DSM launches AI-driven prediction tool Lucidiris for color and mechanical properties of polymers

09 Feb 2023 --- DSM Engineering Materials is unveiling its patented, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based digital tool branded Lucidiris for predicting color and mechanical properties for high-performance material grades.

The company aims to support customers in reducing time to market when developing colors of high-performance materials for various applications. 

“Lucidiris changes our design-build-test-learn development cycle for the customer applications of our materials fundamentally,” says Erwin Houben, research and technology manager of digitization DSM Engineering Materials. 

“This state-of-the-art AI-based digital tool reinforces our strengths in colored materials development and enables us to take on some tough challenges for reusing circular materials.”

Developed for various material grades
Besides predicting color and mechanical properties, the tool can also predict the envelope of potential color space within critical mechanical properties and prescribe recipes for targeted color properties.

Lucidiris was developed for several high-performance material grades.DSM explains Lucidiris has been developed for several high-performance material grades and will be extended, including recycled-based and repurposed materials. The tool has been developed to fasten and facilitate product development for customers via advanced digital solutions. 

The patent-protected AI technology facilitates the development of material recipes with targeted optical properties while assuring mechanical properties.

With Lucidiris, customers will be supported by its ability to predict color and mechanical properties of polymer compounds upon adding color ingredients. Furthermore, customers can predict the envelope of potential color space that can be produced within critical mechanical properties. They can also prescribe color ingredients to add to a polymer compound to meet targeted properties.

Future outlook
Angelika Schmidt, global research and technology manager of performance polymers, DSM Engineering Materials, says that there will be more to come. “Lucidiris is our next step into digitization of product development.”

“What we can do for color development already today will be possible for product development in the future. Combining human intelligence with machine learning will enable us to get to successful recipes with much less iterations and therefore much shorter development times for our customers.”

In another development, Recycleye, a provider of the “most adapted and robust” AI-driven solution for sorting dry mixed recycling, has announced a US$17 million Series A financing round, led by deep-tech venture capital firm DCVC to support the search for the best talent to help continue turning the world’s waste into resources.

With the investment from the Series A funding round, Recycleye will be able to further fine-tune its world-leading solutions by increasing the accuracy of sorting to generate more output value for its clients,” a spokesperson at Recycleye told PackagingInsights. 

Meanwhile, MP Robotics landed US$91 million in corporate equity from a Series C financing round. The company intends to use the funding to expand AI-enabled automation applications for the US recycling industry, which it says will help packagers achieve recycled content targets and reduce waste. 

The financing followed a US$55 million Series B financing led by XN in January 2021. Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management led the latest round.

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim