Copol Compostos Poliméricos
Equipment that reuses plastic and aluminum from tetra pak packages and investments on nanoparticle are the company’s bases

Evanildo da Silveira

After 17 years working as an employee, of which eight were in the private sector and nine in a university, the engineer of materials Eliezer Gibertoni decided to shift his career and start a new professional life as an entrepreneur. So in 2002 he created Copol – Compostos Poliméricos (Polymeric Composites), a company whose aim is the development of new materials and applications for the plastic materials transformation industry. Five years later, Copol has in its portfolio equipment that makes possible to reuse the polyethylene and the aluminum from tetra pak packages. And is currently working on the development of pigmenting nanoparticles capable of coloring different types of plastic.

It’s the project Pigmentos Alternativos à Base de Nanopartículas Aplicáveis a Composições Poliméricas de Engenharia (alternative pigments based on nanoparticles applicable to engineering polymeric compositions), funded by the Programa Inovação Tecnológica em Pequenas Empresas (Technological Innovation in Small Businesses Program, PIPE), of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (State of São Paulo Research Foundation, Fapesp). “The project’s main idea is to study the technical feasibility of producing pigmenting nanoparticles for the plastic materials [or polymeric] recycling industry,” explains Antonio Carlos Hernandes, in charge of the University of São Paulo at São Carlos’ Institute of Physics’ Crystal and Ceramic Materials Growth Group (Grupo de Crescimento de Cristais e Materiais Cerâmicos do Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo, USP) – São Carlos is a city in the interior of the State of São Paulo –, Copol’s partner in the project. “Our goal was to develop a methodology to produce pellets with a high concentration of pigmenting agents for use in the industry as raw material for dyeing plastics.”

For the plastic industry the new product is most welcome. “More than that, an advanced product such as this is essential for the industry,” says the president of the Brazilian Association of the Plastic Industry (Associação Brasileira da Indústria do Plástico, Abiplast), Merheg Cachum. “We can’t go on running behind the developed world. We need to value and take advantage of the new technologies that are developed in Brazil by Brazilians.” According to Cachum, soon nanotechnology will be a reality in the sector. “Whoever ignores the benefits of nanotechnology to the plastic industry will not make as much money,” he says.

Long experience

Before founding Copol, Gibertoni, who has a degree in Engineering of Materials with specialization in polymeric materials from the Federal University of São Carlos (Universidade Federal de São Carlos, UFSCar), which he got in 1984, acquired vast professional experience in the industrial area in companies such as 3M do Brasil and Indústria e Comércio Cardinali. “Between 1985 and 1993 I held positions of engineer of quality, quality manager, production manager and polymeric materials manager, as well as advisor to the company’s directors,” he recalls. “In 1993 I began a new phase in my career when I joined the Centro de Caracterização e Desenvolvimento de Materiais (Center of Characterization and Development of Materials, CCDM) at UFSCar’s Department of Engineering of Materials (Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, DEMa), managing the Area of Polymers.”

During that period, more specifically in 1999, he finished his Master’s in Engineering of Materials at DEMa/UFSCar. He worked at CCDM for nine years, providing consulting services to different companies on processes, products and raw materials. “It was in this phase of my professional life that the idea of starting a business career matured, and in late 2002/early 2003 I created Copol,” Gibertoni tells. “After five years Copol has overcome several challenges, many of which are easily seen in the statistics of entities that support entrepreneurs and micro-businesses.”

Gibertoni is referring to data that show that a large percentage of micro and small businesses in Brazil close down during their first year for lack of market stability, working capital and competitiveness. In order to overcome such difficulties, Copol has strived to develop customer-tailored products, creating relationships that have made possible the continuity of its other research projects in the areas of technology and innovation.

According to Gibertoni, the idea of developing ‘customer-tailored products’ came up thanks to the combination of his professional experience in both the industrial and academic areas, and because the industry has a growing demand for alternative materials. “In short, the company needs to have a line of products to keep it ‘alive’ in order to go after new developments that will enable it to enlarge its market share, including differentiated, value-added products,” he explains.

Today Copol produces, mainly for the plastics industry, polymeric composites in the form of pellets. Small, cylindrical grains with diameter and length of approximately 5 millimeters (.19 in), they are used in the manufacture of parts and complete items in the electro-electronic, packaging, automobile, civil construction and home appliances industries, among others. The product is an alternative to the conventional resins supplied by the petrochemical industry.

For Gibertoni, Copol’s main contribution to its clients is the development of alternative composites, based on the use of the properties of different kinds of resins, combined with additives that may add better processing characteristics and final properties to the products, with lower costs and improved efficacy. “In order to do that we try to keep close partnership relations with our university and technological partners, so that we are able to apply alternatives in the production of the composites,” he says.

