Product developers focused on the future material hemp
In recent years, curiosity about the material hemp has increased, and in addition to being suitable in the textile industry, hemp can be used for cosmetics and energy production but also in, for example, the construction sector and the plastics industry. It is also a material that can be grown non-toxic, with a low carbon footprint (can even bind carbon dioxide) and with low water consumption, and thus has properties that are well suited to meet some of today's challenges. It was therefore very interesting to see what innovative products a group of interdisciplinary students (from mechanical engineering, engineering design, industrial economics, medicine and engineering as well as engineering nanoscience) created from the material hemp. The uses they focused on were home/construction/furniture, automotive, and textile/clothing. They had to work in groups over seven weeks to create new products, business concepts and prototypes.
- In the course Product Innovation, students learn to master the strategically important product planning process: how companies renew their product ranges, find product ideas and ensure that these ideas will be successful, says Damien Motte, at Department of Design Sciences. In the course project, students need to find new product ideas for a company, and develop one of these ideas so that they can prove that it is technically feasible, commercially viable and relevant for the company (or not), a so-called proof-of-concept. The projects are often about renewing a product family, but it has also been about finding new products based on a particular technology or material, as this year with hemp. The projects are quite challenging as the students have only seven weeks and also work part-time on it.
Future by Lund participated through Lars Mattiasson who looks at circular models for the manufacturing industry in the project MCRS (Multicircular and Sustainable Manufacturing Industry).
- Student projects are a great way to involve future generations of, for example, industrial and product designers in the work, he says.
The students worked in seven groups with different assignments. The final choice of product had been preceded by an idea generation and evaluation. Here is a review of the seven product concepts.
Packnic — “The urban adventure picnic backpack” is a clever idea where a picnic blanket folds up into a backpack. The product is intended for those who want to make a trip to the beach or to a park. The group behind the product had thoughts on a series of products suitable for different numbers of people and different purposes. For this, an option was even created in which the picnic blanket can be turned into a cloth bag, perhaps more suitable for a trip to the beach.
Can you think of one hemp surfboard? At least one of the groups of students could, and the idea was to have a core of wood, filled with specially treated, ultralight, hemp foam, and covered with bio-epoxy resin cured with hemp fibers. Through this, the group wanted to create a board with the same characteristics as a classic, but with a clearly better environmental footprint through the ecological choice of materials. Some intended audiences were environmentally conscious sports shops and those who surf for recreation.
When the third group conducted a market survey, one of the interviewees asked for a apron adapted for female chefr. Therefore, the group created an apron made of hemp that can then be adapted to female bodies using sashes and shoulder straps. The group wanted to focus primarily on customers such as finer restaurants, which often have a sustainability profile, and an environmentally friendly apron could fit in with them.
Because hemp is environmentally friendly, a group thought about a light travel sheet and the ambition was to also make it durable, comfortable to sleep in and give a fresh feeling even when it is not freshly washed. Therefore, a material mixture consisting of 60% hemp and 40% silk was chosen, both of which are materials with good ecological properties. The sheet is designed to promote sustainable travel for outdoor enthusiasts, environmentally conscious travelers and families. There is also a compartment for stuffing a pillow in the sheet, the possibility of buttoning it together and straps to carry with it.
A self-watering planter, so large that it can also accommodate a few seats, is another possibility for those who work with hemp. Here, a special hemp concrete is used, which has the advantage that the pot will be lighter than, for example, concrete pots. The goal was to make the pot aesthetically pleasing, functional in that it is self-irrigating but also so that it is suitable for public places, and therefore some seating was created on the side of the planter. In the container, self-irrigation is solved in a circular system, among other things, by means of a rope in hemp, which leads water to the plants. Think customers are mainly municipalities but also private ones, such as hotel lobbies or shopping malls.
In cars and other vehicles, there are plenty of plastic parts in the interior, and of course, for reasons of sustainability, it would be good to be able to replace some of the plastic with bioplastics. One of the groups was thinking about a hemp cup holder. There is a lot to think about because it should be able to hold mugs of many different sizes securely in place. Therefore, the group has evaluated various solutions. The model chosen has a bottom that is chamfered for several different diameters of the mugs, and on the other hand a kind of springs that enter from the sides that also allow for size adjustment. The customer for this product is the automotive industry.
One task was to develop sound-absorbing furniture out of hemp, and the group stuck to do product development of sound-absorbing screens with ready-made blocks of hemp fiber as sound attenuation. In addition to being sound-absorbing, the product must be simple and safe to use and, finally, also be stylish. The group chose to make a wooden frame for the hemp fiber board and cover it with a protective fabric, before a more aesthetic cover (in hemp) was put on. Two tiles were put together, and the angle between them can be adjusted so that they can not only stand on the floor of a room, but also put on desks, put around corners or directed so that it also absorbs sound at height. The group received the sound-absorbing material from Ekolution, a newly established company in Staffanstorp that also cooperates with Future by Lund.
The innovation platform Future by Lund participated through Lars Mattiasson, who was able to support both with the innovation platform's network and his experience as a business coach.
- What I have seen today feels inspiring and hopeful as the role of designers and engineers as the creator of a product is the key to the sustainable production and consumption of the future, says Lars Mattiasson. I also think that all the products we have seen today can reinforce their marketing with the help of storytelling around the sustainable hemp. Storytelling is an effective way to reach an interested audience and potential customers.
The groups tested their ideas and concepts, among other things, through interviews, by examining consumer needs and pondering user profiles before prototyping their products. Many reports were supplemented by various market analyses, benchmarking, risk analyses and finally also development plans on how the concept can be taken further.
- This was a tough project that the groups have managed well this year, says Damien Motte. The students usually have projects with manufacturing companies and it was new for them to have a whole consortium. But working with hemp was the real challenge as this is far from a material you study in materials science. The only thing these students knew about hemp, including this one, was that it was used in the past for ropes and sails, which are far from the products developed in mechanical or medical engineering. The students received a lot of support from Lars Mattiasson who also activated his network of experts. The students were thus able to get feedback from Git Skoglund, one of the few experts in hemp in Sweden. But the students also took the initiative themselves and plated themselves in the various hemp-based materials, such as bioplastics and hemp lime, and applications. They made contact with organizations within the consortium, including, The Lost Boys Lab 3D, Ecolution and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), in order to be able to obtain more information about the possibilities of the material. This led to the very relevant solutions presented to Future by Lund. We now hope that this will contribute to a greater use of hemp in today's and future products.
Hemp Facts
Hemp is a material that used to be used to make rope, textiles and paper. As a textile, it was the largest alongside linen before cotton was introduced some time into the 19th century. Since hemp was later considered a drug only in the 1970s, all hemp cultivation was banned in Sweden, as in most other European countries. When the Swedish Board of Agriculture from 2003 allowed the cultivation of certain listed varieties, hemp was a relatively unexplored material in Sweden. In recent years, the curiosity about hemp has increased, and in addition to being a good material for the textile industry, hemp can be used for cosmetics and energy production but also in, for example, the construction sector and the plastics industry. Recently, for example, the International Hemp Building Symposium by Ekolution, a company in Staffanstorp that uses hemp for building materials.
Hemp is a useful agricultural product that, in addition to its high protein content, also has high carbon storage, low water requirements and is also suitable for non-toxic cultivation.
