DSM wins Innovation in Environment Award for lightweight air-cargo container panels

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, today announces that it is awarded the international AVK award in Innovations and Environment for a new, light weight version of air-cargo containers. The containers help airlines to cut carbon emissions by 28,000 ton a year, the equivalent of taking more than 8500 cars off the road.

The award is granted for the development of new, ultra-strong air container panels, RP10 panels, made from advanced composite material technology from DSM. The panels are made with DSM’s Aeronite® resin and Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™. DSM has licensed the technology to DoKaSch Gmbh, a leading manufacturer of air cargo equipment, who made the containers commercially available. Following two years of successful flight trials a total of over 400 containers are already in service by various airlines including Lufthansa.

The container panels are designed to provide maximum strength at a minimum weight. The RP10 panels are three times more impact resistant and nearly 50% lighter than standard aluminum panels used in cargo containers.

The weight saving of the containers can result in a significant drop in fuel consumption over the course of a year for a typical air cargo fleet. A typical mid size cargo fleet will load around 5,000 containers over the course of a year which could result in savings up to 330,000 liters of fuel, yielding a 28,000 ton reduction in CO2 emissions. Just recently, more than two hundred airlines together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have committed to halve emissions by 2050, from 2005 levels.

The AVK Innovation Awards is a prestigious international award for solutions to state-of-the-art technological issues by means of composites and thermosets and highlight the achievements of the reinforced plastics industry in the field of environmental protection. The awards were presented today at the yearly international conference of the Federation of Reinforced Plastics (Industrievereinigung Verstärkte Kunststoffe e.V) in Stuttgart, Germany.