Public Funding for Merlin Polyurethane Limited

In this project we will develop novel polyurethane materials with hybrid micro- and nanoporosity. These structures are expected to have superior thermal insulation properties, which can be also tailored and optimised for "hot" (to limit solar gain) or "cold" applications (e.g. cryogenic). The technology will be a highly exploitable solution allowing economical manufacturing of new thermal insulation products with excellent thermal insulation properties, good fire resistance and good sustainability profile. The products and technology are planned to be commercialised in the UK (e.g. to insulated recycled shipping containers), in Europe and South East Asia.

In the project we aim to study a new technique to measure accurately, reliably and consistently hardness of small products with intrinsic shapes made from soft, foamed materials. Currently available "off the shelf" methods proved to be insufficiently accurate to match the very tight tolerances set up to ensure the high quality of our products.