Ningbo's independent research and development of new materials "popcorn" shoes is no longer unique to Adi

The soft and novel "popcorn" shoes are the explosion-proof sneakers of the world-renowned sports brand "Adidas" and the core high-tech of "Adidas". Today, this technology is no longer the exclusive product of “Adidas”. The new foaming materials independently researched and developed by Ningbo researchers have opened the door to the market and the sales have exceeded 50 million yuan.

When interviewed by the Polymer Functional Materials Center of Ningbo New Materials Research Institute, the reporter found that the outer side of the shoes displayed here clearly shows that the sole part of the sole is like a popcorn, which adds some to the simple sole. taste. Only after I asked, these are the popular "popcorn" shoes.

Researcher of the Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Wentao Tao of the Polymer Functional Materials Center of the Joint Research Institute have been engaged in the research and application of polymer micro-foamed materials for many years. He took a shoe midsole and told reporters that the key to "popcorn" shoes is the midsole. "The shoe midsole uses a new type of foaming material that not only makes the shoes lighter. Environmental protection also brings excellent functions such as high rebound, structural cushioning, and low compression and permanent deformation, which makes the runners become lighter every step of the way. The past midsole of sports shoes used traditional EVA hair. Foam material, this material can not be melted and recycled, and there are some toxic and harmful substances, and the comfort is not good. Therefore, when the "popcorn" shoes were launched in the market, a large number of young people were gathered.

Dr. Wentao Wen said that since 2013, they have cooperated with Jinjiang Guosheng New Material Technology Co., Ltd. to develop a large-scale preparation technology of TPU “popcorn” with supercritical CO2 fluid as foaming agent and TPU “popcorn” steam forming. The sneaker midsole technology, related technology has obtained 4 Chinese invention patents, applied for 4 Chinese invention patents, 1 international patent, and 1 US patent, forming a network of independent intellectual property rights . This new material not only has excellent mechanical properties, good resilience and compression properties, but also greatly improves processing efficiency. For example, he said that a foamed shoe factory with a sales volume of 500 million yuan needs 1,000 to 1,500 workers, but with this new material, because of the high degree of automation of the process, only two or three hundred people are needed. Doubled.

At present, they have cooperated with the US professional running brand Saucony St. Connie to launch EVERUN technology, and the related technology products have been successfully applied to the brand "Triumph ISO2", "Hurricane ISO2" "Guide 9", "Triumph ISO3", "FREEDOM". On the series of ISO and other running shoes, the price of the above-mentioned series of running shoes in the domestic market exceeds 1,000 yuan. Dr. Wentao said that the current sales of the cooperative company has reached 50 million yuan. In January of this year, he also went to the United States with the CEO of the cooperative company to discuss the development plan of the new "popcorn" midsole of 2017~2018 with Saucony.

According to reports, in addition to the development of new elastomeric foam materials, the polymer functional material platform is also being developed in the automotive, rail transit, buffer foam materials for electronic and electrical packaging, and high flame retardant foam materials. Cooperation. According to reports, the center is currently negotiating cooperation with a large-scale enterprise with annual sales volume of 10 billion yuan, and is expected to sign a cooperation agreement in the near future.

"After entering the Ningbo New Materials Joint Research Institute, we must not only cooperate with other platforms in the hospital, but also actively incubate the enterprise incubation project. Technology industrialization is the goal of our research." Dr. Wentao Wen said. According to the plan, in 2017, the center will be able to form 2 to 3 technologies for conversion, report 6 to 7 related patents, and add 1 industrialization project.