Plantics for eco-friendly furniture

Plantics resins are the perfect starting point for eco-friendly circular furniture. In combination with natural materials such as wood (ply, chips), hemp or flax fibers, the 100% plant-based thermosetting resins, acts as a binder resulting in strong, moisture-resistant and circular materials. These materials can be produced into any shape, such as 3-dimensional hemp seat shells and all types of (wood) panels.

Plantics resin

Plantics bio-resins and materials are unique

  • minimal impact on the environment: 100% plant-based, stores CO2, recyclable and biodegradable
  • superior: strong, hard, moisture resistant, colourless, odourless, heat resistant (> 200 oC), fire retardant (class D and with natural fire retardant class B)
  • safe: does not contain or emit formaldehyde or other toxic substances
  • patent protected worldwide

Never ending

Both he Plantics bio-resins and bonded materials can be fully recovered at the end of life and re-used. This is because the resin can be re-activated via partial depolymerisation. This is not possible with any other thermoset binder on the market.

In the (undesired) case Plantics materials come into nature, they are fully biodegradable, leaving no harmful microplastics or other substances behind.

Click on infographic to enlarge.

Hemp and flax

In Europe, hemp and flax may well be the most suitable natural fibres for bio-composite furniture production.
Both crops have minimal environmental impact during cultivation (no use of pesticides). Furthermore, they can be grown locally in many environments and capture a lot of carbon during growth in a short time (up to 15 tons of CO2 per hectare vs approximately 5 tons of CO2 per hectare for wood).

To manufacture natural fiber composite furniture made with Plantics bio-resins, fiber mats are treated with resin are pressed into any shape. These bio-composites have a natural look-and-feel, and no finishing is needed. If desired the materials can be colored. They have a negative CO2 footprint.

Technical properties hemp/flax composite

Bending strength (Mpa):            61
Modulus elasticity (Mpa):           8800
Swelling 24 h in water %:           4
LCA (kg/CO2 kg product):           -1.1

DSC08830 (1)

Safe plywood 

Do you want to make your current 3D plywood furniture more eco-friendly and safe? Integrate the Plantics bio-resins in your current production process. Our bio-resins can replace conventionally used resins without compromising strength, resulting in an green and clean alternative. Our bio-resins are not only safe for users of your product, but also safe for your personnel to work with because it contains no formaldehyde or other toxic components!

Technical properties plywood

Plywood made with Plantics resins is available as Class 2 moisture resistant (EN 622-3).

PlyLoopChair

rotate your mobile to view the table below

Typical technical data for Plantics moisture resistant materials

Hemp/flax
Exterior
Particle board
Humid P5
Norm MDF
Humid EN622-5
Norm Plywood
Humid Class 2
Resin amount mass% 45 10 12 8
Internal bond (N/mm2) 1.5 0.9 > 0.45 0.8 >0.8 1.1**
Bending strength (Mpa) 61 18 >16 25 >24 70
Modulus elasticity (Mpa) 8800 2700 >2400 3300 >2500 6000
Swelling 24 h in water % 4 10 <12 5* <10
LCA (kg/CO2 kg product)*** -1.1 -1.6 no data -1.6
* wax added
** shear strength wet N/mm2 norm > 1
*** including biogenic storage excluding recycling
Plantics panels

Products in the market

In collaboration with Vepa, we developed the Hemp chair collection. What started as an experimental product is developed into a line of several products from which each year thousands are sold. Our joint work won the global Renewable Material of the year 2021 award in a competition organized by the German Nova Institute.  The shell of the chair is fully made of plant-based materials (hemp fibres and Plantics bio-resin). Each Hemp shell  stores over 6 kg CO2 from the atmosphere. The chair is so durable it obtained NEN-EN 16139 certification. It also passed the Crib 5 (BS 5852) fire test easily. Because the chair can be fully re-used or recycled into valuable other furniture products, Vepa will refund 15 euros for each chair that is returned.

Hemp chair with biobased materials

Become a partner of Plantics

We are looking for partners! Are you willing to invest in the application of Plantics of Plantics materials for the production and sales of your own sustainable furniture? Contact us.

In our Innovation Lab in Arnhem, The Netherlands, we can get you started. Together we explore the options, help you develop a prototype and implement circular Plantics materials in your business and become member of the Plantics family.

About Plantics

Plantics B.V. is a spin-off from the University of Amsterdam and builds on a revolutionary invention of this University. This has resulted in a unique group of 100% biobased circular thermoset resins and the world’s first 100% plant-based circular thermoset materials. Together with its partners, Plantics develops and commercializes high-quality, circular and CO2 negative products.

Working at Plantics

Visit us

Are you interested in working with our hemp biocomposite or our resin for your plywood? Or do you want to know more about other applications? You are welcome to visit us in Arnhem, The Netherlands. We love to show what is possible for you.
Fill out the form below and we will contact you.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid phone number.
Please enter a message.