Global specialty plastics provider Eastman and NB Coatings, a leader in paint on plastics for both domestic and transplant original equipment manufacturers, have developed a new solution for interior Class A painted surfaces with Tr?va™ engineering bioplastic.

Tr?va offers a viable option for companies interested in creating sustainable, cost-effective products. When painted with NB Coatings paint systems, Tr?va can meet the demanding Class A surface requirements as specified by OEMs.

In automotive applications, cellulose-based Tr?va from Eastman exhibits high performance and reduced environmental impact. Tr?va also withstands the challenges of automotive interiors, including high temperatures, humidity, UV, scratch/mar and general durability requirements. The material has low VOC emissions, which is critical for interior parts. Its processing ease and excellent flow enable good dimensional stability and thin-wall designs for less material usage and lower weight.

"Tr?va provides a biobased, sustainable alternative to polycarbonate, ABS and PC-ABS for interior automotive applications at a cost-neutral position," said Chris Scarazzo, Eastman automotive market segment leader. "Eastman's material innovations match what OEMs need to develop lasting parts with sustainable materials and help them achieve their goals for sustainable content and replacement of petroleum-based plastic."

Sourced from sustainably managed forests, Tr?va has biobased content of 42-46 percent, certified by the USDA's BioPreferred program. To continue reducing waste and maximizing resources, Tr?va benefits from carbon renewal technology, Eastman's proprietary recycling process that recycles waste plastic typically sent to landfills or found as litter in waterways.

Carbon renewal technology is a chemical recycling technology that diverts mixed waste plastics from the landfill and converts them to simple molecular components that are then reintroduced in the production of a variety of Eastman products, including Tr?va—without performance compromise.

"As an environmentally conscious coating provider, NB Coatings is excited to announce this paintability breakthrough in collaboration with Eastman," said Jesse Fritcher, NB Coatings vice president of technical. "Our trials with Tr?va found adhesion of our coating technologies to be comparable to, and in some cases better than, that achieved with traditional grades of PC-ABS, providing new sustainable options for automotive design engineers."

http://www.eastman.com