We keep counting down! Only three more weeks until Material Xperience 2018! The trade fair will take place in Rotterdam Ahoy, the Netherlands. This year, we show you materials and special items from the world of architecture, interior, fashion & workwear, products, mobility, and graphic & packaging. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll give you a preview of what you can expect in each sector and how to get a free ticket. This week: meet the future of Products!

Ambassador of the sector Products
Our ambassador for the sector Products is this year is none other than Marcel Vroom! At the moment, Vroom is new business manager and senior industrial designer at NPK Design, a leading Dutch design consultancy based in Leiden. He is also partner of MVAVD, a Rotterdam based networked design office, which he co-founded in 1997.

Exhibition pieces
Each year, we show several innovative projects at the trade fair. Here is a preview of what you can expect in the pavilion of the sector Products!

LignoLoc
LignoLoc developed by Beck Fasteners, are beech wood nails, strengthened by resin. The wooden nails are just as strong as their aluminium counterpart. Although they can be hammered into wood, it is better to use a specially developed nail gun, which generates heat through friction, melting the resin and welding the nail into the surrounding wood.

3D printed plug
Making a production mould very time consuming and takes up a lot of material. First, a 1:1 model is milled out of polystyrene, which is in turn covered by glass fibre and epoxy paste. From this plug, the production mould is made, and then the plug no longer serves a use. Instead of making a plug in this way from composite, Nedcam is working on a way to 3D print plugs from thermoplastic instead, to make the process more sustainable.

Black Wave
This coffee table is the first item in the Black Wave series in which the beauty of organic curves are emphasised. The table is made from carbon fibre that is wound around a CNC milled mould using a robotic arm.

Speaker programme
Tuesday morning 13 March, the speaker programme “The Future of Products” takes place in the Material Xperience theatre. Marcel Vroom (NPK Design), Anouk Groen (CMF Trend Forecaster), Roland van Straten (ItoM) and Caroline Prisse (Van Tetterode), amongst others. For the full programme, click here.

Materials from our collection
As always, Materia will show the newest materials from its collection. Below you’ll find a preview of the materials in the fashion & workwear exhibition.

Bahia Denim (ONA682)
Bahia Denim, named after a Brazilian blue marble, is a material characterised by its visual illusion to marble. It is designed using denim production waste from the fashion industry. These textile offcuts are layered, adhered and carved to create intricate patterns.

Govaplast (PLA1114)
Govaplast is a type of plastic lumber, but containing no wood at all, as a replacement for wood and concrete. The material is turned into solid, high-quality recycled plastic profiles, both for interior and outside uses.

Karuun (ONA678)
Rat­tan’s structure is compara­ble to a bundle of tubes. The rat­tan palm can transport wa­ter up to 200 me­t­res th­rough its long capillaries. When the capillaries, like by Karuun, are injected wi­th various bulking agents, rat­tan is trans­formed from a wood wi­th limited use into a ver­satile, innovative mate­ri­al.

Want to see more? Click here for the newest materials in our collection!

Visit us
Ready to submerge in material innovation? Material Xperience 2018 takes place from Tuesday 13 March until Thursday 15 March, in Rotterdam Ahoy, the Netherlands. For more information, updates, and a free ticket, click here!