Polymer processing

Omlidon Technologies, a spin-out  of ETH Zurich, is commercialising a process that allows Teflon to be injection moulded.

And for its efforts, the company recently won this year’s Oxford University Business Plan Competition. The judges awarded the Apax Prize of £20,000 cash to the company because they considered it the most ‘fundable’ business of the six finalists.

‘This is a technology which will rattle the cage of the major corporations and is a major technological breakthrough. It answers the 60 year-old polymer processing problem that Teflon is not melt-processable and as a consequence very expensive to make parts from,” said Christian Sarwa of Omlidon.

He added that the new process would enable manufacturers to develop a new class of PTFE (the chemical name for Teflon) and reduce the processing cost by up to 50%.

“It will have a significant impact on automotive parts, medical applications and other high-performance applications, which need extraordinary polymer materials,” he added.