Connect, no.149, July/August 2007, p.1

Sitting pretty

Cohda's products on display in New York at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair

Innovative UK based product design company Cohda recently concluded a two-year research project into the problems of domestic plastic packaging waste in the UK. This resulted in the development of their Un-cooled Recycled Extrude (URE) design process which they now use to re-form domestic packaging waste directly back into unique designs.

TWI has been involved from the beginning of the project and has helped Cohda with joining process selection for the URE products. In addition, TWI is currently working with Cohda, through a REMTEC TT (Renewable Energy Manufacturing Technology Centre Technology Transfer) project to take the URE process to a medium volume manufacturing process.

The RD4 chair

The products created from the URE process are receiving world-wide acclaim, with the most recent design, the RD4 (roughly drawn) chair being highlighted as a product of the future at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair on Broadway, New York in June.

Cohda have been successfully chosen to showcase a live version of their URE process to the public as part of the UK Design Council's dott07.co.uk (design of the time) exhibit being held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in October this year. The URE Live process will be situated in a disused fire station in central Newcastle and over a 10 day period will create and exhibit an assortment of recycled designs from regionally collected waste. The North East will be the focus for the design industry during October and Cohda's process will form a key event as part of the festival.

To learn more about Cohda products and for information on how you could become involved in the development of this ground-breaking recycling initiative, contact richard@cohda.com

For information on joining processes for plastics contact plastics@twi.co.uk