What changed?
The Impacts and Benefits
Impacts for the Company
The benefit to the company is to broaden our understanding of the current material selection for our hero product and begin to understand how we may start to push the product in a more responsible direction. Focussing primarily on the plastic insert. We can begin to benchmark the current material selection against suitable and potentially more sustainable options. Secondly, we can begin to map out a process for making more conscious material choices across the current product and future products.
Impacts for the Academic Team
The complexity in the use of sustainable or recycled polymers in place of virgin polymers is poorly understood by the manufacturing industry and is particularly difficult for SMEs to adopt. The work completed within this KTP is supporting Trtl to understand the variation in properties across a number of sustainable polymers and how this will impact their product.
An important aspect that is often missed is the requirement to fully understand the supply chain limitations and the effect of raw material variation on the final materials properties. The characterisation of polymers from multiple sources has been evaluated within this KTP and has highlighted these variations. A testing procedure will be developed that can be completed at the Trtl offices to detect these supply chain variations before customer issues arise.
This represents a significant contribution to knowledge in the area of recycled polymer characterisation and dissemination through journal publication and webinar events will benefit those looking to switch from the use of virgin polymers to sustainable alternatives.
Additionally, the use of a holistic Life Cycle Assessment for small multi-material items has rarely been completed due to the complexity of the supply chain. Here an LCA was developed and allowed specific areas to be identified for Trtl to focus.
Impacts for the Knowledge Transfer Associate
The KTP Associate benefits from:
The KTP Associate benefits from having a firsthand experience in a business environment, while translating knowledge held in more academic circles into the company, being able to see her impact in how the business develops this into actions. Having access to University of Strathclyde equipment and resources has been paramount in not only developing further the materials characterization and her knowledge about polymers, but also her connections with different actors in the polymers and circular economy business within Glasgow and Scotland.
By having a personal development budget, the KTP associate has also benefitted from specific training for professional development in the Life Cycle Assessment area, having the opportunity to attend the annual conference of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment, where more insights on LCA were learned.
The Associate has had the opportunity to develop leadership, business, and project management skills through the Ashorne Hill training, where she has made professional connections among other KTP associates, enabling a positive networking experience.