Bayer MaterialScience: FSK's prize for wrinkle-free polyurethane skin for service robots

Together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation (IPA), Bayer MaterialScience AG (www.bayermaterialscience.de) has been awarded the “Polyurethanes 2008” prize for innovation by the Fachverband Schaumkunststoffe und Polyurethane e.V. (Association for Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes, or FSK). The “1st prize for businesses and design and engineering offices” was presented for the “Care-O-bot® 3” (Photo) project at the 21st FSK Conference in Würzburg in November 2008 in front of more than 100 delegates from the automotive, furniture, packaging and other industries. “Care-O-bot® 3” is a service robot for the home, conceived by the Fraunhofer Institute and developed together with its partners. Bayer MaterialScience developed an elastic polyurethane skin for the external moving parts, which hardly wrinkles at all when the robot is in motion. “The skin is an intelligent combination of a flexible polyurethane foam and a polyurethane dispersion frothed foam. It is a completely novel, innovative class of material which, above all else, has great potential for use in the future robotics market”, explains Manfred Naujoks, an expert in flexible polyurethane foams who accepted the award on behalf of Bayer MaterialScience.

The polyurethane skin was developed jointly by the Polyurethanes, and the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties Business Units, and the New Business segment which is tasked with identifying new markets and business opportunities for Bayer MaterialScience. It is modeled on human skin and is composed of two layers. The dispersion frothed foam Impranil® is applied as a continuous thin outer skin to the ultra-light and highly extensible polyurethane foam HyperNova®. “The result has an extremely attractive look and a pleasantly soft feel. The thickness, density, color and surface texture of the material can be varied to meet the requirements of the respective application”, says Dr. Andrea Maier-Richter, who played a key role in the project within the New Business Division at Bayer MaterialScience. Although extremely flexible, the composite material patented by Bayer MaterialScience is also very strong and highly resistant to standard cleaning agents and everyday chemicals.

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The company is working on the assumption that the demand for partner and service robots will increase dramatically in the future, for example as a result of the aging population, and has therefore established the global “Robotics” working group. “Its work focuses primarily on developing high-tech functional polymers. One aim is to make robots lighter by using intelligent materials and thus to reduce their power consumption and make their batteries last longer. Electrically conductive plastic skin materials, for example, could be used to give the robot sensory faculties”, explains Dr. Lorenz Kramer, a robotics expert in the New Business segment. The group is working closely with market leaders in this field, to ensure that any developments in materials are matched precisely to the needs of robot manufacturers.

FSK has awarded the “Polyurethanes” prize for innovation every 2 years since 1998. It rewards novel ideas and developments in process engineering and polymer chemistry that highlight the innovative potential of polyurethane. The award is aimed at students studying specialist technical subjects (especially chemistry and plastics) as well as styling and design, and also at companies and trainees.

Bayer MaterialScience AG, Leverkusen, Germany

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