Today's modern homeowners are constantly seeking ways to express their individuality. The last few years have seen a proliferation of home decor items made with thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) and this trend is expected to continue as TPE innovation offers more distinct advantages with its soft-touch, smooth surface and easy processing features.

KRAIBURG TPE, a global manufacturer of thermoplastic elastomer compounds offers custom-engineered TPE solutions for the home decorative market.

Aesthetic design trends are constantly evolving and the ability to be aware of these trends and apply them appropriately can be critical to a product’s market success. In a sea of competition, the visual and tactile appearance of a physical product is often the initial and most important impression a customer has of any given brand and product.

Home décor items are usually produced by using soft, smooth and easy-to-shape materials, and this is where TPEs fulfil the requirements with its soft-touch, smooth surface and the design flexibility into various shapes.

TPE advantages
There are many obvious advantages of using TPEs for home decorative items. First and foremost, design flexibility which is processible through multi-component injection moulding and extrusion in various shapes. In terms of aesthetics, TPEs offer a plethora of colouring options, including colour effects for more design flexibility.

TPEs are available in a wide hardness range – from VLRH (very low rubber hardness) to Shore D, allows designers to flexibly apply on various decoration elements to enhance the appearance of the end products. TPEs are also high elasticity with excellent compression set, which is ideal for sealings and meeting standards for watertightness and dustproofs. 

Diverse home decorative applications 
KRAIBURG TPE’s specially designed home decorative TPE compounds possess excellent adhesion to plastics such as PA, PP, ASA, PC, PC/ABS, PMMA, PE, PBT and SAN. As such, they are suitable to be applied on home décor items such as photo frames, lamp shades and as decorative elements on lamps, wall decorations such as mirror frames, wall trimmings and many other decorative applications.

For enhanced durability, our TPE compounds offer high quality surface finishing with good scratch and abrasion resistance. This makes them ideal for applications on decorative sculptures and figurines. Thanks to these superior characteristics, they can be applied on anti-slip elements for decorative items, figurines and damping elements on side tables and cabinets. 

KRAIBURG TPE also provides worldwide consistent colour quality with various precoloration options available to its customers everywhere.