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Limex: An Injection-Moldable Material Derived from Limestone

Japanese toymaker Bandai's giving it a go

By Rain Noe - June 29, 2021

Bandai is Japan’s leading toymaker, producing models from the Gundam series as well as for tie-ins with Marvel, Disney and the Star Wars universe. The toy giant had a net income of ¥242.8 billion (USD $2.2 billion) in 2019, and because their stock-in-trade is plastic, that means they bring a lot of it into the world.

However, this month they announced that they’ve started working with a new injection-moldable material called Limex. Developed in Japan, Limex is derived from limestone (rather than petroleum) mixed with polystyrene, the latter being a plastic that already plays nice with injection molding. Limestone is a globally abundant material; even natural-resource-poor Japan has 24 billion tons of the stuff, while nearby Taiwan has over 300 billion tons of it. The material is recyclable, developer TBM Co. says; creates less emissions than petroleum-based plastics; and works readily with existing injection-molding equipment, requiring no re-tooling.

What’s supremely ironic is Bandai’s choice of debut product for the new material. Limex will roll out this fall in Bandai’s imaginatively-named “Dinosaur Skeleton Plastic Model Tyrannosaurus” and “Dinosaur Skeleton Plastic Model Triceratops.” Plastic comes from petroleum, and petroleum comes from dead dinosaurs. Heck, aren’t these the two models in Bandai’s line-up that should be made from plastic?

Comments

Alex Netz

a year ago

Z

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Stop falling for fake renewable plastic hype! Lime is a mineral, not a plastic or resin. All they are doing is using it as filler. Guess what: calcium carbonate (CaCO3), lime’s composition has been used as a filler for decades. Usually as a way to save money or for its properties. But you can only use that much dirt into a plastic before it breaks apart: limex claims it can replace 50% of the pellet’s weight with caco3. But caco3 has a density 3 times as heavy as polystyrene! Do the math, basically this is straight run of the mill styrene (hips) with 15% caco3 filler. Finding filler is never a problem: depending on price in the industry they use caco3, talc, titanium dioxide, really any inorganic scrap from coffee scraps to flax , and once a week an ID student solves the world’s problems by sprinkling some ground seashells / chicken feathers/ Rice husk /spent grains / cannabis byproduct into plastic and calling it renewable

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Alex Netz

a year ago

Z

Z

Stop falling for fake “

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Billy Mack

a year ago

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Z

Isn't the polystyrene it's mixed with still petroleum based?

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Rain Noe

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.