KIMYA, the additive manufacturing subsidiary of French printing and coating firmARMOR, has announced plans to extend its recycled filament range to include new high-performance materials by 2024.
As part of the third stage of ARMOR’s FIL’REC project, which is tied to the ORPLAST plastics recycling scheme, KIMYA is targeting between 70 and 100 percent recycled materials within future high-performance filaments, without affecting their properties.
“Developing recycled high-performance materials poses a significant technical challenge for our teams, but which will enable us to provide the market with a unique offering, as there are no platters in the additive manufacturing market currently using recycled high-performance materials,” said Nicolas Morand, KIMYA’s R&D, Innovation and Industrialization Manager.
“It is also an opportunity for us to extend our offering of engineering materials and to expand our range of eco-designed filaments.”
KIMYA’s materials expertise
Through its ‘Lab’, ‘Materials’ and ‘Factory’ services, KIMYA produces filaments, custom materials and low volumes of parts for clients in a variety of sectors, including aerospace, automotive, medical, and jewelry.
Since its entry to the 3D printing market in 2016, KIMYA’s filament range has continued to find new applications, withthree of its materials qualified for usewithMakerBot’sMETHOD X 3D printer in December 2020. Deploying its newly-qualified ABS Kevlar, ABS-ESD and ABS-EC filaments alongside theMETHOD Xreportedly helped the firm achieve substantial savings at its own facilities.
KIMYA has also3D printed industry-standard spare partsfor the railway industry using its custom PEKK filament, and helped start-upCAPS MEindustrialize the production of a neweco-friendly brand of reusable coffee capsules. The start-up turned to KIMYA to rapidly iterate the capsule’s design, which includes a six-part 3D printed mechanism.
Recycled high-performance materials
Back in 2018, ARMOR’s FIL’REC project was selected by theFrench Environment and Energy Management Agency(ADEME) as part of its ORPLAST plastics recycling initiative. The initiative supports manufacturers that convert raw materials into products that include recycled plastics, and also promotes the adaptation of production systems to include recycled raw materials.
The FIL’REC project has already seen KIMYA develop and commercialization four new recycled filaments, namely HIPS-R, PETG-R, PLA-R and TPU-R. Now, the ORPLAST project is entering its third phase, which will see KIMYA focus its research on developing a new line of recycled high-performance materials by 2024.
The company is seeking to achieve between 70 and 100 percent recycled materials within these high-performance filaments without affecting their desirable properties. Due to their higher resistance levels to temperature, wear and warping, these materials are suitable for demanding applications within the railway, automotive and aerospace sectors.
As such, KIMYA is posed with a considerable technical challenge to maintain these properties with the addition of high levels of recycled materials. The firm will work mainly with French operators during this stage of the ORPLAST project in order to create a local and more sustainable production ecosystem.
“在KIMYA,我们知道只有通过添加我们的年代trengths that we will be able to create a local and sustainable production ecosystem,” said Pierre-Antoine Pluvinage, Business Development Director at KIMYA. “We have set ourselves the primary objective of working with French companies, from the sourcing of recycled plastic materials to the various stages of technical feasibility.”
The firm hopes to have developed its range of recycled high-performance materials by 2024, and although it remains unclear exactly how many will be developed by the end of the project, the range is tipped to be “comprehensive”. The firm believes offering these materials will set it apart from other material manufacturers in the additive manufacturing space.
“Born out of the determination of the ARMOR group to turn waste into a genuine resource, KIMYA entered the additive manufacturing market in 2016 by offering its first filament designed using industrial waste from food packaging,” continued Pluvinage. “We have since continued to expand our range of eco-designed materials in order to meet the ever-growing demand. Our ultimate goal is to offer a comprehensive range of filaments containing between 70 and 100 percent recycled materials.
“This third stage of the ORPLAST program is once again an excellent vehicle for private-sector operators to demonstrate that growth and innovation can no longer be done at the expense of resource preservation.”
Recycled AM filaments
KIMYA is far from the only player using recycled plastic within its 3D printing filaments. Last year, polymer manufacturerCovestroadded a neweco-friendly Arnite AM2001 GF PETto its FGF 3D printing material portfolio made from recycled plastic waste.
Shortly afterward, the firm partnered with fellow polymer 3D printing specialistPolymakerto debut a new material partiallymade from recycled plastic bottlesat TCT Asia 2021.
Spanish 3D printing producerRecreushas also launched itseco-friendly TPU filamententirely made up of recycled footwear and in-house waste, while Cornish-basedFishy Filamentsis well-known for turningrecycled nylon fishing nets into 3D printing filament, recently winning the TÜV SÜD sustainability in Additive Manufacturing category at the2021 3D Printing Industry Awards.
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Featured image showsKIMYA will develop new high-performance materials from recycled plastic for the third stage of the ORPLAST scheme. Photo via KIMYA.
