16,000 Breathing Apparatus With Graphene Nanotube-Enhanced Cylinders Adopted by Firefighter Services Globally

Self-contained breathing apparatus with nanocylinders show wide adoption by fire services in the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Equipped with a lighter cylinder, firefighters benefit from reduced fatigue, increased agility, and a longer duration of air supply if using a twinning option. Ultralight weight and non-limited life performance of fully composite cylinders become possible thanks to their enhancement with graphene nanotubes.

Fire and emergency services work in extreme environments, where the weight of equipment is critical. Dräger, an international leader in manufacturing medical and safety technology products, has commercialized a firefighting breathing apparatus with the world’s lightest type 4 composite cylinders, enhanced with graphene nanotubes to minimize weight. Fire services in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UK, Germany, Indonesia, Qatar, and many other countries have already recognized the efficiency of the innovative breathing system.

“Reduced weight and a non-limited life performance are the key features of the developed compressed air breathing cylinders. The combination of lightweight sturdy cylinder material, which was achieved with the use of OCSiAl’s graphene nanotubes, with impact-resistant caps ensures the high durability and solid robustness of nanocylinders.are They 75% lighter than steel cylinders and 30% lighter than aluminum ones,” said Piotr Saferna, R&D leader of Techplast, an innovative company which developed the nanocylinders.

In 2021, Dräger received exclusive rights to use these nanocylinders in its self-contained breathing apparatus. “Thanks to a shell weight of only 2.8 kg and 6.8 l of air, the Dräger NANO Type 4 reduces fatigue and increases firefighter agility. Since 2021, we have provided fire service companies in more than twenty countries worldwide with self-contained breathing apparatus equipped with nanocylinders fully compliant with EN12245:2009,” said Mike George, Product Manager for PM Emergency and Rescue Services, Draeger Safety UK Ltd.

Now airport and industrial fire brigades, marine firefighters, and mine rescue teams have the opportunity to increase safety via a longer duration of air consumption and air supply if using a twinning option.

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First Boeing 777 With AeroSHARK Takes Off on Passenger Flights

Boeing 777-300ER operated by Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) took off on a passenger flight with the AeroSHARK surface technology jointly developed by Lufthansa Technik and BASF. The fuselage and engine nacelles of the aircraft were recently fitted with approximately 950 square meters of so-called Riblet films, which replicate the flow-efficient properties of shark skin in order to reduce drag.

Flow simulations have already identified a savings potential of just over one percent for this type of aircraft. The first scheduled flights with the aircraft registered as HB-JNH will now serve to validate this savings potential in daily flight operations. Thanks to its special surface structure of microscopic ribs – known as Riblets – AeroSHARK reduces the frictional resistance of this aircraft’s outer skin by just over one percent, according to the calculations and flow simulations.

As a result, fuel consumption and CO2emissions are also reduced by the same order of magnitude. For this Boeing 777-300ER of SWISS, this would equate to annual savings of around 400 tons of kerosene and more than 1,200 tons of carbon dioxide. The AeroSHARK modification of the HB-JNH began at the end of August and culminated in several test flights on September 8 and 9. During these flights, it had to be demonstrated in detail that the AeroSHARK modification had no negative impact on the operational safety and handling of the Boeing 777.

As soon as the calculated savings potential has been validated in actual flight operations, the full-scale roll-out at the launch customers SWISS and Lufthansa Cargo is planned to begin. Further Boeing 777s will then receive the AeroSHARK modification as part of regular maintenance layovers.

Both airlines plan to have all their Boeing 777-300ERs and 777Fs successively fitted with AeroSHARK. This would make them the first passenger and cargo airlines worldwide to optimize a complete sub-fleet with this technology. When all of the current eleven Boeing 777s at Lufthansa Cargo and twelve at SWISS have received their AeroSHARK modification, they will reduce the Lufthansa Group’s carbon footprint by more than 25,000 tons annually.

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Bend it like PU – Plastics in Sport

“Plastics have revolutionised sport!”

Today, no one can imagine leather balls, wooden rackets, bamboo poles or cinder tracks in sporting competition. Natural materials have now been almost completely replaced by other materials: plastics. They are light, robust and highly functional. Thanks to intensive research, they are also becoming more and more efficient – and ultimately lead to new world records.

Today, sport and plastics are inextricably linked. But that was not always the case: billiard balls used to be made of ivory. To meet the demand, about 120,000 elephants were killed every year. Then, in 1863, Michael Phelan offered a prize of $10,000 for an alternative to ivory. A few years later, John Wesley Hyatt developed one of the first plastics: celluloid. Billiard balls were never made of celluloid, but of phenolic resin, but table tennis balls were.

