Top 5 material technology developments of 2013

Throughout 2013, we saw myriad launches of a diverse range of new materials, with a cluster of introductions coming at K 2013. For this reason, selecting the “top five materials” was nearly an impossiblew task, so we decided to expand the list a bit by categorizing the new material developments by applications that are seeing increasing activity.

Included are biobased materials targeted to packaging and beyond; specialty resins for medical and healthcare uses; materials for the swiftly-growing LED lighting market; new materials for additive manufacturing; and, enhanced polyolefins for a broad range of applications.

Biobased materials:

• First Film Based on Nylon 410
• Cereplast Forms Subsidiary for Algae-Based Bioplastics
• First Biobased PBT Production Under Way
• New Nylons Produced with 100% Renewable Monomer

Medical-Grade materials:

• Aromatic TPU for Long-Term Medical Implantation
• Fully Fluorinated LSR is a first for Medical Implants
• New Easy-Flow Medical-Grade PC
• Transparent Nylon for Home Healthcare Applications

3. LED Lighting materials:

• High-Temperature, Reflective Resins for LED Packages

Novel Polyolefins

• Long-Glass PP Boasts Improved Impact & Lower Cost
• LDPE homopolymer produced with high-pressure tubular technology
• Second-generation olefin block copolymer (OBCs) Intune, PP-based OBCs for compatibilizing polar and nonpolar resins

Additive Manufacturing/Prototyping materials:

• First Nylon 6 Powder for SLS Rapid Manufacturing
• Nature Works Introduces PLA Filament to the 3D Printing Market (coming soon)