Shincell-Huntsman project produces recyclable TPU foam
Specialty chemicals developer Huntsman has announced a new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that it says is fully recyclable. It said the new product, a special grade of its Irogran TPU, is also UV-protected and can be extruded into a film for expansion into foamed sheets.
Huntsman worked on the project with the Shincell New Material Company, a specialist developer of lightweight, high-performance polymer foams, set up in 2019 in Suzhou in China’s Jiangsu province.
Shincell will use the new material to create foam sheets for use in insole, midsole and forepart insert applications that it will supply to leading footwear brands, cutting the material into any shape or size the customer wants.
It will expand the TPU film in a high-pressure vessel, using gas assisted technology and without the use of any of the additional chemicals typically needed for foaming or cross-linking, such as butane, fluoride and azodicarbonamide foaming agents. This means the resulting expanded foam sheet and any post-production scraps and final footwear components will be “easy to recycle”, the companies have said.
