At Best Vision, we'll be incorporating Royal DSM's EcopaXX® Q150-D into our eyewear. Alongside our mission for sustainable eyewear, it fits perfectly. See why.
IHere at Best Vision, we pour our heart and soul into making eco-friendly eyewear that exceeds market expectations. In today's retail landscape, this isn't easy. However, by exploring new materials, optimizing processes, and holding ourselves accountable for environmental responsibility, it is possible.
One material that we've explored is EcoPaXX® Q150-D by Royal DSM. After putting it through our highly-vetted testing procedures, we've established an excellent sustainability-focused supplier and material that we can bring to the eyewear market.
Who is Royal DSM?
Royal DSM is a worldwide, purpose-led leader in health and nutrition. Through bioscience, they aim to improve the health of animals, people, and our planet. The organization's purpose is to develop better living conditions for all, tackling some of the world's biggest SDSs (Sustainable Development Goals) while offering a high-value product.
All their materials are optimized for quality and performance. Typically, they're used as speciality engineering materials in electronics, consumer goods, and automotive industries. However, through their advanced and sustainable solutions, we can use these engineering-based materials and develop sustainable eyewear that really works.
What drove us towards Royal DSM was their commitment to sustainability. The company is focused on continuously improving the eco-friendliness of its operations and entire value chains (upstream and downstream). To measure their impact and success, they use Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which showcase the effectiveness of their sustainable practices.
As Best Vision is a company primarily focused on creating high-quality, sustainable eyewear, Royal DSM is the perfect fit. This isn't only for their excellent material but also for the company's goals, culture, and dedication to offering eco-friendly-based solutions that provide real-world value.
EcoPaXX® Q150-D
EcoPaXX® is Royal DSM's most recognized biobased engineering plastic. It combines DSM's etiquette C4 technology with the strength of nature's C10 building block from castor plants. Combining each of these together gives the EcoPaXX® high mechanical properties of standard short-chain polyamides while offering lower moisture uptake and higher chemical resistance.
The material itself has 27 variations. However, the one we'll be onboarding into the sustainable eyewear industry is Q150-D. We chose this variant because it's a long aliphatic polyamide with low moisture uptake, excellent retention of properties, and good dimensional stability while being remarkably sustainable.
Additionally, the material comes transparent, traceable, and guaranteed by the ISCC (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification). Getting certified by this global leader in sustainable certification is remarkably challenging. However, Royal DSM have succeeded in this with their meticulously recorded environmental data.
Why this material will work for you
After reading, you should have a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of Royal DSM and their aliphatic polyamide, Q150-D. Without question, it's an exciting opportunity for the eyewear industry. Not only for boosting consumer interest and sales but also to make a much-needed move into a more sustainable future.
When utilizing this material for eco-friendly eyewear, the benefits are astonishing. As a sustainability-focused company, we're proud to announce that those utilizing this aliphatic polyamide will benefit in the following ways:
Low carbon footprint One of the main focal points of EcoPaXX® Q150-D is the low carbon footprint it produces. DSM declared that with a functional unit of 1 kg product, the indicative cradle-to-gate carbon footprint is 1.9 kg CO2 eq./kg. This carbon footprint was calculated according to the principles and guidelines from the ISO14040 and the WBCSD's Life Cycle Metric for Chemical Products. Therefore, it takes into consideration all emissions in the product chain up to the manufacturing in their production facilities in Europe. Because of this, you're guaranteed eyewear that produces minimal carbon emissions through the entire manufacturing process. This isn't only a good selling point that consumers demand, but it also positively affects our planet.
Source: Royal DSM
Reduced moisture uptake Plastics absorb water to a limited degree. However, it does come with some consequences. As the environment or direct contact absorbs more water, the material reduces its strength. To counteract this, the EcoPaXX® Q150-D has reduced moisture uptake. As seen by the graph above, EcoPaXX®'s aliphatic polyamides have the highest conditioned modulus of 1.7gpa. Therefore, sustainable eyewear developed from this material has excellent resistance to moisture uptake, making them stiffer and more durable.
Source: Royal DSM
Excellent dimensional stability Additionally, the material has excellent dimensional stability. As a result, the eyewear will have limited change when exposed to temperature. The EcoPaXX® has various grades engineered into the material that meet V2 and V10 flammability and high glow-wire temperatures. The above graph showcases the dielectric strength of the EcoPaXX® compared to other DSM aliphatic polyamides. As seen, it has the same dry state as the PA66 but a much higher dielectric strength after conditioning. Because of this, eco-friendly eyewear is remarkably comfortable with the temperature, something that plastic usually falls short of.
Source: Royal DSM
Salt resistance Salt can play havoc with plastic eyewear. Royal DSM took this as an opportunity to provide something to the market to reduce this issue. With the combination of excellent manufacturing and product materials, the EcoPaXX® outperforms the calcium chloride-based environmental stress cracking test compared to other DSM products. The graph shows the number of hrs until a crack appears in each material. In the experiment, the EcoPaXX® has 2,500 hours of submersion until any cracks appear. Undoubtedly, this is much better than the other aliphatic polyamides, which showed cracks in an hour. All these benefits combined show why we're onboarding EcoPaXX® Q150-D. This, along with our mission to develop sustainable eyewear, fits perfectly together, offering durable glasses that you and your consumers will love.
Source: Royal DSM
Summary
After reading this detailed introduction about our usage of the Royal DSM EcoPaXX® Q150-D, you should understand its fundamental benefits: sustainability and durability. Without question, these are two areas that must be understood when developing eyewear material. If you can meet both requirements, it'll fly with consumers.
We're extremely excited to release this new material into the eyewear market. For further details about how to get involved, contact a helpful representative today. And, together, let's start getting more environmentally responsible.