In cooperation with machine builders KraussMaffei, Evonik Industries has achieved a milestone in plastics processing ‒ the CoverForm system solution that enables the manufacture of injection-molded plastic components with a functional surface in just one step.The CoverForm Competence Center was opened in Darmstadt, and offers a hands-on experience of this highly innovative process.
“With CoverForm we are introducing a future technology together with KraussMaffei that is the result of a successful development cooperation arrangement,” said Gregor Hetzke, President of the Performance Polymers Business Unit of Evonik Industries.
KraussMaffei developed the machine technology for the process, based on the company’s extensive expertise in injection-molding and reaction technology. Evonik developed the required product combination of a specialty Plexiglas molding compound (Plexiglas cf molding compound) and a precisely adjusted multi-component solvent-free reactive system on an acrylate base for the functional coating. Dr. Karlheinz Bourdon, Managing Director of KraussMaffei, emphasized “Together, we two partners have developed an entirely new, integrated process named CoverForm, which enables us to offer a very convincing solution to our customers that significantly reduces the production costs of transparent components with a scratch - resistant coating.”
The new CoverForm system solution substantially cuts the fabrication costs for scratch-resistant and chemical-resistant plastic components since they require no subsequent time-consuming and costly coating. CoverForm produces plastics parts that are ready for installation when they leave the injection machine. At the trade show Materialica, CoverForm therefore received Materialica Design & Technology Award and the “Best of Award” in the category Surface & Technology.
CoverForm is of interest wherever the aim is to achieve particularly high surface functionality, like scratch resistance. This may involve applications in the automotive and lighting industries, in optics or in communications and display applications.
Plastics fabricators can now experience the process for themselves at the new CoverForm Competence Center in Darmstadt. But the center has even more to offer. “We will also use the competence center to further develop reactive systems,” explained Sven Schröbel, CoverForm Project Manager at Evonik. “New antireflective or electrically conductive coatings are also conceivable, for instance. And we intend to train our global technical service staff at the CoverForm Competence Center too.”
