Biodegradable PLA Foam Core for Water Sports Boards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Water sports boards face challenges in being environmentally friendly due to non-biodegradable core materials, requiring costly and polluting disposal methods, while also needing to balance impact resistance, shock absorption, and lightness.
Innovation Solution
A water sports board structure featuring a core made from a foam material comprising polylactic acid and aliphatic or aliphatic/aromatic polyesters, which is biodegradable and hermetically sealed with a composite shell, allowing for easy removal and composting at the end of its life, and incorporating cork stringers for enhanced impact strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If traditional polystyrene foam core is used, then lightness and buoyancy are achieved, but environmental biodegradability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameters of the foam core material, replacing polystyrene with a biodegradable polymer blend consisting of polylactic acid (60-80% by weight) and aliphatic polyester (20-40% by weight). This parameter change maintains the foam's lightness and buoyancy properties while achieving environmental biodegradability, allowing the core to be composted at the end of the board's life.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a composite foam material combining polylactic acid and aliphatic polyester in specific proportions. This composite structure provides both the mechanical properties needed for water sports board performance (lightness, buoyancy, impact resistance) and the environmental property of biodegradability, resolving the contradiction between performance and environmental friendliness.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If biodegradable foam material is used, then environmental friendliness is improved, but impact resistance and mechanical strength deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite foam material combining polylactic acid (60-80% by weight) and aliphatic polyester (20-40% by weight). This specific composite formulation provides both biodegradability and adequate mechanical strength for water sports applications, with the aliphatic polyester component enhancing the impact resistance while the polylactic acid provides structural integrity and biodegradability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes the compositional parameters of the foam material, specifically setting polylactic acid at 60-80% and aliphatic polyester at 20-40% by weight. This parameter optimization ensures the material achieves both biodegradability and sufficient mechanical strength for water sports board performance.
3Strength
If protective coating with glass or carbon fibre layers is applied, then impact strength and wear resistance are improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a removable protective coating that can be easily detached from the biodegradable foam core. This allows the core to be composted after the coating is removed, simplifying the end-of-life process. The coating itself is designed to be easily separable, reducing manufacturing complexity compared to permanent bonded layers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the board into separable components: a biodegradable foam core and a removable protective coating. This segmentation allows the core to be composted independently after the coating is removed, simplifying disposal and reducing the environmental impact of the entire product lifecycle.
4Strength
If cork and polystyrene layered structure is used, then impact absorption is improved, but manufacturing complexity and material variety increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material composition parameters by using a single biodegradable polymer blend (polylactic acid and aliphatic polyester) instead of traditional multi-material constructions like cork and polystyrene layers. This parameter change simplifies the manufacturing process while maintaining adequate shock absorption properties through the foam structure itself.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution results in a board that is up to 20% lighter than traditional polystyrene foam cores, with improved impact resistance and eco-friendly disposal options, maintaining performance while minimizing environmental impact.
Implementation Method 1
a core (10) made from a foam material comprising, as main components, polylactic acid and an aliphatic polyester or an aliphatic/aromatic co-polyester
Implementation Method 2
hermetically sealed with a composite shell, allowing for easy removal and composting at the end of its life
Implementation Method 3
incorporating cork stringers for enhanced impact strength
Data Source
AI summary
In a water sports board structure (3), a composite material shell (20) encloses a core (10) including a shaped body (11) made of a foam material obtained by a mixture of polylactic acid, preferably between 60% and 80% by weight, and of a polymer selected between an aliphatic polyester and an aliphatic/aromatic co-polyester. For the foam material, a biodegradable Ecovio EA material is preferably used, in particular Ecovio® EA200 or ECOVIO® 80EA2394EXP. In an exemplary embodiment, the shaped body (11) incorporates at least one, or preferably two cork longitudinal stringers (13) spaced apart from each other by about half the cross width of the core (10). The shell (20) can comprise a fibre layer (21,24), preferably of basalt fibres, impregnating with a resin, which can optionally form a resin layer (23,26) outside the fibre layers (21,24). A further resin-impregnated fabric layer (22) can be present between the core (10) and the fibre layer (21) of the shell (20). The above foam materials allow manufacturing boards that are at least 20% lighter than the conventional boards including polystyrene foam cores, and that have suitable elasticity while having excellent impact strength and/or resistance to abrasion, such a combination leading to high-performance water sports boards. Moreover, polylactic acid as well as the above aliphatic polyesters or aliphatic/aromatic co-polyesters are fully biodegradable, which allows environment-friendly disposal of the water sport boards of the invention, for instance, by composting, without forming any special waste.