The main trend in thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) technology this year is to develop solutions for reliable and sustainable applications, with customizable appearances and improved touch feel in the manufacturing industry. Traditional elastic materials have provided designers with the opportunity to make their products unique. However, in 2021, new elastomer materials will emerge to challenge traditional ways of thinking.

For decades, the plastic industry has been discussing sustainable development solutions. What changes have happened now? Our end-user needs are changing... Consumers who use products such as toothbrushes, phone cases, or ketchup bottles need to find sustainable product options on the shelves. Designers will use the characteristics of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) materials to help differentiate product applications, attract people's attention, or increase mechanical properties. New materials that can provide this sustainable element are rapidly emerging and being applied to the final product. New materials containing marine waste plastics, post consumer, industrial, and bio based materials can help designers achieve sustainable development goals in ways they never imagined.

Unique appearance and tactile sensation are key to many consumer oriented product applications. For decades, designers have been using TPE to upgrade the functionality of various product applications and looking for a new design tool to add to their design toolbox, which is TPE materials that can encapsulate any substrate (including PETG, POM, ABS, etc.). These TPE materials have customizable tactile properties, which can be gripping, soft, smooth, silky, wet stop, fluffy, easy to bend, and so on; Color has always been one of the primary attributes in the design process. Searching for TPE filling materials with non filling material clarity can achieve vibrant color effects at low cost; The hardness of TPE can also be made lower and lower... it can even be soft to the Shore OOO level, and these soft adhesives can be applied to a variety of products. This year we will be looking for more creative designs. Imagine an injection molded TPE skin material with a very large area, very thin... thin to a thickness of less than 1mm, just like a textile fabric. These skin like TPE materials will be used for more applications such as automotive dashboards and laptop casings.

The design and processing performance of components will become the key to the continuous development of TPE materials. Process engineers will combine their proven expertise with new technologies to ensure that components not only have a good appearance, but also have high production efficiency and minimal waste.