The new Innovative Materials 2023 volume 6 has just been released
CornWall: from corn to wall
StoneCycling and Circular Matters developed a joint product – CornWall – to accelerate the spread of biobased building materials. CornWall is a wall finishing material crafted from plant-based biomass. It is sourced primarily from the cores of regional (Western Europe) corn cobs.
From sugar to climate-friendly PET
Sugar extracted from corn, sugar beet, and straw is the raw material for future plastic production. Together with Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Danish company Topsoe, which supplies technology for the green transition of chemical and fuel production etc., is developing a biomass-based method for producing one of the components used in the production of PET plastic.
‘It isn’t easy to develop a new technology on your own’
The AiM2XL research programme is a collaborative effort by a broad consortium of companies and researchers in various disciplines to explore the pros and cons of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, for a range of applications. One of the programme’s successes has been the production of a massive stainless steel ship’s rudder with a new 3D-printing technology based on wire arc welding.
Lowtech building materials: better, cleaner and cheaper
Natural building materials can help make rental housing affordable and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A research project funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) shows that operating and maintenance costs can be reduced using climate-regulating building materials such as wood and clay, as well as through smart planning. Construction technology becomes redundant. Europe’s largest earth building in Darmstadt, also built with support from DBU, shows how much potential there is in earth and loam as a building material.
Optimisation of hard-soft material interfaces
Most people can relate to having a laptop charger break right where the flexible cable meets the solid adapter. This is just one example of how difficult it is to effectively interface hard and soft materials. Using a unique 3D printing process, TU Delft researchers produced hybrid multi-material interfaces that reached a remarkable closeness to nature’s design of bone-tendon connections. Their research findings, recently published in Nature Communications, have numerous potential applications.
Dutch Design Week 2023
Every year in October the Dutch Design Week (DDW) takes place in Eindhoven. Northern Europe’s largest design event presented the work of designers from October 21 to 29, 2023, spread over more than a hundred locations in the city.
