November 4, 2014
The kick-off meeting for LIFE-Inno.Pro. Wire was held on Oct. 29 in Bologna at the Officine Maccaferri SpA headquarters. LIFE-Inno.Pro.Wire is an all-Italian pilot project arising from a partnership between two major Italian industrial multinationals, Maccaferri Industrial Group and Radici Group. The project has been awarded financial support by the European Commission’s LIFE+ programme, the European Union’s environment fund.
The objective of LIFE-Inno.Pro.Wire project is to design an innovative process with lower environmental impact for producing extruded steel wire to be used in making metal net protection and containment structures. The sustainability aspect of the project is the use of polyamide 6 (PA6 engineering plastics) as a viable alternative to PVC for coating the steel wire. Tests will be conducted not only on conventional PA6 but also on PA6.10 engineering plastics produced using 64 percent biopolymer manufactured from sebacic acid.
The traditional process for producing extruded steel wire, in which steel wire is plated with a very thick zinc coating layer and then PVC coated, is an energy hog. Hence, the idea put forth by Officine Maccaferri to develop a new and innovative production process in which the zinc coating process is minimised. Polyamide 6 plays a central role in this project, because, compared to PVC, it ensures better technical and environmental performance.
Underlining the benefits from the project, Claudio Colibri, corporate R&D manager, Officine Maccaferri, said, “We expect many benefits from this project. from the development of a replicable methodology for the eco-sustainable production of steel wire coated with polymeric material using new materials and new processes, to the set-up of a demonstration production line to show the savings in materials and energy by properly documenting process yield and product performance.
Elaborating on the technical aspects of RadiciGroup’s contribution to the Life-Inno.Pro.Wire project, Erico Spini, marketing & application development director of the RadiciGroup Plastics Business Area said, “Polyamide is a viable lower environmental impact alternative to PVC as material for use in extruded steel wire coating. The excellent technical characteristics of this material has allowed us to set ambitious objectives for the LIFE-Inno.Pro.Wire challenge, such as a 20% reduction in wire coating thickness and a 30-50% increase in the service life of the final product, the metal gabion. Among the advantages of using polyamide are a reduction of about 20% in wire weight for a coating of equal thickness and improved resistance to mechanical damage during the installation and servicing of the gabions.”
Life+ 2013 programme: the European Union’s Environment Fund
The number of applications for co-funding received by the EU Commission from the 28 EU member states was 1,468, of which 225 proposals were selected by the Commission for co-funding through the programme’s three components:
• LIFE+ Nature and Biodiversity: 92 projects from the 342 proposals received were selected for co-funding
• LIFE+ Environment Policy and Governance: 125 projects from the 961 proposals received were selected for co-funding. Of these, 35 were Italian.
• LIFE+ Information and Communication: 8 projects from the 165 proposals received were selected for co-funding.
Total investment: EUR 589.3 million, including EU funds of about EUR 282.6 million.
Among the EU member states, Italy was one of the top beneficiaries of LIFE+ co-funding. Emilia Romagna and Lombardy were the Italian regions with the highest number of co-funded projects.
