Lubrizol announce new materials for sports and recreation TPU innovation
08.10.2018
Adapting to consumer trends in terms of sportswear can be difficult to keep up with, and Lubrizol believes it can bring unique, meaningful solutions to its customers with new materials optimised for training shoes.
Addressing the biggest trends in sportswear production can be difficult to maintain. With a growing demand for sustainability, comfort, aesthetics and customisation, the needs and wants of consumers are continuously changing. Julie Shlepr, Business Development Director for Engineered Polymers, said: “There’s a strong push to fast-track development to respond to consumer style preferences and to enable customisation. We see colour, texture, haptics, structure, cushioning, lightweight and novel fabrication methods as ways to enable this and allow close-to-consumer production.”
Lubrizol’s new brand statement says it addresses these trends by advancing materials that elevate performance. The company’s newest product launch displays lightweight footwear designs that use less material and fewer components, processing and assembly steps, with the aim to reduce waste and provide greater use of recycled content. With sustainability, the hot topic in recent years, brands have set ambitious targets for growth, along with stated goals for reducing their environmental footprints.
Inevitably this has influenced material technologies, and Lubrizol highlights high-performance features that materials must contribute to footwear design, including greater demand for solutions that improve sustainability and automation. The way products are designed and produced from materials, how products benefit consumer lifestyles and what happens throughout the product lifecycle are all factors the company takes into consideration. The evolution of its materials, Estane TRX and BounCell-X, are designed to focus on a sustainable material replacement. The incorporation of Lubrizol’s unique engineered polymer Estane TPU utilises the gap between flexible rubber and rigid plastics, with a variety of physical and functional property combinations.
Estane TRX has been designed as an alternative to traditional thermoset rubber, therefore opting for Estane TPU and 3D printing allows for greater design freedom, as 3D printing displays the possibility to produce complex designs at mass scale which previously would not have been possible.
A single material in a shoe sole along with 3D printing can deliver multiple performance benefits, such as density, support and cushioning. Estane brand of TPUs also allows for overlays moulded parts, composites, with Estane TRX TPU used for the outsoles. To achieve a foam of cushioning in the base of the trainer, BounCell-X nitrogen-infused TPU foam technology is used. “We also have novel fibre technology which brings a new dimension to comfortable stretch and fit, as well as innovative texture and design.”
Additionally, Lubrizol continues to grow its portfolio with new adhesive and adhesive film technologies that can help eliminate the need for solvent-based adhesives in footwear production, reducing the need for sewn seams in performance apparel. “We don’t measure ourselves ‘against the pack’. We measure ourselves in terms of how successful our customers are in achieving their goals, winning new consumers and deepening the loyalty of their current consumer base by continually delighting them,” said Shlepr.