German compounder Akro-Plastic (Niederzissen; www.akro-plastic.com) has partnered fan and control system developer and manufacturer Ziehl-Abegg (Künzelsau / Germany; www.ziehl-abegg.com) to develop a bio-based PA 6.10 “Akromid” S compound for its new generation of fans that are based on an owl-wing pattern, resulting in a reduction in fan noise.

The material is derived from sebacic acid from the seeds of the castor oil plant and is non bio-degradable. Alongside lightweight construction, the fans feature high mechanical strength through the use of struts and special notching geometries. The mechanical properties of the material, reinforced with 30% glass fibre, ensure safe operation of the fan even at higher speeds, the company said.

Improved surface quality is also achieved at this glass-fibre content through the application of a process using a twin-screw extruder from Akro’s sister company Feddem (Sinzig / Germany; http://feddem.com), which has no kneading block, ensuring even dispersion. The incorporated glass fibres are not reduced as drastically in length with this compounding method, allowing greater values to be achieved in tensile and impact strengths.

Potential applications include refrigeration, heaters and heat pumps, and electronics cooling (computing centres and switchgear-cabinet and inverter cooling), where the fans ensure that noise emissions are reduced.