Sustainability

Features of Delrin®

Delrin® - the ultimate in sustainable acetal technology

If you are an injection moulder or extruder of acetal and want to become more sustainable, you may be considering how best to reduce your plastic usage / polymer content and CO₂ footprint. Delrin® homopolymer acetal provides a full circle solution to designing and manufacturing products with sustainability in mind.

Full circle sustainability

Sustainability needs to be considered throughout every stage of the product manufacturing process e.g. carbon emissions, water usage, waste products etc. This is better known as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA covers the entire product journey: from the initial point of creation (cradle) to the point the product is finally disposed of (grave). The total picture depicts the true environmental impact of a product.

Delrin has looked at every angle and detail of Delrin® homopolymer in order to conduct its sustainability assessment using a cradle-to-gate LCA in accordance with ISO 14040/ 14044 methodology.

CO₂production with Delrin® homopolymer acetal

According to data provided by Delrin, when being produced Delrin® acetal produces less CO₂ than other engineering polymers. In fact, Delrin® produces roughly the same CO₂ as renewable products such as PLA, whilst also delivering incredible mechanical properties.

Circular economy and recycling Delrin® acetal

When recycling polymers, not all the regrind generated can necessarily be reused. Sometimes there are limit caps of an average of 30% weight vs virgin resin. Even with such caps, regrind polymer material sometimes needs to be disposed of due to its sensitivity to the recycling process (e.g. detrimental water uptake effects).

With Delrin® acetal, 100% of the waste regrind can be used, even after five passes (moulding, regrinding etc.), with minimal impact on its properties.

Some polymers suffer from degradation when recycled, impacting the melt flow rate (which increases), tensile modulus (which reduces) and impact strength (which reduces).

Delrin® – using the mechanical advantage to be sustainable through design

By taking advantage of the mechanical advantage and extra rigidity of Delrin®, you can save money, processing time and become more sustainable.

Take an example of a cantilever clip which relies on deflection and spring forces. Designs with copolymer will need to be thicker to match the spring back engagement Delrin® can provide. The higher flexural and tensile modulus of Delrin® means you can design parts that use less plastic (by up to 20%), thus becoming more sustainable. If you choose Delrin® and design your cantilever clip thinner, for every 0.5mm of thickness reduced, you could save circa 4 seconds of hold pressure time.

Leverage the power of Delrin® in order to:

Reduce your part weight
Reduce your material spend
Reduce your cycle times
Increase your moulding time capacity
Become sustainable through design

Introducing Delrin® Renewable Attributed – a breakthrough for sustainable polymer materials.

Delrin® Renewable Attributed is an acetal homopolymer with base polymer produced from 100% bio-feedstock from waste, accredited through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) mass balance certification system. It delivers state-of-the-art low VOC technology and top-class mechanical properties with reduced lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions and lower fossil resource use.

Delrin® Renewable Attributed – uncompromising on properties

Delrin® Renewable Attributed provides the same industry-leading acetal homopolymer properties of standard Delrin®, but with a much-improved sustainability profile.

Sustainability through part design optimisation

By optimising part design with Delrin® Renewable Attributed, you can save both cost and environmental impact compared to copolymer alternatives.

With Delrin® Renewable Attributed, you can revolutionise your sustainability strategy

Increase the amount of renewable material in your products as the base polymer of Delrin® Renewably Attributed is produced from 100% certified bio-feedstock from waste (ISCC mass balance).
Design thinner and lighter parts, saving cost and energy, due to the uncompromising properties of Delrin® Renewable Attributed.
See the value in waste – Delrin® Renewable Attributed can be reground multiple times without losing material properties.
Reduce your CO2 emission and fossil resource use with the sustainability profile of Delrin® Renewable Attributed.