Objective
Introduction The Wilhelm-Klauditz-lnstitut at Braunschweig in cooperation with Tubus Bauer Company at Bad Säckingen are currently developing a light natural sandwich material (LNS) with wood based top layers and a core of evenly orientated hollow plant stalks embedded in a matrix of natural foam. These natural sandwich materials are very light and extremely rigid. The production of LNS comprises an environmentally friendly primary production, manufacture, processing and disposal. LNS can be used for a broad range of applications. In this proposal it is aimed to substitute sandwich materials made from plastics or light metals regarded as 'high tech - products' and used in vehiclce construction and transport systems. Many companies have already expressed their interest in using LNS.
Objectives The overall objective is to provide the basis for scaling up the production of high performance LNS by further development of the whole chain from the primary production of the stem raw material to the technical processing of LNS.
This will be done by: . Use of pure plant-based core foam matrix and bonding adhesives in top layers. . A comparison of system quality characteristics for `LNS suitability' using different crops: Arundo donax, Bamboo, Miscanthus, annual and perennial rye, triticale, hemp and nettles. . Improvement of the stalk raw material by developing an optimized cultivation method with emphasis on Miscanthus. . Production and testing of pilot products in cooperation with commercial partner.
State of art The manufacture of light sandwich materials is mainly based on PVC, polyurethane or aluminium. The use of synthetic materials is critical with respect to production and disposal, and the production of aluminium based sandwich materials needs a very high energy input.
A number of test products of natural sandwich materials have already been produced but the production of LNS is only on a laboratory scale. Upscaling to commercial applications is hampered by specific technical problems: wide variation in stem quality, embedding of stems in an appropriate foam matrix, substitution of phenolic based synthetic adhesives in top layers with natural components. Depending on the application of the sandwich, the core material can be made from stems from a number of different plant species with differences in stem characteristics markedly influencing the stability, flexibility and the weight of the final product. Miscanthus has given so far the best results but uneven and crooked plant stems (as for other crops) often cause problems. However, the material from some Miscanthus fields has been found to be almost optimal - the cause therefore has still not been investigated.
In economic terms, the introduction of LNS to the market stands a good chance. The production costs of LNS in a technical scale are estimated to be 175 - 350 ECU/m3, far below those for plywood (500 - 850 eculm3 or sandwich materials based on plastics (beginning at 1500 ECU/m3).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences polyurethane
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry post-transition metals
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries forestry
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8830 TJELE
Denmark
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