NPE: Building a better future

Lou Reade

21-Nov-2014

The construction industry is the largest contributor to carbon emissions, so is under huge pressure to improve sustainability. The industry is already using plastics to do this in a number of ways: it is substituting conventional resins with bio-derived or recycled materials; reducing the amount of materials that it uses, through better design; and using materials such as poly-urethane (PU) foam as an insulator to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

EconCore of Belgium has developed a method for making thermoplastic honeycomb sandwich panels for the building and construction industry. It says its ThermHex honeycomb core is far more cost-effective than traditional products – because it is made using a highly automated production process – yet retains lightness, stiffness and strength.

Football stadium

Plastics are becoming increasingly prevalent in sports stadiums around the world

The technology enables the production of cores and panels from a variety of plastic sheet materials including polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyamide. A single, continuously extruded sheet is converted into panels in three stages. First, it is thermoformed into shape, by heating the sheet and forming it over a mould; then, it is folded to form the core; finally, it is bonded to an outer skin material to create the finished sandwich panel.

PP honeycomb panels can replace plywood – which is heavy and water-sensitive – in applications such as temporary fencing and concrete casting. In PVC, EconCore is developing products for applications including flooring, cladding and sidings.

EconCore recently joined forces with specialty chemicals company LANXESS to develop cores from Durethan polyamide. At the same time, continuous fibre-reinforced Tepex composites, from its subsidiary Bond-Laminates, will be used as the skin material.

However, panels do not have to rely solely on plastics. “We are exploring new material combinations beyond mono-material sandwich panel concepts,” says John Sewell, market development manager. “Our combination of thermoplastic ThermHex honeycomb core and aluminium or steel skins brings panel weight to levels that are not possible today in mass metal panel production.”

RAISING THEIR PROFILE

Plastics, particularly PVC, are now fundamental to the production of window profiles. PVC glazing helps to boost building efficiency by minimising heat loss from houses. Little wonder, then, that figures from market research firm Freedonia predict a 40% increase in the value of the global plastic windows market by 2020.

But the green credentials stretch further than just superior insulation: many PVC windows are now made with a high proportion of recycled material. Machinery manufacturers such as Battenfeld-Cincinnati have developed special equipment to make high-quality profiles that use up to 75% recycled material.

The profiles are made by extruding plastics through a die. The company’s machinery and co-extrusion dies extrude recycled and virgin resin at the same time: the recycled material forms the inner core of the structure, while the virgin resin forms a thin skin over the top.

And materials producer BASF has developed a grade of its Ultradur polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) that can replace metal reinforcements in thermally insulated PVC window profiles. The material, developed with Dalian Shide of China, has a melting point close to that of PVC.

The two materials are extruded simultaneously – creating a co-extruded PVC/PBT window profile in a single step that requires no steel reinforcement. The all-plastic design reduces heat transfer, according to BASF.

“Energy efficient construction translates to cost savings for consumers, which increases the value of buildings using such window profiles,” says Andy Postlethwaite, senior vice president for performance materials at BASF Asia Pacific.

GRAND DESIGNS

On a far larger scale, architects are specifying plastics to help bring their visions to life – and nowhere is this more apparent than in the ultimate prestige project: sports stadiums.

A good example is the new stadium of Spanish football team Athletic Bilbao, which features an enormous facade that uses an advanced fluoroplastic called ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), made by 3M Advanced Materials subsidiary Dyneon.

The facade is made of a tensioned single ETFE film, inscribed in a twisted steel frame. The film is produced in thicknesses of 12-300 microns – and is around 5% of the weight of a comparable glass construction.

Another 3M fluoroplastic – polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) – also plays its part in stadium design. It has been used as a protective coating for fibreglass membranes at new two new stadiums in Brazil – Porto Alegre and Manaus. The PTFE protects the glass cloth against UV rays, humidity and other environmental effects.

Attempts to improve the environmental performance of the construction industry can be seen just about everywhere – from low-carbon cement to the inclusion of solar panels on roofs. And plastics can play its part too, whether by saving weight, boosting insulation or promoting recyclability.

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