Second PIPE

PIPE’s current loan was not the first one that the company gets. In 2003 Copol began its first PIPE project, with the aim of developing an alternative process to reuse polyethylene/aluminum from tetra pak packages. “The project made possible the development of a separating device that eliminates residual cellulose fibers from the polyethylene surface, preparing it for the processing stage in the form of a polymeric composite,” describes Gibertoni. “This project was developed with the support of the infra-structure of UFSCar’s DEMa.”

The interaction with USP’s Institute of Physics’ CCDM Research Group made possible the second PIPE project, directed to the use of nanotechnology in the area of polymeric composites. The project of alternative pigments is aimed at meeting a demand for applications directed to the segments of products that require chemical inertia (a-toxic degree) and preservation of the polymers’ physical-chemical properties. “The objective is to develop an optimized process for the production of pigmenting nanoparticles and their use in the form of color concentrates, called masterbatches, in polymeric resins,” explains Gibertoni.

Currently the plastics industry uses a wide variety of pigments and dyes, which are available in the form of color concentrates. But in the stage of preparation of the masterbatches, just as in the stage of final application, the plastic transformation process have several problems caused by the lack of dispersion of the pigments’ particles, resulting in the formation of agglomerates and non-disperse points, which in turn cause defects in the products, affecting the physical-chemical properties of the polymers to which they have been incorporated. The use of pigmenting nanoparticles as an alternative to the coloring systems in polymeric materials is aimed at eliminating such dispersion problems caused by conventional pigments and dyes, as well as developing new color compositions, which can increase their use in packaging, toys and other products.

No pollution

The researcher Antonio Carlos Hernandes explains that pigmenting nanoparticles are particles with a diameter between 20 and 80 nanometers (a nanometer is the billionth part of a meter) and chemical composition based on oxides, such as, for instance, titanium, of high chemical stability. “The main innovation of the project is the development of the pigmenting nanoparticles based on oxide composites that are inert to the environment, that is, that are non-polluting, and the incorporation to the engineering polymers [formation of nanocomposites],” he says. “The regular process for coloring a large part of these pieces uses toxic material based on lead and cadmium.

With the use of nanoparticles in the elaboration of the pigment the process is carried out with inorganic material, which results increased stability of the plastic material, with no use of toxic elements.”
Polymers, or engineering plastics, used for making a variety of items, are not painted like a wall, with a brush. In the case of Copol’s project, the pigmenting nanoparticles are added to the molten plastic that needs to be colored. “The first results were very positive,” says Hernandes. “We were able to get different hues, which is highly significant for the creation of new designs of products. Besides, coloring takes places through a simpler, cleaner process than the conventional.”

The project’s Phase I has already been concluded. The company received US$ 47,500 and invested the same amount of its own resources in infra-structure and complementing equipment. PIPE’s funds were used for purchasing raw materials and for the development and purchase of equipment for the preparation of the pigmentation bases and their processing in a prototype scale at the industrial level. Now, in the project’s second stage, the goal is to produce it in a semi-industrial scale. A business plan is going to be developed in order to make feasible this increased production.

According to Gibertoni, the company has already applied for a loan with PIPE’s Phase II. “In this second stage we applied for a US$ 200,000 loan, which will be used in the production of nanoparticles on a bigger scale, so that we’ll be able to get nanoparticle concentrates in different polymeric vehicles and in different levels of concentration,” he says. “This stage is aimed at consolidating the system for large scale production of pigmenting nanoparticles and at processing the masterbatches.”

Crucial support

PIPE’s support has been crucial for the company’s consolidation and growth. “The program’s financing projects made possible for Copol to effectively incorporate the technology and the generation of knowledge applied to the development of innovating products that enables us to offer the market a differential,” recognizes Gibertoni. “With wide experience in the area of polymeric materials and transformation processes, the professionals linked to Copol are able to help our customers in their development projects and in process improvements in all phases of the manufacturing cycle. That differential, together with the partnerships with universities and the infra-structure of the research institutes, makes possible to enlarge the range of alternatives in the development of products with more added value for highly demanding markets in terms of specifications and guaranteed quality.”

That’s why Gibertoni assures that the company is ready to meet the needs of the large and demanding market of the plastic transformation industry, which is in a constant quest for innovation in processes and new materials in order to increase its competitiveness in a globalized world. In Brazil, the sector’s approximately 8,500 companies, most of them small or medium-sized, are scattered throughout the country. Together, they employ more than 250,000 people. In 2005, the plastic transformation sector used more than 4.2 million tons of polymeric resins – and almost all the products have some coloring that is obtained through the introduction of the pigmenting systems.

As for the color concentrates specifically, the estimates are that in Brazil some 200 manufacturers produce between 7,500 and 9,000 tons and have revenues of about US$ 15 million a month. Market surveys put the volume of masterbatches consumed at 8,000 tons a month, of which 40% are white, 30% colored, 20% black and 10% additives. Among the various segments of products, the packaging sector participates with 42% – it includes products that range from bottles for cleaning products, which have low added value, to packaging for cosmetics, which have a differential in finishing and cost more