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STORY

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February 2014

Idea

During this period, Giovanni Milazzo, CEO&Founder of Kanèsis participated to the contest Start-Up academy with the idea to produce paper by using hemp cellulose, and to realize the project in a old paper mill of his city, Catania.

December 2014

Prototype

All started with a cooking pan experiment. Generated by the doubt about the difference in mechanical properties between hemp particles and fibers. By seeing that the hemp particles mixed with the PLA had way more strength in a plastic matrix, that experiment became the first step on a long road.

April 2015

Patent Application

After meeting Antonio Caruso, Co-Founder of the project, they presented the patent application. But the concession was not so easy, because of the existence of other eight documents on hemp fiber: but our patent was based on the use of a different part of the plant and not the short hemp fibers.

July 2015

HBP®: Filament for FDM 3D printers

After 3 months of industrial experiments and tries with our partners LATI spa and FiloAlfa, the first prototype of  a 3D printing filament produced from hemp industrial waste was born. We named it Hemp Bio Plastic, HBP®.

Agosto 2015

EXPO Milano

Expo called us to present our project in the Sicily pavilion, it was a good occasion to structure new collaborations with companies and privates.

January 2016

Partnerships

March 2016

Product Optimization

Standardization of raw biomasses in granulometry and humidity to achieve better performances.

MICA srl was born

May 2016

First Crowdfunding

3 months were spent to prepare and define our first crowdfunding campaign. Launched on Indiegogo, it made 6000 $.

September 2016

Second Crowdfunding

After summer, enforced by the last crowdfunding experience, we launched the campaign on Kickstarter and all the profit was invested in producing 3D printing filament, on the market since the fall of 2016.

September 2016

Product Launch

December 2016

Studies

After a study conducted in Milan in collaboration with LaMPo, it comes out that adding the hemp shives to the PLA matrix was way better that including wood dust. This study is well explained down in this page.

January 2017

Launch Hemprinted

We decided to enter in the 3D printing market by launching the new brand Hemprinted to sell both filaments and printed objects.

May 2017

Production of FDM 3D Printers

It starts the coworking with MakeSustainableOrganization to realize FDM 3D printers of Delta type. This printers are produced with less components and by the use of printed HBP joints that links the aluminium chassis. Light, reliable and well designed to be used by everyone.

January 2018

Launch Ecompound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collaboration with LATI Spa was finalized to start the commercialization of new compounds added with agricultural wastes coming from italian’s supply chain. This sharing of know-how take us to a new brand for the production of sustainable high performances compounds, Ecompound.

R&D

April 2018

New Material: PRUNED

September 2018

New Material: WEED

From the hemp threshing in Sicily, the waste of flowers and leaves standardized with the same parameters as the HBP filament gives life to this more elastic new material, naturally green coloured: Weed.

September 2018

New Material: TOMATO

By osserving the agricultural process of the cherry tomatoes we have identified the peel’s wasting flow and, once standardized the biomass, we produce this red naturally coloured filament.

STUDIES

Microscope study of two supplied powders obtained from biomasses. Use of powders for the preparation of polyethylene based compounds at various concentrations of powders added. Study of the compounds thus obtained by thermal, rheological and dynamo-mechanical analysis. Comparison of the effects of the two powders added to the material at the different concentrations tested.

The prepared compounds are: PE and LDPE both added with hemp hurds and linden biomasses.

The compounds indicated above were obtained by extrusion, using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder (200 rpm – screws diameter = 11 mm, L / D = 40) with eight heated zones.

The compounds thus obtained have been used for the preparation of specimens for dynamomechanical tests by injection molding (molds printed according to ISO527 / 5A, Babyplast press).

The powders used for the preparation of the compounds were analyzed by SEM analysis, to verify morphology and average particle size.

The samples loaded with hemp and linden powders are different from each other, the bottom figure shows the rheological curves of the samples with 20 parts of PE charge compared to the virgin polymer. The data are shown in a complex viscosity chart.

In the diagrams below it clearly appears that the sample with hemp has a much larger elastic modulus than the compound with linden and than the one of pure PE, which have a similar pattern. It is possible that the presence of finer particles in the hemp sample can guarantee a higher homogeneity in the polymer matrix, thus ensuring a greater reinforcing effect.

Although the reinforcing effect is evident for both powder-reinforced compounds, the greatest effect guaranteed by hemp hurds or canapulo is clear, with an increase of 0.5 orders of magnitude at 0.1 Hz compared to virgin PE, against 0.3 orders of magnitude given by linden, at the same frequency.

CONCLUSIONS:

In conclusion, hemp hurds and linden are different at a microscopic level and the compounds, obtained starting from polyolefins, show different properties with canapulo compared to those obtained with linden, generally having higher viscosity and higher modules.

RESULTS

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