There are several reasons for this: The use of recycled granulate is economically viable and is now almost as good as the quality of prime products. Automotive manufacturers such as BMW and Ford have been dealing with the subject of recycling for years and specify corresponding products without making significant compromises in terms of quality and performance. The automotive manufacturer Volvo has also recently committed itself to recycling and has set itself the target of increasing the proportion of recycled material in vehicles to 25 percent by 2025.
Many components are currently being checked to see whether it is possible to switch to alternative recycling products. At the same time, consumers are increasingly demanding products made of recycled and "green" materials. Among other things, they are accompanied by a comparatively much lower CO2 balance.
"This is why they are increasingly being used in various industries today, including the automotive industry, where they are part of lightweight construction concepts, and in the electrical and electronics sectors," says Josephine Bagnall, Managing Director ALBIS (UK) Ltd.
For years, the distributor and compounder of engineering plastics has had an increasing share of products made of recycled and "green" materials in its portfolio.
The ALTECH ECO product series is used by well-known OEM´s companies in the automotive, E&E, household goods and construction sectors. This is based on recycled raw materials which, thanks to the use of the latest processing methods, come very close to conventional Prime and A products in terms of mechanical and aesthetic properties.
The comparison of ALTECH PA6 ECO 2030/219 BK0002-00 GF30 with the standard Prime PA6 GF30 can serve as an example.
The comparison with a standard Prime PA66 GF30 shows only minor deviations.
"The ALTECH ECO material is almost as good as the Prime material in many respects - this is what we call Near-to-Prime® quality. For this reason, it is used in demanding and highly stressed components, for example in the automotive sector for under-the-hood applications," explains Bagnall. "However, applications are not only found in components that are subject to high mechanical stress, but also in components that are visible to the customer and where optics also play a key role, such as engine covers.
In order to prove the lower ecological footprint of the material, ALBIS commissioned SKZ, a German institute in Würzburg that specialises in plastics, to produce the test. The calculation included not only the raw materials used but also consumables such as electricity and water. The process chain shown includes not only production, but also other processes such as transport and disposal.
The end result: using 1 kg of PA6 material saves 10.91 kg of CO2 emissions and 11.03 kg accordingly with PA66.
"Thus, a decision to reduce CO2 emissions can already be made at the design stage through the selection of materials - while at the same time maintaining consistent quality and performance and saving costs in purchasing," says Bagnall.
