Non-toxic flame retardant PP fibre will soon be reality

Mistra Innovation funds Paxymers project for halogen-free flame-retardant polypropylene fibres. The green flame retardant was selected for financing in the tough competition with a total project value of 5 million SEK. The project aims to improve environmental and functional parameters of flame retarded PP-fibres. The project will be conducted with five industrial partners and the University of Borås and Swerea/IVF.

“The Market is looking for alternatives to the dominating polyester fibre especially to achieve an improved environmental footprint. Polypropylene has been a material of interest due to its good recyclability and could also result in cost and weight reductions.” says Amit Paul MD of Paxymer and project leader “The Project group covers almost the entire value chain for fibre and a number of highly interesting applications. Our goal is clear: a competitively priced, high performing, flame retarded PP-fibre with a minimized environmental footprint.”

PP-fibre use has shown strong growth during the last years and it is projected to continue. Heat stabilization and self-extinguishing properties of PP as well as further functionalization is interesting for a number of applications. Industries where products are desired are: transportation, automotive, industrial, furniture, protective clothing and outdoor apparel.

The industrial partners in the project cover most of the supply chain and are well diversified in their applications.

•          Saab Baracuda – defence contractor

•          Borgstena group – fibre applications for transportation, office and home applications

•          FOV – Swedish specialty weaver

•          SKS – melt spinning of mono filaments

•          Klättermusen – premium outdoor apparel and innovator within green materials management.

Mistra Innovation’s mission is to catalyse collaboration between academy and industry to achieve environmentally focused innovation that will contribute to “long term value creation and make a difference for the environment”. The project – with a total value of approx. 5 million SEK – aims to further develop the Paxymer technology for use in flame retarded fibres.

The research team are highly reputed researchers from University of Borås as the main grant holder and Swerea/IVF as supporting institution. They have decades of experience in the field and their expertise range from polymers and fibre modification to fibre processing both in the academic and industrial context.

The project will run over 2 years and the final goal is to have a compound on the market that is verified in the industrial scale and that meets tough environmental demands and flame retardant standards. The market is looking for alternatives to the widely used polyester fibre in order to achieve improved environmental footprint, lightweight applications and one-material concepts to improve recyclability of for instance cars or outdoor apparel.

/Paxymer 2013-08-26