Material Driven Design: Designing a product from residual Dyneema® production fibres

Abstract

This master’s thesis is a collaboration between DSM Dyneema and the Circular Design Lab, a part of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. DSM Dyneema is a business group within the large Dutch multinational DSM N.V. They looking into means of making their business practice more suited to a future in a circular economy. Like many materials producers, these efforts start within their own walls; looking for ways to re-purpose production residuals. Aside from disposal costs, the motivation for this project was to determine more sustainable mindset in a production of materials with a non-renewable origin. Dyneema® is a high-performance synthetic fibre with exceptional strength for its weight. It also had many other favorable properties. It is however challenging to recycle in existing processes. Similarly, the energy invested into the material make it a potentially high value residual. Means of leveraging inherent value were explored in this thesis.The material landscape provides a plethora of (re-)processing possibilities. A selection was explored in order to determine feasibility of implementation within current technological and economic bounds. This offered insights into the readiness of these producers to work in collaboration with DSM Dyneema in a circular value chain. Considering how residual materials to be collected, re-used, re-purposed, etcetera.From the standpoint of product design this project provided the unique opportunity to develop user value from the starting point of the material itself. In terms of the circular economy - where goals are expressed in terms of utility and value retention of materials- this project provided a unique opportunity in product design. The Material Driven Design method (Karana et al.,2015) was used as a framework to guide the search for user value through material experience. Where traditionally product design is lead by a user problem and solutions are embodied with appropriate materials and processes, this method allowed this thinking to be inverted and guided the design to consider the various aspects of material experience before designing a product. A material experience vision is defined and guides the design of a final product that encompasses experiential/technical properties of the material and accounts for circular product considerations. A full circle; from production residuals to a meaningful application and a design that accounts for product life and the responsible re-collection of materials to put them to use in future.