrend are also the people who create one of the technological foundations for bicycle designers and their innovative design ideas for bicycle components of all kinds: the plastics compounders or application developers who ensure the composition and thus the performance of the required materials.

Helping people get healthy or even survive is a multi-faceted, multi-layered team effort. In the field of sophisticated medical technology, this comprehensive spectrum also includes all the people who provide the appropriate high-performance plastics for the development of precisely this technology: the plastics compounders who ensure the optimum composition/performance of the required materials.

Lightweight design with plastics is the art of reconciling a wide range of requirements. Demands on the material, the design, the functional integration, the total cost of ownership, the component performance ... the list is long. In order to achieve an effective cost-performance ratio, it is advisable for the material itself to be highly modifiable - in such a way that it gives the designer free rein to think in any direction (for example, to decouple the typical dependence of the property on the processing orientation). Or, to put it another way, if the compounder masters the anisotropies of the material to a degree that enables the designer to come up with a perfectly adapted design for the function of his component. These four examples from the aerospace, mechanical engineering and sporting goods sectors clearly show the directions in which this can go:

In XCF, X stands for Extra. Behind this is the extra carbon fiber technology from the LEHVOSS high-performance compounds product line. With an emphasis on extra: in terms of material properties, it stands for extra stiff, extra strong and extra tough. In terms of customer requirements, it stands for extra-flexible, extra-modifiable and extra-customizable. Provided that one has mastered the entire spectrum of development and compounding: Then nothing stands in the way of improving properties simultaneously, along the three dimensions without sacrificing performance.