DuPont Engineering Design Electronic Magazine
Picture perfect
The champagne bottle for the Taittinger Brut Millésimé 2000 – Rauschenberg Collection, is encased in a molded “shell” of DuPont™ Crastin® PBT, and decorated using DuPont dye-sublimation technology – selected for its ability to accurately reproduce delicate artwork on complex shapes.
Created in 1983, the Taittinger Collection combines the genius of modern artists and the art of champagne. The collection is a series of limited-edition champagne bottles encased in a shell specially created by an artist to pay tribute to this wine. The most recent of the eleven artists to be featured in this series is the American painter Robert Rauschenberg, well-known for his “Combine” works that integrate the aspects of painting and sculpture.
“The artwork created by Rauschenberg for our 11th edition makes use of a largely chromatic, but very subtle, palette of colors, with very light and “faded-looking” tones of mauve, brown and yellow, together with large areas of dark grey and black,” explains Dominique Garreta, marketing director at Taittinger. “Three-dimensional sublimation printing was the most effective way of reproducing these very delicate colors on such a complex shape, thereby requiring a material for the shell that would resist the temperatures incurred during the sublimation process.” This ruled out ABS, the polymer initially foreseen for the application and used in previous ranges, while subsequent testing demonstrated Crastin® to provide the best combination of temperature resistance, colour reproduction and post-shrinkage. The dye sublimation technology was developed by DuPont in partnership with Pacific Colour, of Lons-le-Saunier, France.
DuPont extends MetaFuse™ alliance
DuPont has announced a long-term alliance with California-based PowerMetal Technologies, Inc. to further develop and commercialize MetaFuse™ nanocrystalline metal/polymer hybrid technology, with initial development programs targeted at electronic hand-held devices, sporting goods, furniture, power tools and appliances. A similar alliance, to bring this technology to the automotive market, was signed with Morph Technologies a year ago.
Under the agreement, DuPont will provide proprietary resin formulation and application development leadership to global customers to bring this innovative technology to market. PowerMetal will apply its nanotechnology expertise to the manufacture of extremely lightweight components with the strength and stiffness of metal combined with the design flexibility and lightweight benefits of DuPont Engineering Polymers high-performance thermoplastics. Other terms and conditions were not disclosed.
MetaFuse™ nanometal/polymer hybrids can be used to manufacture extremely lightweight components with the strength and stiffness of metal combined with the design flexibility and lightweight benefits of high-performance thermoplastics. The technology employs a proprietary process that precisely applies ultra high-strength nanometal to components made of DuPont engineering polymers to create lightweight components in myriad, complex shapes with the stiffness of magnesium or aluminum and higher strength.