Technological watch

Eastman has announced its collaboration with NB Coatings to create a new solution for interior Class A painted surfaces with Tr?va™ engineering bioplastic. Tr?va offers a viable option for companies interested in creating sustainable, cost-effective products. With the recent commercialization of its carbon renewal technology, Eastman produces Tr?va with biobased and recycled content. When painted with NB Coatings paint systems, Tr?va can meet the demanding Class A surface requirements as specified by OEMs.
Sustainable Alternative for Automotive Applications
"Tr?va provides a biobased, sustainable alternative to polycarbonate, ABS and PC-ABS for interior automotive applications at a cost-neutral position," said Chris Scarazzo, Eastman automotive market segment leader. "Eastman's material innovations match what OEMs need to develop lasting parts with sustainable materials and help them achieve their goals for sustainable content and replacement of petroleum-based plastic."
Sourced from sustainably managed forests, Tr?va has biobased content of 42-46 percent, certified by the USDA's BioPreferred® program. To continue reducing waste and maximizing resources, Tr?va benefits from carbon renewal technology, Eastman's proprietary recycling process that recycles waste plastic typically sent to landfills or found as litter in waterways.
Carbon Renewal Technology
Carbon renewal technology is a chemical recycling technology that diverts mixed waste plastics from the landfill and converts them to simple molecular components that are then reintroduced in the production of a variety of Eastman products, including Tr?va without performance compromise.
Overcoming Challenges of Automotive Interiors
In automotive applications, cellulose based Tr?va exhibits high performance and reduced environmental impact. With optical and birefringence properties, it provides high clarity and superior strength and is suitable for applications such as human machine interface (HMI) lenses. Tr?va also withstands the challenges of automotive interiors, including high temperatures, humidity, UV, scratch/mar and general durability requirements. Tr?va has low VOC emissions, which is critical for interior parts. Its processing ease and excellent flow enable good dimensional stability and thin-wall designs for less material usage and lower weight.
"As an environmentally conscious coating provider, NB Coatings is excited to announce this paintability breakthrough in collaboration with Eastman," said Jesse Fritcher, NB Coatings vice president of technical. "Our trials with Tr?va found adhesion of our coating technologies to be comparable, if not easier, than traditional grades of PC-ABS that are currently in use, providing new sustainable options for automotive design engineers."