Graft Polymer (UK) PLC has joined forces with the Faculty of Polymer Technology in Slovenia to develop polymer matrices, combining their technological expertise to prepare and test product samples over the course of a year.
Materials provided by Graft will enable the faculty to take part in a number of cornerstone Horizon projects in the European Union.
Graft hopes to use this collaboration as a means of consolidating its growing presence in the innovative field of vitrimer technology.
Graft calls vitrimers “the most dynamic innovation in the polymer industry and a clear step beyond the traditional division of polymers into thermoplastics and thermosets”.
Each of those two classes of polymer has drawbacks in terms of cost, flexibility, product degradation, emission of toxic by-products and inability to be recycled.
Vitrimers, however, are used for the production of SMART polymers, boasting an intriguing set of attributes.
They can reverse their properties with heat, are easily reparable, can be recycled and welded, can flow under mechanical stress and even remember their shape.
Practical uses for vitrimers include adhesives, liquid crystalline elastomers and advanced materials.
Graft chief executive and chief technology officer Victor Bolduev said the new agreement is “further evidence of our market-leading, pioneering technological edge in R&D in the polymer modification field and comes in the wake of a dynamic summer with several new agreements and contracts signed”.
He said it “will allow us to leverage our recently commissioned bespoke production equipment site in Slovenia which is the engine room of our R&D proposition to customers".
Associate Professor Dr. Blaž Nardin, Dean of the Slovenian Faculty of Polymer Technology, added: "We are seeing inexorable demand from multiple industries seeking more efficient, sustainable use of everyday products with more environmentally friendly processes.
“We see vitrimers playing an instrumental role in this evolution and Graft Polymer is ideally placed to provide us with optimal R&D insight and product development in this vital niche.”