In POLYKUM DigiLab® , an app for designing plastics, material developers can now literally immerse themselves in the complex data essential for their work. This new feature, developed by the virtual reality specialists at the Halle-based company prefrontal cortex, the Fraunhofer IMWS, and Exipnos GmbH, will be presented to the public at the world’s leading trade fair, K 2022.
Halle/Merseburg, October 15, 2022. “Tailor-made thermoplastic materials at your fingertips.” With this message, POLYKUM DigiLab® already caused a stir at K 2019. The app allows material developers to identify formulations for a material with very specific properties with just a few clicks on any standard tablet and even develop new ones using simulation. “DigiLab users can now also truly immerse themselves in the associated, often highly complex data,” enthuses compounder and POLYKUM board member Peter Putsch.
The three development partners from Saxony-Anhalt will demonstrate how this works, what advantages 3D technology offers users and manufacturers, and how materials can be further optimized with it at K 2022. At the Polykum funding association’s booth in Hall 12, A59, customers can test the new function live, either with VR glasses or on standard monitors.
“The demands placed on plastics are becoming increasingly complex,” explains Dr. Patrick Hirsch from Fraunhofer IMWS. In the POLYKUM DigiLab® app , users can specify more than 20 parameters, from elasticity and density to tensile strength. Bio-based or recycled materials can be preselected, as can the planned processing method. This is because the material requirements for injection molding, for example, differ from those for blow molding or 3D printing. “The resulting complexity of the data can hardly be represented in traditional diagrams anymore,” says the scientist. “With the help of VR technology, we want to significantly simplify the selection of the right material – especially for users who don’t have extensive experience in plastics processing.” For example, product developers from the furniture, toy, or automotive industries can use the DigiLab app to delve not only into spatial diagrams or the VR color lab, but even into molecular structures.
The research and development project was funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
