��AV Press

Designer-look air conditioning systems

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0200

Lightweight construction materials must above all be light and stable. If they also look good: all the better. However, while many people had enough of the typical "carbon fibre fabric look", ��AV CFRTP composites (continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics) provide the market with a completely new look – as can be seen by looking at air conditioners of the Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier.

The material was actually developed to produce extremely light-weight components that can withstand enormous forces thanks to ultra-thin, endlessly long carbon fibers and are nevertheless as easy to process as thermoplastic polymers. But unlike the now aged racing material, designers are already interested in the new look of ��AV's new composites. After all, new materials that are both practical and "design-suitable" are in high demand – as the example of a brand-new air-conditioning system from the Casarte brand of the Chinese household appliances company Haier shows.

"The low weight of CFRTPs was actually not so important to us," says Shao Qingru from Haier's design team. Wait a minute: did I hear that correctly? Thanks to unidirectional carbon fiber tapes, the latest ultra-lightweight material from ��AV is breaking new records in terms of weight reduction combined with very high strength. So why does the designer use it if the lightweight construction potential of the new composite material is not really that important to her?

The Haier Group reports that it holds the world's largest market share in the appliance sector and produces a very large number of air conditioning systems, washing machines, microwave ovens and refrigerators for demanding customers. Such a global player selects its materials very carefully. So why CFRTP, Mrs. Qingru? And why for a new air conditioning system for the Casarte brand of the group, which has acquired its reputation through luxury goods made of glass and steel, the products of which are sold as celebrated design objects with a nearly artistic appeal?

Customers love good looking products
And this is exactly the key to the riddle. "The decisive factor was the surface quality," says Qingru. "When I saw the material for the first time, I was very impressed by its aesthetic quality. So naturally, we were immediately interested in this new premium material when ��AV introduced it to us at a Haier Innovation Day."

There is a simple reason why Casarte employees have focused mainly on metals and glass up to now. Their goal is a unique design that electrifies customers. In the fiercely contested appliance market, manufacturers must stand out from the crowd if they want to fascinate and retain customers. Good design always determines the success of a product, according to Qingru, but ugly things quickly disappear. It is not for nothing that Casarte employs around 300 product designers in twelve countries around the globe, who give their creations the most unique look possible. And steel, aluminum and glass attract attention.

Aesthetic material wanted
The catch: "It is not easy to find new materials that we can work with," says Shao Qingru. In the meantime, she and her colleagues spend most of their time working on proven materials in such a way that they differ from the familiar appearance and help to give their products a new face. And to make them even more appealing for customers. "But in this sense, we are reaching more and more of our limits."

For example, in order to make aluminum suitable for use in living rooms, it requires some combination of finishing processes like sandblasting, brushing and anodizing. I.e. it is equipped with a more robust surface electrically before it can shine in the product. And this elaborate processes cost time and money. "CFRTP, on the other hand, is a beautiful material", the designer says. Beautiful even without make-up, so to speak.

A plastic is the better metal
The first new product in the Casarte product range, which is allowed to be encased in the new ��AV material, is an air-conditioning system: Two slender columns with a luxurious metal effect that does not require any metal at all thanks to CFRTP and an otherwise restrained, transparent paint finish: In their brilliant polycarbonate matrix, the endless carbon fibers of the new lightweight construction material, which lie parallel to each other, are reminiscent of brushed aluminum, even without the need for the time-consuming finishing process.

Even the sound fits: Anyone who knocks against the case will hear the typical metal-like "Dong", which is another good reason for many designers to take a closer look at the material. "Sound is also part of our design language", explains Qingru, "it contributes to the unique user experience. Customers want to touch, feel and hear the product. The metallic sound makes you feel like you have a stable and reliable product."

The keyword "reliable" is much more than just that: Since CFRTP, thanks to established plastic production techniques such as compression molding, requires fewer processing steps from the raw material to the end product than, for example, aluminum or even traditional carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, which require several hours in post-processing, the CFRTP inventor in Leverkusen clearly expects that the overall part quality is reproducibly higher. The result: reject rates decrease because the material has to be processed less elaborately after demolding. This, of course – like the short cycle times of the forming process – is likely to have a positive effect on production costs.

"��AV made a breakthrough here"
The high performance of the material has already convinced Haier in such a way, that the other strengths of the new lightweight construction material at Haier take a back seat. For example, the low weight and the targeted design of the tape layers to divert induced forces: for the chic design piece, these properties are also not completely unimportant, and a pleasant bonus for the user who wants to carry the product home – but the inspiring appearance is what really counts. Beauty counts!

In any case, Shao Qingru is proud to have discovered this material for the new air conditioning system of the Haier brand Casarte. "New materials are not easy to find. And the effort required to successfully bring them to the end product is high. I believe that ��AV and Haier have made a real breakthrough here." At Haier, with whom ��AV has been working for a long time and has recently entered into a strategic partnership, further projects are already being considered.

About ��AV:
With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, ��AV is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. ��AV has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.

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Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by ��AV. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in ��AV’s public reports which are available at . The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Premium material for designer appliances

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0100

Haier, a world-leading brand of major household appliances, has launched a state-of-the-art air conditioner under it's Casarte brand, utilizing ��AV’s novel continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composites. These composites are used to house the air conditioning units, which are artistically designed in the form of two standalone cylinders, providing structure and the premium aesthetic qualities known for the brand.

“As an award-winning high-end consumer appliance brand owned by Haier Group, Casarte is known for it's high quality design and materials,” says Xiongwei Li, Head of Marketing of Casarte, Haier Group. “In this context, it is only natural that an innovative material with premium qualities like CFRTP becomes the ideal choice for this premium air conditioner.”

