Circular materials - innovations for the future

Plastics have become an important part of our daily lives. They have shaped technological development in recent decades and are also important problem solvers for our current global challenges. At the same time, it is important that, unlike in the past, we recycle a large proportion of plastics in the future and reuse them as valuable materials. Only with a holistic view from raw material selection, design and use to recycling can the full potential of the circular economy be leveraged. Various examples such as single-material components or digitally supported manufacturing or recycling processes will be used to highlight the current state of the art and future possibilities.

The Schaeffler Group's goal is to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. The basis for the optimization of the carbon footprint of our products are life cycle analyses which provide information about the resulting shares of the total footprint and allow to compare different options for optimization and thus to select efficient measures. The presentation uses a product example to illustrate the calculation of the CO2 footprint and shows the strengths and weaknesses of the method.

Steel has a high circulation rate in terms of the circular economy. LSV, a subsidiary of the only steel mill in Bavaria, highlights the advantages of the group as the largest Bavarian recycling company with regard to recycling and steel production. The steel scrap used will become increasingly important in the steel industry as part of the decarbonization strategy. In addition to a high recycling rate, the recovery of by-products is also playing a greater role.

Reco Ventures AG recycles metallic industrial waste and electrical and electronic components such as computers, laptops, cell phones and industrial batteries completely and without the use of chemicals. The input weight of the components corresponds to the recycled material, this is a requirement of the European Union since the end of 2021. From this, we produce highly pure and highly fine metal powders and alloys that are used again in industry, in additive manufacturing.

Adhesive bonding technology is widely used in numerous industries such as automotive, household goods, electronics or the construction industry. The reasons for this are many and varied. Adhesive bonding is a simple and established processing technique that leads to both weight reduction and cost savings. cost savings. With the increasingly relevant issue of environmental protection, a new challenge also arises a new challenge in the field of adhesive bonding technology: how can adhesive joints be easily How can adhesive bonds be easily dismantled or separated in order to separate materials more efficiently and recycle them? In order to new and innovative concepts such as "debonding on command" are being developed. "debonding on command" are being developed, which specifically influence the adhesive force by external factors such as heat, cold, electricity, humidity, etc. heat, cold, electricity, moisture, or even eliminate them altogether.