OKW Enclosures, Inc. (Bridgeville, PA) is now offering its design-oriented standard plastic enclosures in a bioplastic material. This biomaterial is manufactured from renewable raw materials and is formulated to replace the fossil plastics currently being used.

The biomaterial being used by OKW is FKuR Kunststoff GmbH's BIOGRADE® C7500 plastic. It is obtained from almost entirely renewable raw materials - the initial products are cotton or wood. At the start of the process, the purified cellulose is esterified to obtain cellulose acetate, which is slightly modified. The material can be processed using the normal injection molding method.

Parts made of BIOGRADE® are biodegradable. After the biomaterial has been crushed mechanically, it is broken down into its non-toxic initial products by micro-organisms. If it is to be utilized thermally at the end of its useful life, this also guarantees carbon-neutral energy.

(OKW)