A plastic with a metallic effect
CFRTP composites are made from ultrathin, unidirectional (UD) tapes that are laminated together at specific angles to form sheets that can be customized to specific performance criteria. The long strands of fiber are oriented and provide strength in the lengthwise direction of the fibers. The resulting thin, stiff, and lightweight yet very strong sheets look and sound like metal, but have the flexibility of a thermoplastic material. Thanks to it's unidirectional carbon texture, CFRTP lends the air conditioner a luxurious metallic effect with a sleek and beautiful surface. The overall design is modeled with Casarte’s core values by placing an emphasis on design artistry.

“Not only does this mark a pivotal step into consumer home appliances for CFRTP composites, but it brings a new premium material and exciting new design opportunities within the reach of designers,” says David Hartmann, one of the co-CEOs of ��AV CFRTP, together with Michael Schmidt.

A new premium material for designers
Traditionally composites have been known to be prohibitively costly and often difficult to work with. CFRTP changes all of this, offering a modern, cost effective and easy to form thermoplastic composite material that opens the path to completely new applications and user experience.

For the Casarte design team, it means that for the first time it has been possible to specify a high-performance composite material with unique aesthetics in their range of premium air conditioners. “Up until now, we have been quite limited in terms of material selection, typically relying on metal to provide the performance and aesthetics that we require,” says Shao Qingru, one of the CMF designers in the Casarte design team.

Attractive surface
In describing the depth and richness that Qingru sees in the surface texture of ��AV CFRTP, she points at a very tangible benefit of the material. “CFRTP is a very attractive material for us in that it has a natural, unidirectional surface pattern right from the start, unlike metals such as aluminum that requires some combination of finishing processes like sandblasting, brushing and anodizing before it is ready to go into the product. For CFRTP, the finish is all natural and has a beauty to itself.”

“Based on thermoplastics, CFRTP composites can be thermoformed with existing thermoforming tools at high yield rates and short cycle times. They are compatible with a wide range of coatings and decoration processes for designing unique surfaces, logos and other signature details. Laser-etched patterns transfer easily from steel molds,” says Michael Schmidt.

Smart air conditioning system
The Casarte air conditioner features intelligent recognition and air zoning. It comes with sensors that can detect the location of people in a room and perceive temperatures in humans so it can intelligently control the air flow and temperature in different zones based on the needs of people.

Strategic partnership
This is not the first time for ��AV’s innovative material solutions to be used in Haier products. The partnership was already forged at Haier’s foundation in 1984, when ��AV (at that time Bayer) began supplying raw materials to Haier for the thermal insulation of refrigerators. In October 2017, ��AV and Haier signed a global strategic cooperation agreement on the expansion of their decade-long partnership to a global scale, by constantly developing advanced products featuring the latest material solutions to address the market demands of the global home appliances industry.

About ��AV:
With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, ��AV is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. ��AV has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.

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Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by ��AV. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in ��AV’s public reports which are available at . The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

��AV and Haier sign global strategic cooperation agreement

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0100

��AV and Haier, a world-leading brand of major household appliances, have agreed on a strategic cooperation. In Qingdao, they signed a cooperation agreement on the expansion of their decade-long partnership to a global scale. The new partnership will enable the two parties to constantly develop advanced products featuring the latest material solutions to address the market demands of the global home appliances industry.

“��AV is committed to exploring advanced technology to empower Haier and the household appliances industry globally,” said Daniel Meyer, global head of ��AV’s Polyurethanes Segment. “This year, while we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the invention of polyurethanes, we also strive to lead the upgrading of global insulation technology development and broaden the global strategic cooperation by leveraging our expertise in innovation and global network.”

“Under the internet age, Haier has entered our fifth Strategic Phase – Networking. We aim at building up a program for co-creation and win-win partnership,” said Wu Yong, General Manager China Refrigeration Industry of Haier Group.

“The extended partnership with ��AV will support our worldwide business strategy,” added Wu Yong. “By utilizing the latest material solutions in our products in different regions we will meet the upgrading needs of global consumers, as well as taking a leading role among Chinese companies going global.” Only last year, Haier has acquired its US-based competitor GE Appliances.

Jointly generating long-term growth
With its innovative developments, ��AV offers answers to current trends in the appliance industry and to customer insights. The company is well positioned to assist Haier in developing new high performance applications. This is further supported by ��AV´s long established worldwide production and R&D network. In return, Haier’s global sales network will provide opportunities for ��AV’s innovative material solutions to be adopted in major markets, including Asia Pacific, the United States and Europe. By that, both companies want to grow in the long term.

The partnership was already forged at Haier’s foundation in 1984, when ��AV (previously Bayer) began supplying raw materials to Haier for the thermal insulation of refrigerators. Later in 2006, Haier became one of the first clients of MDI from ��AV’s integrated site in Shanghai. And since 2008, Haier started to purchase polyurethane systems, which were formulated at its Shanghai Polymer Research and Development Center (PRDC).

Key role for energy-efficient insulation system
Two years later, both parties began to organize a series of technical exchange events. At one of these activities, Haier´s Technology Innovation Day in 2014, ��AV’s Baytherm® Microcell project was selected as one of Haier’s key projects. It further improves the thermal insulation performance of household refrigerators, compared to polyurethane rigid foam used so far, and fulfills the improved energy efficiency standards set by the Chinese government which entered into force on October 1, 2016. Besides that, this new technology requires no further investment and enables faster production with less material consumption.

About ��AV:
With 2016 sales of EUR 11.9 billion, ��AV is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. ��AV has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 15,600 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2016.

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Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by ��AV. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in ��AV’s public reports which are available at . The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

����AV Press

Designer-look air conditioning systems

Premium material for designer appliances

����AV and Haier sign global strategic cooperation agreement

��AV Press

��AV and Haier sign global strategic cooperation agreement