Featured Applications

Plastics on the Catwalk

Submitted by Françoise Donovan
It started with a phone call and a rather strange request: André Desmul, a former Quadrant EPP AG employee, contacted the company in Tielt, Belgium; he wanted to come with Elfie, the daughter of one of his colleagues, to look at plastic swarfs.

Elfie is a student at the Art Academy of Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) where she attends a class in fashion design. Her latest assignment was to create an outfit made of recyclable material.

Elfie’s initial idea was to work with metal swarfs, which she had already seen thanks to her father, but she was advised that these could be dangerous and that plastic swarfs might be a better alternative for her application.

When I first saw her, it was during her second visit to the TC; she was carrying a huge sports bag full of plastic swarfs. Taking them out of the bag, she carefully rearranged them and, to our utter amazement, was suddenly holding in front of us what actually looked like a skirt and a sleeveless blouse — completely made of plastic! We were all in awe at witnessing what she had been able to do with material intended for the recycling bin.

When she first started to work with the material, Elfie faced the challenge of finding a way to make all the long and curly strings hold together. After some trials, she ended up knitting and weaving them. She said the knitting was not very easy initially, but once she got the hang of it, it became a fun production process.

Elfie earned first prize with her outfit for creativity marks. So, maybe there is a great future in plastics — in the world of haute couture.

For more information on Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products, please visit www.quadrantepp.com.

Piping System Improves Health and Safety

International Plastic Systems Ltd. has completed a project to upgrade the chemical dosing pipework at a large water treatment plant.

Using DuoSafe® FLEX to handle some very aggressive dosing chemicals, the double contained piping improves health and safety, as well as reduces the risk of environmental contamination should a leak occur.

The system uses high quality flexible pipes that are manufactured as a double contained system in a single extrusion process. It is engineered for applications where long, continuous lengths of small diameter pipe is required. They are supplied either in standard coil lengths of up to 300 meters or may be cut to specific shorter lengths or specially manufactured in longer coils should the job require it. Connections between lengths or at termination points are made using a special range of rigid PVC-U fittings.

More information is available on the IPS web site at www.ips-plastics.com

Perspex® on Show at Chelsea Flower Show

2007’s Chelsea Flower Show featured a striking new garden created by garden designer Linda Bush, which took its inspiration from the extremes in landscapes caused by the changing global climate. “Sand and Ice” depicted the contrast between sweeping deserts and melting glaciers, and featured a stunning ice glacier wall created from jagged pieces of Perspex® Frost and Perspex® Vario in cool icy colours.

The wall of ice was a key feature in the garden and showed water “melting” down the glacier to form a pool below — all illuminated by rows of LEDs to add drama.

Precision cut pieces of Perspex Frost in crystal clear, arctic blue and glacier green contrast with the sharp translucency of shards of Perspex Vario in lagoon green and cascade blue, whilst Perspex Frost in vivid electric blue highlights the flowing rivulet to create an ice cold climate.

The Perspex pieces were crafted by London based fabricators Hamar Acrylic.

Linda Bush won a bronze medal for the garden in the Show Gardens section of the competition. She is renowned for designing gardens that people feel comfortable in and likes to combine contemporary design with natural materials and soft planting.

The garden was sponsored by Hasmead, one of the country’s leading commercial landscape companies. Together Hasmead and Bush set up a programme to offset the carbon footprint resulting from the creation of the garden, which includes sourcing those plants grown elsewhere in Europe by car rather than plane and pledging to plant trees after the show.

Visit www.lucitesolutions.com for more information.

Quinn Plastics Star of Radio Campaign

When Talbot Designs was asked by designers 3D Studios to recommend a sheet material to make a huge transparent star for use in London’s Christmas decorations, they chose Quinn PETG as the most suitable for this difficult application.

Virgin Radio was running an on-air and online promotion called the Virgin Radio Big Star, based upon a 42 sq. ft. star suspended above London’s popular Regent Street.

Quinn Plastics 5 mm clear PETG product was creatively used by Talbot Designs to make the giant star centrepiece. Quinn PETG is an easily moulded product, with low water absorption and high impact properties, making it the perfect choice to develop this unique outdoor promotional piece. The positioning of the star on London’s Regent Street, which runs from north to south of the city, with winds travelling from the north side, deemed it absolutely necessary to use a material with extremely high structural strength.

Silwood Plastics Ltd, of Brackley, Northants, supplied the sheet cut-to-size after working with Talbot to identify a material that combined high transparency with outstanding toughness to cope with the environment in Regent Street. Debbie Coxall, of Silwood Plastics, commented, “We were happy to recommend Quinn PETG for this demanding job, which also involved a high degree of fabrication and on site assembly.”

The star was packed full with an undisclosed amount of Virgin Radio Big Star cash hanging in the balance until a lucky listener guessed the exact figure of the sum contained within the realms of the lucky star. Upon guessing the correct amount of money within the star, the lucky winner from Buckinghamshire collected £108,125.25.

For more information, please visit www.quinn-plastics.com.

Gevacril® Acrylic Bubble Rods Add Style to Staircase

This unique internal architecture application has been designed for a Turkish fashion shop chain made by Pleksi Ticaret in Istanbul. The unique design of GEVACRIL® transparent bubble rods adds a new dimension to interior and exterior decorations.

Hand-rails made of GEVACRIL´s acrylic bubble rods, which have a perfect smooth and brilliant surface and a perfect light transmission, can give your design a special eye-catching touch.

Acrylic bubble rods are high-competitive, high-quality items, which are easily workable, have a high break resistance and are well suited, not only for signage and lighting, shop fittings, P-O-P and P-O-S displays, but also for every architectural application. Acrylic bubble rods are produced from OD 15 mm to OD 40 mm and are available from stock in different diameters.

For more information visit www.gevacril.com.