Aesthetics and sustainability: Covestro to showcase CMF specialities during Milan Design Week debut
With a focus on the circular economy becoming increasingly important, Covestro is taking part in the world-renowned Milan Design Week (6-12 June) for the first time.
There, material solutions will be presented that designers can use to contribute to aesthetics, functionality and sustainability. An extensive Colour, Material, Finish (CMF) sample library will be on display at the Covestro booth.
Dr Christopher Stillings, Head of Color and Design in Covestro’s Engineering Plastics segment, said: "Together with these important target groups, we are also developing scalable design solutions with a focus on circularity and higher volume production. For inspiration and to start the dialogue, we offer them various aesthetics toolkits that explain the visual and tactile properties of our polycarbonates and other materials, and also introduce 24 trendy colours."
Covestro’s vision is to become fully circular and thus offers climate-neutral polycarbonates and polyurethane raw materials, develops recycling technologies, and engages in the reuse of recycled post-consumer plastics.
New polycarbonate grades are carbon-neutral from cradle to factory gate, due to the use of renewable electricity for production processes at Covestro and the introduction of raw materials derived from mass-balanced biowaste and residual materials. ‘The plastics offer equally good quality as their fossil-based counterparts,’ a recent press release stated, ‘and can be integrated into customers' existing production processes without compromising on quality.’
Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) have proven to be versatile materials in a variety of applications, from electronic devices to sporting goods. Covestro aims to make the products more circular and is working with partners in the value chain to achieve this.
Due to the good recyclability of TPU, Covestro is expanding its portfolio of recycled grades. Together with Dutch customer Fairphone, the company developed circular material solutions for its Fairphone 3 and 4 models based on fully and partially recycled TPU and polycarbonate grades.
On 10 June, Covestro will unveil the second edition of its CMF trend reports in collaboration with the renowned Shanghai Tongji University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Good Matter Design agency. The three trend reports for the automotive, electrical and electronics as well as healthcare industries look at global trends in consumer lifestyles.