Self-healing materials are synthetically manufactured products that can automatically and autonomously heal or repair the damages without any external intervention or human interference. Materials degrade over time due to stress, ecological conditions, or the damage that occurs during the operation itself. Self-healing materials are able to encounter this degradation by initiating a restoration mechanism that responds to the micro-damage. The market growth for self-healing materials is expected to grow due to their exceptional properties and advantages such as hollow fibers can easily be mixed and tailored with the conventional reinforcing fibers, higher volume of healing agent such as monomers, dyes, catalysts and hardeners are available to repair damages. Owing to these factors the self-healing materials market is expected to propel at a higher rate in the construction, plastics and adhesives industry during the forecast period.
The major drivers for the global self-healing materials market are the long term warranties and the long-term monetary benefits provided by the use of self-healing materials as compared to conventional materials. Companies such as Acciona S.A., AkzoNobel N.V., and others are providing self-healing materials across the globe. For instance, in April, 2015, Acciona Infraestructuras were involved in two European projects, SHINE Project (Self-Healing Innovative Elastomers) and the HEALCON project where the company developed plastic materials that can heal themselves at ambient temperature and various asphalt mixes that used self-repairing materials were developed.
The SHINE project was aimed for the development of new self-healing elastomers with mechanical properties comparable to conventional ones with 60% recovery of the initial properties after healing, repeatable self-healing, operable at room temperature and without human intervention. This project was completed in July, 2017 under which various companies such as ACCIONA Infraestructuras S.A., DPI, ARKEMA, Teijin Aramid, and BIWI along with others participated. The material developed is applied to products such as dynamic seals, shock absorbers and anti-vibration systems used in machinery, vehicles, bridges, railways and roads.
These elastomers would help to increase of products lifetime, decrease in maintenance costs and rehabilitation works and an improvement in safety, by reducing traffic accidents, traffic jams and road congestion. These factors are expected to drive the self-healing materials market during the forecast period. However, the high production costs for self-healing materials coupled with a lack of commercial production of - the materials, is a major hindrance to the growth of the self-healing materials market.
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