Automotive industry: plastic recyclates offering prime-like performances in new parts

WIPAG initiates material cycles
Type of organisation or company
Country
Germany
City
Neuburg a.d.Donau
Language for original content
Project elaborated in partnership
No
Scope
Submitted by
Bernd Sparenberg, Managing Director, WIPAG Deutschland GmbH
Start/End date
Ongoing
Yes
Type of funding
Description

WIPAG recycles post-industrial and post-consumer plastic waste from several industries with its main focus on automotive parts. Recycled parts comprise bumpers, dashboards, wheel-arch-liners, rocker-panel, front-ends, etc.

Production residues such as stamp-outs and scrap parts (post-industrial) or parts from end-of-life vehicles (post-consumer) go through a complex recycling process including shredding, delamination, density separation and electrostatic separation.

Browse the full presentation (PDF)

End products are Wipalen PP-GF compound or Wipelast PP-EPDM TV20 compound for the production of new automotive parts.

  • Wipalen can be included in new production up to 35%;
  • Wipelast can be included in new production from 40 to 100% of total amount;

While automotive plastic parts recycling proves efficient in terms of industrial results, the business considers stringent specification regimes at OEM/Tier1 level and sometimes cost pressure from low priced prime polymers, as a challenge for recycling momentum in automotive and other industries.

Main activity field
Identified challenge (s)
Main results

Lab analysis shows that Wipalen, at a 30% rate of total material, delivers close to prime material performances,

and that Wipelast can achieve more than 80% of prime performances when accounting for 100% of base material.

Browse the full technical presentation [PDF]