The desire for efficiency and sustainability characterises the plastics industry and presents it with ever new challenges. How can manufacturing and decoration processes be optimised? Which sustainable raw materials can be used, and with which technologies are industry and consumers approaching the circular economy?
All these questions are in focus at K 2022. At the leading international trade fair for the plastics industry from 19 to 26 October 2022 in Düsseldorf, the industry will come together to present its latest solutions.
LEONHARD KURZ is the first company in the plastics industry to develop a take-back system for the production residues of embossing substrate materials. "With this, we are closing the recyclable material cycle of our production," explains Martin Hahn, Head of Application, Technology & Innovation of the Plastic Decoration business area at KURZ, adding, "The post-industrial recycling compound - PIR compound for short - RECOPOUND®, which is produced by recycling PET transfer carrier residues from the graphics industry, can be processed in injection moulding on standard machines and finished with the help of advanced hot stamping and insert moulding technologies."
At the cutting edge of technology
"Players in the plastics industry today are confronted with various challenges," Martin Hahn continues. "On the one hand, they are required to reduce energy consumption in production. On the other hand, they have to enable a high degree of customisation - while their customers place particular and increasing value on sustainability. With the help of established processes, they can successfully reconcile all these aspects, as we are showing them together with ARBURG."
Recycled materials and efficient technologies
At the ARBURG stand A13 in Hall 13, KURZ and ARBURG will be giving a live demonstration of insert moulding technology. This involves the production and finishing of a mould case. "With insert moulding, the carrier material can be more strongly deformed than with the classic in-mould decoration process," explains Martin Hahn. "This makes it particularly suitable for the production of highly profiled components. At the ARBURG stand, we decorate the corners of the mould case using insert moulding. But that's not all: using hot embossing, we finish the ARBURG logo inline with a brushed and metallised decoration on the shell of the case. Visitors can thus experience two efficient processes from KURZ at the same time."
Several components of the case are made from RECOPOUND® in the collaborative project. "We are particularly proud that we can demonstrate here how the material, which is obtained from industrial residues, can be used as a raw material for new components," emphasises Martin Hahn. "The material has robust mechanical properties and visually fits in well with the overall concept due to its grey colour scheme, which reflects the ARBURG colours. In general, RECOPOUND® is ideally suited for the production of stable and robust products, can be decorated to a high standard - and reduces CO2 consumption by up to 40 percent compared to production with virgin material."
Bundled competence for the industry
In ARBURG, KURZ has found the right partner to implement the project. With an automated ALLROUNDER 1120 H, the renowned machine manufacturer is supplying a customised injection moulding system. "Our claim is to offer solutions that meet all requirements. To this end, we not only develop and build high-performance Allrounders that work quickly, efficiently and precisely, but also design and implement individual turnkey solutions as a system supplier," emphasises Andreas Reich, Division Manager Central Sales & Applied Technologies at ARBURG.
In addition to live on-site production demonstrations, visitors to both the ARBURG and KURZ stands will be able to find out more about insert moulding, hot stamping and the use of recycled plastics.
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