The institutes of Fraunhofer are peripheral

arranged:
58 institutes at 32 locations in Germany

Itzehoe
Rostock

Bremen

Responsibilities at the Executive Board

Executive Board A
Corporate policy and
research
President
----------------------------Prof. Bullinger

Executive Board B
Human resources and
legal affairs
-------------------------Dr. Polter

Executive Board C
Finance and
controlling

Executive Board D
CIO, International
business development

------------------------Dr. Gossner

------------------------------Prof. Tsichritzis

Hannover
Golm

Braunschweig
Oberhausen
Dortmund
Duisburg
Aachen Schmallenberg
St. Augustin
Euskirchen

Magdeburg
Halle

Jena

Dresden
Chemnitz

Darmstadt
Wrzburg
Kaiserslautern
Erlangen
St. Ingbert
Saarbrcken
Karlsruhe
Pfinztal
Stuttgart
Freiburg

Berlin

Freising
Mnchen
Holzkirchen

Fraunhofer USA
Fraunhofer USA
Inc. Headquarter
Plymouth,
Michigan
Fraunhofer Center for
Laser Technology
Plymouth, Michigan
Fraunhofer Center for
Coatings and Laser
Applications
Plymouth, Michigan
East Lansing,
Michigan
Fraunhofer Center for
Energy and Environment
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Fraunhofer Center for

Manufacturing Innovation
Boston/Brookline,
Massachusetts
Plymout
East hLansing

Boston
Providenc
Pittsburgh Newark
e
College
Park

Fraunhofer Center for

Manufacturing and
Advanced Materials
Newark, Delaware
Fraunhofer Center for
Molecular
Biotechnology
Newark, Delaware
Fraunhofer Center for
Experimental Software
Engineering
College Park, Maryland

Each R&D center is affiliated with a Fraunhofer Institute in

Germany

Fraunhofer-establishments worldwide

Profile of Fraunhofer
*

58 research institutes, >

13000 employees

> 1,1 billion budget

HannoverBerlin

Aachen Schmallenberg

*
*
*

St. Ingbert

biggest institution for applied

research in Europe
10 % of the budget is
government funding (basic
research)

*
Stuttgart

*
*

90 % of the budget is contract

research

Ecological of ARBOFORM
ARBOFORM is a new compound made of
100% from renewable resources, processable
as a thermoplastic and with some wooden
properties
The raw material is Lignin and Natural Fibers
Lignin is a by-product of the pulp industry and
the volume arising worldwide is about 50
million tonnes per year

ARBOFORM vs Plastics
ARBOFORM is the ecological, aesthetic
and yet sophisticated alternative to your
plastics products
offers plastics-specific processing
capability which means competitive pricing
and high accuracy for products so far
machined from laminated wood,
presspahn or MDF board
Clean by ecological standards, ensuring
more environmentally sound manufacture
and disposal than the above wood
materials that use toxic glue binders.

The Advantages
Can be processed at
standard mixing and injection
molding machines, as an
usual thermoplastics material.
Low processing temperature
is one of the advantages
Lower temperature means
lower energy consumption
and loading to the machine
Good fire resistance without
using a flame retardant
The price of ARBOFORM is
comparable, is using to build
high quality products

Exhibits good mechanical

properties, compared with
some naturally grown wood
High stiffness
ARBOFORM can be
produces using various kinds
of lignin (more than 10 kinds),
natural fibers (flax, hemp,
sisal, wood) and natural
additives (plasticizers,
pigment, processing agents)
It can be burn after utilization
with consequently reduced
costs of waste disposal
including energy production

TECHNICAL GRADE PLASTICS

BULK PLASTICS

ARBOFORM

PA 66
(unreinft.)

WOOD
(beech,
across )

PE (LD, HD,
LLD)

PP (unreinft.)

PS

Ultimate
stress,
[N/mm2]

15 - 20

65

8 - 30

30 - 40

45 - 65

Tensile
modulus,
[N/mm2]

2000 - 6000

2000

1500

50 - 500

600 - 1700

1200 - 3300

Ultimate
elongation
[%]

0,3 - 0,8

200

100 - 900

bis 800

3-4

Impact
resistance
[kJ/m2]

2-5

o. Br.

o. Br.

