What’s green on the outside…?

What’s green on the outside…?

There’s a series of old riddles/jokes that begins, “What’s green…?” (For example, Q: “What’s green and lives alone in a cave?” A: “Hermit the Frog.”) Here’s a new one: “What’s green on the outside and electronic on the inside?”

Thanks to a recent move by OKW Enclosures (www.okwenclosures.com), the answer can be, “Practically anything.” Late last week, the company announced it would provide most of its standard enclosure designs in a new bioplastic material — BIOGRADE C7500 plastic produced by FKuR Kunststoff GmbH — at a customer’s request. Manufactured entirely from renewable raw materials, the biomaterial is formulated to replace plastics based on fossil fuels.

OKW Enclosures can now provide many of its products, like those above, molded from bioplastic.

Unlike conventional plastics, bioplastics are largely CO2 -neutral, irrespective of their subsequent utilization; that is, they release only the same amount of CO2 as they absorbed from the atmosphere during their growth phase.

BIOGRADE C7500 is made by processing purified cellulose from cotton or wood. The cellulose is esterified to obtain cellulose acetate, which is then only slightly modified for use in molding the enclosures. The material has similar properties to ABS and can be processed using the normal injection-molding method.

As its name implies, parts made of BIOGRADE are biodegradable. When a product made from it reaches the end of its useful life, the biomaterial can be crushed mechanically and broken down by micro-organisms into its nontoxic constituents. On the other hand, breaking down the material thermally will produce carbon-neutral energy.

While the fact that the material is biodegradable may place some restrictions on its use outdoors, there is no impact on the life cycle of enclosures made of the material and used indoors. Further, its heat distortion temperature is as high as 123°C, and customer-specific coloring is also possible using 15 natural dyes.