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Manufacturers of soft polymer products, as well as suppliers and processors of polymers, raw materials and compounds or blends, are forced to use predictive and advanced laboratory testing in the search for high-performance soft polymer materials for future applications.
In particular, these applications include:
- e-mobility products (durable tires),
- energy generation (flexible solar or photovoltaic cells),
- information technology (versatile semiconductors),
- soft robotics or medical technology (artificial tissues).
Ideally, predictive laboratory testing balances accuracy, relevance, instrument productivity and cost-effectiveness, while providing new mechanistic insights and opportunities for modelling material and product properties.
In this context, new concepts for soft polymeric materials are of great importance, taking into account new trends in
- nanotechnology
- multi-layered and self-assembled materials
- self-healing
- sensor-active or functionalized polymers
- biocompatibility
- eco-design and recyclability.
New advanced testing methods and techniques will establish links with fundamental scientific principles, even showing how test results from single pieces of rubbers and silicones, thermoplastic elastomer blends, (hydro-)gels or other soft polymers relate to real geometry and loading conditions, creating new opportunities to link laboratory data from soft polymer testing to the performance of real products.
Furthermore, the rapid development of modeling and simulation tools offers great prospects for predicting the behavior of soft polymer materials and their durability based on unique data sets obtained through new advanced testing methods, including the upcoming possibilities of artificial intelligence.
Are you working on such a very interesting topic? Become a speaker at the future Gumference and present your new advanced unique testing methodology.
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