Can fiberglass be used like this?
Sustainable furniture is a growing business sector with great potential. Customers and companies around the world are looking for products that have a low impact on the home or work environment. As in other industries, the focus here is on reducing the carbon footprint, durability and recyclability. Sustainable furniture is a growing business sector with great potential. Customers and companies around the world are looking for products that have a low impact on the home or work environment. As in other industries, the focus here is on reducing the carbon footprint, durability and recyclability.
Reduced carbon footprint
In response to the challenge of global climate change, the company was able to significantly reduce its carbon footprint (CO2 footprint) by switching from raw wood and iron materials to high-performance plastics, which reduces processing energy emissions.
Sustainable design
High-performance plastics have huge advantages in this area: they combine strength and durability with low weight and can be used in a variety of ways.
Expandable and interchangeable
BASF has collaborated with award-winning Spanish designer Inma bermúdez to develop a modular concept shelf made of wood and fiberglass reinforced thermoplastic. All plastic elements are expandable and interchangeable, and each shelf can carry 100 kg. In mass production, the product can be made from renewable raw materials to replace current fossil-based raw materials. Sustainable design enables efficient production processes with minimal use of raw materials, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the product. By using materials that can be reused, repaired and easily recycled, a truly sustainable product is created. Fiberglass composites play an increasingly important role today. For example, lightweight, products made of this material can be 1 times lighter than iron products. And corrosion resistance, general corrosion This corrosion is evenly distributed over the entire metal inner and outer surface, causing the cross-section to continue to decrease, and eventually destroy the load-bearing parts. And the common surface treatment of steel, especially sheet metal: adding chromium, the surface will be very bright, generally used as a coating for exposed metal parts, very beautiful. Adding nickel, anti-corrosion, used with chromium, generally expressed as a percentage of zinc, there are Fel/Zn8 zinc coating, there are Fe/ZnFe(2)8 zinc iron coating, you can choose to passivate the thick layer after plating Disp, avoid hexavalent chromium electrophoretic paint, E-Coat, relatively cheap, and very good corrosion resistance coating, defects are easy to fall off in pieces after wear. Blackening, soaking in blackening liquid, this method is the simplest, cheapest, and the worst anti-corrosion effect, Dacromet, expensive, complex process, very good anti-corrosion performance, Delta seal (+Delta Tone), expensive, complex process, very good anti-corrosion performance, often used in China Dacromet replacement, if the requirements are reduced, more use of galvanizing.
Creative Center
Bermúdez and her partner Moritz Krefter drew inspiration for the design of the OTTO rack from architecture, especially bridge construction, and had help from the team at BASF's Creative Center in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The Creative Center consists of industrial designers, material and simulation experts. To achieve this, simulation, material experts and 3D printing worked closely together. This is how everything about OTTO was able to be brought together: functionality, sustainability and design.