A world record with plastic

Even though plastics have long since found their way into our everyday lives, they were far from being commonplace in sport. In the 1980s, the Swede Björn Borg was still an ace on the tennis court with his wooden racket with strings made of natural gut. Today’s tennis rackets are made of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). They are lighter, more manoeuvrable and at the same time more robust than their predecessors – and are partly responsible for the fact that the serve of today’s tennis professional is about 28 km/h faster than that of a tennis professional of that time. The fastest measured serve was achieved by the Australian Sam Groth in May 2021 and amounted to 263 km/h.

Many sporting world records would not have been possible without plastic. At the 1952 Olympic Games, the American Bob Richards jumped 4.55 metres with a bamboo pole. In 2021, the Swede Armand Duplantis reached over 6 metres – with a pole made of CFRP. Also at the 1952 Olympics, a wooden javelin flew 73.78 metres, which won American Cy Young a gold medal. Today’s world records are just under 100 metres – set with javelins made of glass-fibre reinforced plastics (GRP).

Balls, boats and pools – durable thanks to plastic
A famous example of a piece of sports equipment made of plastic is the football. In the past, people played with a ball made of sewn-together leather honeycombs filled with a rubber bladder. Today, that is hardly conceivable. For fair competition, it is important that the ball does not absorb rainwater and that it returns to its original shape after a kick, which enables a precise trajectory. This is achieved thanks to polyurethane (PU), the material from which official match balls are made today. In most cases, nothing is sewn any more, but is heat-bonded in a special process called thermal bonding. This makes the ball not only durable but also highly symmetrical.

Natural materials have now also been replaced by plastics in water sports. Today, sailing yachts are largely made of CFRP or GRP. The hulls of the yachts can thus be made particularly light and robust at the same time. Special antifouling films made of silicone protect the hull from algae and mussel deposits.

In swimming pools, the material – in addition to contact with water – is exposed to chlorine for a long time. Plastics such as the copolymer Polystone from Röchling not only withstand this over the long term, but are also easy to clean and UV-resistant.

Plastics from head to toe
Today, sportsmen and sportswomen are dressed in plastic almost from head to toe. This is because functional clothing made of plastic fulfils an elementary requirement: it is warming in the cold and cooling in the heat. In addition, the breathable, lightweight synthetic fibres ensure that perspiration is not absorbed but released to the outside. Friction is also reduced thanks to functional clothing. They fit the body like a second skin and provide optimal freedom of movement.

For winter sportsmen and women, the head is also made of plastic: professional helmets are usually made of the very light material carbon on the outside. On the inside, expanded polystyrene (EPS), for example Styrofoam, is used. This can deform in the event of a fall and compensate for the impact forces.

Today, sports shoes hardly contain any natural fibres or leather. Upper materials, soles, insoles – all components of a sports shoe must be light, durable and efficient. Plastics meet all these requirements. Silica technology, which also helps car tyres to grip better, provides a firm hold. And thanks to the cushioning properties of certain rubbers, joints are relieved and protected.

Material research: faster, higher, greener
Research is constantly being conducted into new plastics and technologies to provide even more comfort and performance for the wearers of shoes. BASF has developed a foam made of a new expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (E-TPU). According to the manufacturer, Infinergy is elastic like rubber, but resiliently light. The material is used in the adidas Boost. The midsole of the running shoe consists of 2,500 E-TPU capsules, which pop up like corn kernels when you run and increase their volume tenfold. With the help of this technology, the runner receives an energy recovery and thus a boost.

Sustainability also plays a role in the new developments. Adidas, for example, spent almost a decade researching to finally bring a running shoe to market with the UltraBoost DNA Loop that is completely recyclable for the first time – true to the motto “Made to be remade”. It consists entirely of TPU – from the sole to the laces. By the way: BASF’s Infinergy material is also used in this model.

Plastic – a material that is revolutionising sport
The list of sports equipment made of plastic is, of course, much longer. Whether in tennis, football, water sports or athletics – today’s sports equipment has very little in common with what it used to be. Thanks to plastics, rackets, balls, clothing and co. are becoming lighter, more flexible and at the same time more robust. This increases the performance and comfort of the athletes. Plastics have made today’s world records possible in the first place.

Or as the German 400-metre hurdler Harald Schmid aptly summarises: “Plastics have revolutionised sport!”

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