Matrix Polymers R&D doesn’t stop because of COV-19

It’s a strange time - the one we are living in now… COVID-19 has changed reality as we know it. The social, emotional and economic implications of this will pose a huge threat to the humanity.

Some things that we may have took for granted, such as: our “boring” daily routine, seems only a distant memory and we have since had to mould our life and work styles around it – forcing us to find new ways of communicating.

Matrix Polymers, like many other businesses, has been allowed to stay open while following all the government directive, allowing all employees who can work from home to do and enforcing social distance of at least 2 meters in all other cases, thus our Technical team who is still working from our laboratories in Speke. 

Research is at the heart of Matrix Polymers and we put all the possible measures in place to make sure that we carried on doing what we do best: challenging the palette of materials available to the rotational moulder by pushing the boundaries of current products and combine new technologies to produce innovate materials.

One of the most exciting projects that we have been working on recently is the development of a high stiffness Polypropylene (PP) foam for use within the rotational moulding industry.

The scope of developing such material is to offer stiffer and a more advanced alternative to the current Polyethylene (PE) foams which are on the market to allow our customers explore larger geometry within their structures in a variety of applications.

Typically, PE foam is utilized in boat and sail application. The introduction of PP could bring with it the ability to increase the length of designs where they were previously limited by the level of stiffness, allowing rotational moulders to penetrate new markets and compete with Glass reinforced plastic. Furthermore, reduction in shot weight and use of a two-layer structure could be also achieved. 

In graph 1 it is reported the stiffness of PE foam vs PP foam: a 40% increase was recorded!

We are delighted to announce that this work is part of the approved SPE ANTEC 2020 paper, and Matrix will be presented in April at ANTEC 2020: The Virtual Edition on 22nd April at 20.00 UK time.

For any question please contact Dr  Sara Cammarano, at [email protected].