PolyOne adds extrusion grades and colours to Natural Fibre Reinforced Composites portfolio

PolyOne is using Fakuma in Friedrichshafen as its Launchpad for new colour and extrusion options within its reSound Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites portfolio.

Introduced this year in March, the company’s range of reSound NF composites feature an engineered natural fibre reinforcement.

“While the automotive industry has responded well to reSound NF, which was introduced earlier this year, we have seen significant interest in these strong, lightweight solutions from manufacturers in consumer and other industries,” said Holger Kronimus, VP Europe and General Manager, PolyOne Specialty Engineered Materials.

“The new colour and extrusion options have been developed to offer non-automotive customers the flexibility and aesthetics they need while maintaining performance and ease of processing.”

New reSound NF colour options include beige, copper, terra cotta, green, blue and black hues. These colours were developed in collaboration with PolyOne’s InVisiOSM Color Inspirations 2016 color collections.

Compared to other natural fibre reinforced solutions, reSound NF materials are said to offer mechanical property improvements of more than 20% for tensile and flexural properties, 10°C to 20°C higher heat deflection temperature, and an increase of more than 50% in impact strength.

PolyOne says independent testing has shown that reSound NF formulations offer equivalent performance to short glass fibre reinforced alternatives, at a 5-10% lower density.