The issue number 427 of macplasonline published this evening, Wed. July 3rd, like always is very readable due to a collection of news and articles. Obviously one of the main parts of this newsletter is devoted to the K preview. The editor has of course focused on every conference, but has selected a news related to the ENGEL (not presented at the K preview). However the news is interesting. According to the “Plastics and Environment” section of this newsletter:
Circular Economy is one of the focus topics at K 2019 and also the “green thread” running through injection moulding machine manufacturer and system solutions provider Engel’s trade fair appearance. Stefan Engleder, the CEO of the Engel Group, emphasises the huge importance of this topic in the run-up to the trade fair as follows: “It is my personal concern to contribute to establishing a circular economy for the plastics industry, which bears a global responsibility that can only be met by companies working together. I therefore welcome the focus on Circular Economy at the most important international industry event. K will give this subject even more impetus”.
“K 2019 will show what is already possible today and what companies in the plastics industry are working on to close increasing numbers of material cycles”, says Engleder. “Circular economy is an innovation driver”. One of the priority tasks on the way to the circular economy is to open up a broader range of applications for processed plastic waste.
At K 2019, five exhibits at three locations demonstrate Engel’s contribution as an injection moulding machine manufacturer and system solutions provider. The focus is on processing recycled material, improving process stability, and the trend towards design for recycling.
Greater process stability paves way for wider use of recycled materials
“The stability of the injection moulding processes is key to being able to use recycled materials also for higher quality products”, as Günther Klammer, head of the Plasticizing Systems division and Circular Economy expert at Engel, emphasises. Recycled material is naturally subject to greater batch variations than virgin material. In order to significantly reduce its influence on the process, the intelligent iQ weight control assistance system is being used at Engel’s stand to process fully recycled ABS. The software from Engel’s inject 4.0 program ensures a constant melt volume during injection and thus a consistently high product quality, even with strongly fluctuating raw material quality. “Intelligent assistance opens the door for recycled materials to a far broader range of applications”, says Klammer. “Industry 4.0 is an important enabler for the circular economy”.
Increasing the proportion of recycled materials in sandwich-moulded components
One further approach to using recycled materials more widely is sandwich components with a core of recycled material embedded in virgin material. The aim is, on the one hand, to design increasing numbers of products for this type of two-component production, while, on the other, increasing the proportion of recycled material in the sandwich structures.
Read more from the source: “macplasonline”
