Climate change, access, and monopolies to raw material sources as well as politically motivated trade barriers are among the factors responsible for a shortage of raw materials. In the plastics industry, resource conservation can be achieved by substituting commercially available petrochemical-based plastics with components made from renewable raw materials. Innovation potentials are often not used due to a lack of information on the use of bio-based materials, efficient processing methods, and product technologies or because the costs for new developments are too high. In this context, the use of renewable resources such as fiber-reinforced polymeric composites based on plants has become an important criterion for the development and production of components and products in all industrial sectors. Bio-based engineering thermoplastics with cellulose fibers can be used as substitutes because of their higher strength and heat resistance, but the processing of this composite is still challenging. In this study, composites were prepared and investigated using bio-based polyamide (PA) as a polymer matrix in combination with a cellulosic fiber and, for comparison purposes, a glass fiber. A co-rotating twin-screw extruder was used to produce the composites with different fiber contents. For the mechanical properties, tensile tests and charpy impact tests were performed. Compared to glass fiber, reinforced PA 6.10 and PA 10.10, a significantly higher elongation at break with regenerated cellulose fibers, can be achieved. PA 6.10 and PA 10.10 achieve significantly higher impact strengths with the regenerated cellulose fibers than the composites with glass fibers. In the future, bio-based products will also be used in indoor applications. For characterization, the VOC emission GC-MS analysis and odor evaluation methods were used. The VOC emissions (quantitative) were at a low level but the results of the odor tests of selected samples showed values mostly above the required limit values.

Due to their valuable properties (low weight, and good thermal and mechanical properties), glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics are becoming increasingly important. Fiber-reinforced thermoplastics are mainly manufactured by injection molding and extrusion, whereby the extrusion compounding process is primarily used to produce fiber-filled granulates. Reproducible production of high-quality components requires a granulate in which the fiber length is even and high. However, the extrusion process leads to the fact that fiber breakages can occur during processing. To enable a significant quality enhancement, experimentally validated modeling is required. In this study, short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics (polypropylene) were produced on two different twin-screw extruders. Therefore, the machine-specific process behavior is of major interest regarding its influence. First, the fiber length change after processing was determined by experimental investigations and then simulated with the SIGMA simulation software. By comparing the simulation and experimental tests, important insights could be gained and the effects on fiber lengths could be determined in advance. The resulting fiber lengths and distributions were different, not only for different screw configurations (SC), but also for the same screw configurations on different twin-screw extruders. This may have been due to manufacturer-specific tolerances.

In this study, the influence of artificial aging on the mechanical and thermal properties and VOC emissions of medical grade polypropylene (PP) is investigated. For the investigations, tensile test specimens were produced on an injection molding machine. To test the long-term stability of the materials, the ASTM 1980 guideline was adopted at the temperatures of 65 °C, 90 °C and 120 °C. The thermal, mechanical and emission properties were tested using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile tests and GC-MS analysis before and after artificial aging. The results of the tensile tests show a decrease in elongation at break with increasing temperature and storage time. Similarly, the results of the DSC measurements show an increase in melting enthalpy, which indicates post-crystallization in the material. The GC-MS results show that the emissions due to artificial aging decrease with increasing temperature and storage time, so that the emissions of the samples stored at 120 °C are almost zero.

Internal heat exchangers are often employed in solar thermal applications as well as in many other applications that involve heat, and, for the most part, consist of metallic materials (copper, stainless steel). Corrugated stainless steel tubes are easy to assemble, and are commonly used in various storage geometries. In order to significantly reduce costs, alternative materials, such as plastics, can function as excellent substitutes. Alternative heat exchangers for the following examinations using various materials and an extrusion process were produced. Subsequently, the heat exchangers were examined in regards to the heat they transfer. The heat transfer coefficient and the thermal conductivity of all materials were determined.