A Port Elizabeth-based chemical technology company that can halve the energy needed to manufacture rubber products will soon be setting up shop in Italy.
Rubbernano Products (RNP), whose technology uses nano-particles to increase energy efficiency during rubber production, has signed an agreement that will see its products manufactured on Italian soil by the end of the year.
The company, housed at the Isuzu Industrial Hub at Propella, creates a chemical component for a range of rubberbased products, from footwear and tyres to conveyor belts.
RNP technical director Robert Bosch said the Italian factory would be producing the chemical component, which is added in the process of vulcanising rubber with sulphur – a process that makes rubber more durable.
“The business was born out of research projects at university [level], when we were investigating how different nanoparticles of zinc oxide and zinc sulphide would do,” he said.
“What we have [years later] is a material that we add into the combination of chemicals and it makes that process more energy-efficient and faster, but also better for the rubber properties.
“We’ve created a homogenous catalyst in that [it is] a liquid system at [the temperature of baking the rubber].
“Everything else is liquid when the rubber melts and it starts to dissolve and pulls in some of the other materials.
“The advantages of doing this is that all the properties of the rubber material improve.
“We are lowering some of the fundamental properties that determine fuel economy or [energy consumption] and in doing so, finding [our product] as a suitable replacement for some other toxic chemicals that were put into the rubber for that specific purpose.”
Bosch said plans to manufacture the product in Italy come from an agreement with an Italian company that produces sulphur.
“We’ve had a partnership with [the company] for quite a while but we’ve now grown to the point where [the product has] matured to what we’d agreed on many years ago.
“We’ve got a factory that will be turned on before the end of this year, and then we will keep a second resource here in South Africa.”
The product is already gaining interest from companies in Asia, Europe and the US, largely due to the increased energy efficiency.
“We find that we can offer significant temperature reductions in the process, which means it does turn into money for the manufacturer, but it will also have a green benefit.”
Bosch estimates the technology saves between 33% and 50% of the time needed to manufacture rubber at the standard temperature.
“If you’re saving half the time, you’re also saving half the energy.”
He hopes to take the product to other markets around the world.
“A lot of companies have no reason to change until there’s a problem, but we’ve solved some serious problems with our products.
“We’re solving things nobody has a solution for. Our goal is to become a critical component in every rubber system and we believe we have the potential to do it.
“We’re trying to create a niche for ourselves where we deliver something unique, and I think we’re achieving that.”
Propella senior industrial adviser Grant Minnie said the incubator was proud of Bosch’s international ventures.
“His entrepreneurial thinking and confident outlook adds significant value to the Propella eco-system, where he continues to innovate through the use of a simulation tool to build a stronger case for the use of their product,” Minnie said.