DeVorm is an innovative company, dedicated to sustainability from the inside out, creating new materials, processes, and products, to meet global societies’ needs in a way that seems so very obvious, once it’s revealed to us. As a pioneer, DeVorm interrogates all aspects of design to improve environmental impact, and give the world commercially viable products that are easy and enjoyable to use, and therefore inspire uptake, and change on a global scale.
DeVorms PET felt diverts the disastrous flow of plastic waste, to enhance the users’ environment, through applied acoustics, aesthetics, and ergonomics. Their sound panels, office dividers, lamp shades, and seats are stunningly beautiful and simply effective. By developing these products, they blaze a trail for others to follow, demonstrating and raising the market value of waste PET, which is then recycled more… enthusiastically.
By the side of the road, or washed up on a beach, it’s heavy on the heart. Currently, only 6% of plastic bottles are recycled globally. Those that make it into the recycling process are pressed into 250kg bales for transportation. Those bails are then opened up, cleaned, and sorted with caps and labels removed.
In this next stage of mechanical digestion, the bottles are shredded by rotating blades, and further cleaned in a machine called a granulator to produce 1cm PET flakes. These pure flakes are widely traded in the production of new bottles, packing straps, polyester films, and other products, but in this instance, they progress to the extruder.
In this next stage of mechanical digestion, the bottles are shredded by rotating blades, and further cleaned in a machine called a granulator to produce 1cm PET flakes. These pure flakes are widely traded in the production of new bottles, packing straps, polyester films, and other products, but in this instance, they progress to the extruder.
The fiber is formed in thin sheets, which are layered and pressed together in the felting machine, where barbed needles felt the material. Three sheets of this material are pressed together, creating a mat that can be used for a range of products. On close inspection at this stage, we can see the porous structure that makes PET felt very easy to clean with water alone. This soft mat can be used as it is, for acoustic or thermal insulation, or further processed for soft furniture applications.
A 3D pressing machine molds the felt sheet into the solid form of the chair design, and the frame is then fitted to create the completed chair. The finished PET felt retains that soft quality, and acoustic value, which is why it is so effective for use in wall panels and lampshades in domestic and commercial spaces. It takes up dye very well, and it’s very resistant to color fading, or staining. The finished product is an effortless fit.
De Vorm creates markets and supply chains through innovation, and they raise the bar, by demonstrating that easy and beautiful office and home environments can come with environmental intelligence- it seems so obvious, but this simple concept is not the norm, yet. We can’t wait to see what they develop next.