20

13 - 20

Vicat/B
softening
point, [C]

80 - 95

200

40 - 65

110 - 130

78 - 99

Lin.
expansion
coefficient,
[1/K]

18 - 50*10-6

80*10-6

170 200*10-6

100 200*10-6

70*10-6

45*10-6

Mechanical Properties

Standard

Unit

Range*

Tensile strength

DIN 53 455

N/mm

10...22

Ultimate elongation

DIN 53 455

0,3...0,7

Tensile modulus

DIN 53 457

N/mm

1000...5000

Flexural modulus

EN ISO 178

N/mm

1000...5000

Bending stress

En ISO 178

N/mm

10...50

Impact strength

En ISO 179

KJ/m

2...5

Hardness

DIN 53 505

Shore D

50...80

Ball indentation hardness

DIN 53 456

N/mm

20...70

Thermal Properties

Standard

Unit

Range*

Expansion coefficient

DIN 53 752

I/C

1*10E-5...5*10E-5

Vicat temperature

DIN 53 460

80

Martens temperature

DIN 53 462

54

Thermal conductivity

DIN 52 612

W/(m*K)

0,384

Hot-wire test

DIN EN 60669-I

Electrical Properties

650C passed

Standard

Unit

Range*

Conductivity, surface

DIN 53 482

G Ohm

Conductivity, continuity

DIN 53 482

G Ohm

Other Properties

Standard

Unit

Range*

Mould shrinkage

0,1...0,3

Density (compact moulding)

g/cm

1,3...1,4

Water content

2...8

Bleeding of various elements

DIN EN 71-3

passed

Saliva and sweat fastness

DIN 53 160

passed

Fire performance

DIN 4102-B2

passed

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art
Construction Industry
Slabs, parquet flooring, hand
railing, window frame
sections
The material can take load
equally from any direction in
space
This is a property that makes
it a simple design material
and indicates its great
potential for e.g. nondistorting flooring
Wood veneer parts

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art
Electronics
In the range of that of
thermosetting phenolic resins
There is large potential for
development and improvement
in this field
ARBOFORM is in all those
uses where wood, for aesthetic
reasons

Consumer Articles
Knife handles, pencils..
ARBOFORM has a warm wood
feel, so it is ideal for products
whose uses involve prolonged
skin contact
ARBOFORM can be machined
just like wood

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art
Precision products
Measuring instruments
"Wood Watch" wrist watch
casing
ARBOFORM shows very
little mould shrinkage
Unlike the use of plastics,
which show sink marks in the
situation, there is no problem
in changing wall thicknesses
from 1 mm to, for instance,
as much as 50 mm in one
step
R85 hunting weapon of Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH, Isny,
with the stock made of ARBOFORM.

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art

Furniture industry
Most fasteners used in furniture
making are of wood or metal, as
plastic materials are ductile and not
suitable for use as pins or dowels
under permanent load
An ARBOFORM dowel, however,
will either withstand a given
maximum load, or it will break, so it
just needs to be sized larger to suit
the purpose.
Unlike metals, ARBOFORM
components or fasteners can be
machined easily without the need to
take into account different types of
material.
Also, unlike plastics, chipboard or
laminated wood, waste from
machining ARBOFORM can be
incinerated safely just like natural
wood.

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art
Musical instruments
With injection or compression
moulding technologies reduces
the process cost for the
manufacture of a shaped
component considerably
Eliminates the traditional way
Time-consuming machining
of solid wood or laminated
woods completely
It is now possible to make
wood instruments of very
high and reproducible
accuracy
The acoustic quality of
ARBOFORM instruments
has been found to be
excellent by a number of
experts

ARBOFORM improvements over today's

state of the art

Jewelry and Toys

Now design products that can be
made of the warm material wood
Chess pieces or Nativity figurines,
building blocks, accessories for asreal toy railway landscaping In
design-oriented products where
plastics are not used because of
inferior material value, even though
their forming ease would let them
seem superior to wood
Test
Certificate EN 71 (Part 3) being
awarded under the food-grade
test
This so-called 'sucking test' for
children's toys showed
ARBOFORM not only to be
below the exposure limits, but to
be even below the detection
limits of all the hazardous
substances.

Processing guidelines to inject ARBOFORM

Injection pressure
1000 1800 bar
(or 2/3 of the machine efficiency)

Mould temperature
20 55 C

Follow up pressure
500 1000 bar
(or until 60 % of the machine
efficiency)

Injection speed
150 450 mm/s

Back pressure
20 40 bar

Cooling time
About 20% higher than unfilled
thermoplastics

Screw design
Standard screw

Nozzle
Opened

ARBOFORM do not must dried.

Cylinder temperature

Nozzle
Zone 3
Zone 2
Zone 1
Feed section

150 170 C
140 160 C
130 150 C
80 120 C
40 80 C

Thank
you
for
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attention!
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for
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attention!
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attention!
Thankyou
youfor
for your
your attention!