Overview: Apropos K
Same but different: say hello to the 3D printed trombone
25/03/2022
It looks and sounds like a standard trombone - but is actually lightweight and made of carbon fiber rather than brass metal. To craft the musical instrument using this raw material, additive manufacturing is the right application for success: the process provides great options to manufacture the relevant molds used to build the instrument.
A German plastic success story: the Bobby-Car turns 50
09/02/2022
Bright red bodywork, a white steering wheel and a lot of noise when driving: That's what the Bobby-Car is all about. Almost everyone knows it and almost everyone has owned one. Or still does.
Microfliers: Polymers on a mission for the environment
10/12/2021
They are the size of a grain of sand and resemble trundling maple seeds: the flying microchips that researchers at Northwestern University have now developed. In the future, they should make it possible to monitor air pollution or airborne diseases. Polymers play a fundamental role in this. John Rogers tells us more in an interview with K-MAG.
Bringing back the good name – a museum of plastic about plastic
06/10/2021
In May 2021, another museum of a special kind was created in front of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid: a Plastic Museum. It was not just a museum ABOUT plastic, but MADE OF plastic. The media response to the campaign of the EsPlásticos association was huge.
Benjamin Von Wong: "I make your impact unforgettable."
08/07/2021
We love plastic. It is versatile, lightweight, durable – and sustainable, as long as it gets recycled or reused. Carelessly discarded in nature, (disposable) plastic products not only give the material a bad image, but above all lead to massive environmental problems. This is precisely the issue that Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong has addressed.
Do it Yourself plastic anno 1530
09/06/2021
Instructions for the production of artificial cow horn. Almost 500 years old is the recipe for the production of artificial horn and thus currently the oldest known German recipe for plastic.
It's snowing plastic
03/05/2021
The snow may be melting, but it is leaving pollution behind in the form of micro- and nano-plastics according to a McGill study that was recently published in Environmental Pollution. The pollution is largely due to the relatively soluble plastics found in antifreeze products (polyethylene glycols) that can become airborne and picked up by the snow.
Sustainable Polyurethanes in your shoebox
18/03/2021
People around the world want embrace sustainability – a new mindset that also affects the fashion industry. But how can you make shoes that have been made with lots of plastic in recent decades more sustainable? Covestro is a world-leading supplier of high-quality polyurethane and teamed up with the Brazilian shoe manufacturer Calçados Beira Rio to put its best foot forward and create a solution.
Plastic, please – when life hangs on a thread
16/02/2021
People climb and scale the steepest mountain walls and swing themselves up to dizzying heights, usually trusting that a plastic product will save their lives in the event of a fall. This polymer saviour celebrates its birthday: On 16 February 1937, the US chemical company Du Pont applied for a patent for the versatile and resilient synthetic fibre "nylon".
Do not flush this down the toilet!
31/01/2021
The toilet may be inside the house, but it directs everything that is disposed in it, eventually, into the environment. Therefore, the toilet is not part of the municipal waste collection system.