Cordenka fibre centred product design

Material centered product design is subcategory of industrial product design that aims to develop new products from a specific material. We propose a collaborative research project between Cordenka, the Biological Materials Group at the HSB City University of Applied Sciences Bremen, DE, led by Professor Jörg Müssig and the School of Product Design at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, NZ, represented by Dr Tim Huber to develop new high-value/high performance materials from Cordenka fibres and textiles.
Cordenka fibres are type of high strain, high strength fibre made from regenerated cellulose (rayon). The project will include a detailed analysis of Cordenka fibres and Cordenka fibre-reinforced polymers to fully document the physio-chemical properties of the identified materials, trial and analyze processing conditions and explore material perception in potential end users to identify pathways towards value addition in a developed product, for example through enhanced sustainability, eco-friendliness, material texture and/or haptic design.
Once fully characterized the project aims to ideate a wide range of previously unknown ways to use the material in product design. The gathered data will allow us to assess the feasibility of developed ideas, and to identify which ideas have potential to be developed into the most promising concepts. Subsequently, we will develop product prototypes of identified concepts and test those prototypes for their physio-chemical properties and costumer reception to find the most suitable product for commercialization.
This project to be carried out in the form of a joint PhD project under the supervision of Professor Jörg Müssig and Dr Tim Huber and a member of the R&D team of Cordenka. The University of Canterbury will host the student but a significant portion of the research work is expected to be carried out at the HSB City University of Applied Sciences Bremen. Interested applicants with a strong academic background and engineering degree, background knowledge of composites, biopolymers and/or material characterisation, and strong interest in product design and development, are encouraged to apply.