3 New Manufacturing Materials That Are Changing Our Environment

To conclude our manufacturing series, we want to draw our attention to a very positive move in the manufacturing world – environmentally-friendly manufacturing – and cover some of the exciting new materials that’s making this happen.

1. Recycled Windshields

Yes, windshields. It sounds like a surprising new material but old car windshields are actually being recycled to create new fibreglass insulation, concrete and a number of other items.

Typically, we don’t think of windshields as materials, but in fact, roughly 15 million windshields need to be replaced each year in the US, which is equivalent to 600 million pounds of glass and plastic. The sad thing is that usually these valuable materials will end up in landfill, however, this is starting to change.

Windshield replacement companies, like Guardian Glass, are partnering up with recycling companies and using the glass for fiberglass insulation, a component in concrete blocks and bottles. The plastic that’s in between the two sheets of glass that makes a windshield is also being put to good use by being recycled into many things, including carpet glue.

By taking the millions of unusable windshields out of landfill and recycling them into useable products, we’re not only benefiting the manufacturing industry by giving it a new material to play with but also improving the environment. That’s a win-win situation in our book.

2. Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Coatings

Next up, we have a new material that’s making energy savings, reducing rust on steel, stopping ice on airplane wings and preventing the growth of algae on water pipes and systems. This material is the efficient water-repelling coating called nanostructured superhydrophobic coatings.

This material is made up of oxide-based powders, which trap a layer of air on the coating’s surface, making the powders extremely water repellent. This also reduces the frictional forces between water and a surface, which results in huge energy savings and maintenance costs – both of which benefit the environment.

The nanostructures superhydrophobic coatings can be applied to large-scale surfaces through sprays or painting techniques, which are easy and cheap to apply. The other benefit is that this coating.

3. Paptic

At number three, we have the new material Paptic – a revolutionary, environmentally-friendly new material replacing paper and plastic. Paptic was invented to combat the downfalls of paper and plastic and has several brilliant benefits:

• Paptic consists mainly of renewable materials like wood and fibre
• It’s biodegradable, which decreases pollution
• It’s stretchable and doesn’t rip as easily as paper
• It can be recycled
• It’s 30% lighter and takes up less space than paper bags
• And, it’s good value for money

Paptic can be used as a carrier bag or packaging, which is recyclable and resource efficient as it’s lightweight and takes up less space than paper. It can also replace plastics in various applications, where tough but flexible material is needed. We hope to see a lot more of Paptic in the future.

If you would like to find out more about new materials in the manufacturing industry, give our top five manufacturing materials that we think will transform your world a read!

When manufacturing with new materials, advanced design is vital. Technology can make this happen and here at Baker Baynes we specialise in helping businesses adopt the technology needed to make great designs and manufacturing. Get in touch and we’d be happy to help.