Major boost for local extrusion research

Scion’s successes in the recent Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Science and Innovation Group investment rounds in New Zealand demonstrates confidence in the positive economic and environmental outcomes for New Zealand arising from Scion’s industry partnerships and relationship with other research providers.

At NZ$12.9 million, the six year Extrusion PLUS project attracted the greatest funding of any project in the 2012 MBIE Science Investment Round for high-value manufacturing and services research. Led by Scion, the researchers will collaborate with three New Zealand universities, and a diverse mix of manufacturing companies, and will draw on links to other world-leading research institutes.

Extrusion PLUS will be an enabling technology platform – allowing New Zealand manufacturers with extrusion capabilities to create products with advanced functionalities from local-derived renewable sources. Extrusion is a very versatile process widely used in manufacturing with plastics, composites, fibres, adhesives, coatings, laminated structures, metals, as well as in food and pharmaceutical processing.

Garry Haskett, General Manager at Ashburton-based biomaterials company Lignotech, believes the prospect of new ways of processing biomaterials means he will be able to create new products for export markets. “Rather than relying on importing feedstocks from North America, we should be able to source these locally,” he says.

Source: Scion Connections

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