Sustainable packaging: NatureWorks uses open source strategy to spur adoption of new biobased products and components

To spur innovation and drive biopolymers more widely into injection molding applications, NatureWorks LLC is borrowing a page from the computer industry and making details for its new, high-heat, high-impact bioresin, Ingeo™ 3801X available by providing open source access to both formulation and compounding procedure.

Now, the full details of the proprietary Ingeo™ 3801X recipe1 including impact modifier, crystallization accelerant, and agents for reinforcement and nucleation are openly available to Ingeo™ customers. Details about the formulation were first released in April to attendees at the international biopolymers conference, Innovation Takes Root.

Those interested in acquiring the Ingeo™ 3801X formulation and its sister high-heat formulation (without impact modifier), Ingeo™ HHIM 670-82-01, can email NatureWorks for more information.

“With the NatureWorks formulation in hand, independent specialty resin companies and brand owners with captive operations will be in a position to use Ingeo™ as the foundation for biobased injection molded products and components,” said Jed Randall, NatureWorks product manager. “Furthermore, the details of the formulation can serve as a basis for research and development in further tailoring biobased solutions for the semi-durable segment of the plastics market.”

Ingeo™ 3801X bioresin, which is 80 percent biobased, can be used as a low-carbon-footprint injection molding alternative material to oil-based plastic. This formulation offers thermal dimensional stability up to 120º Celsius (248º F), notched Izod impact strength greater than two foot-pounds per inch (107 J/m), and modulus of ~ 450,000 psi (3.10 GPa). Injection molding cycle times are comparable to those for styrenic resins.

“Just in the last 18 months we saw a critical mass developing around Ingeo™ biopolymer from resin to retail,” said Marc Verbruggen, NatureWorks president and chief executive officer. “Ingeo™ production capacity has doubled to 140 million metric tons of resin and fiber. Equipment manufacturers and additives and blends companies are independently developing a host of new solutions. Ingeo™ is within variable cost parity of oil-based plastics, and brand owners, retailers, and consumers are becoming genuinely focused on lowering overall carbon footprint, which is spurring product development.”

SOURCE: NatureWorks

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