Sustainability Report 2023
The sustainability report summarises all efforts in a holistic strategy and underlines the importance of the topic in the plastics industry.
The sustainability report summarises all efforts in a holistic strategy and underlines the importance of the topic in the plastics industry.
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ENGEL<br />
<strong>Sustainability</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sustainable Focus Areas / 05/ Environment<br />
Another example application is the coating<br />
of plastic parts with a high-quality film. This allows<br />
for the use of up to 100 percent recycled<br />
base material. The film applied in the final step<br />
supports numerous effects and flexible adjustments<br />
of the design. The foilmelt technology is<br />
a single-stage process (“one-shot process”)<br />
that allows for the surface design to be produced<br />
directly inside the injection moulding<br />
machine without any additional steps. This allows<br />
for a permanent and safe integration of decorative<br />
and functional elements.<br />
The skinmelt technology is used in the<br />
manufacturing of so-called “sandwich parts”.<br />
Only their surface consists of virgin plastic material,<br />
with recycled material in the core. The<br />
sandwich technology allows pre-processed<br />
plastic waste to also be used in products that<br />
must satisfy strict surface quality requirements.<br />
The skinmelt technology allows higher recyclate<br />
content than any other sandwich technology.<br />
Its possible applications include vegetable<br />
crates, which come into contact with food and<br />
must therefore satisfy strict quality requirements.<br />
While the outer layer is made from high-quality<br />
virgin material, the core is made of up to 50<br />
percent recycled material. In 2021, the State of<br />
Upper Austria distinguished ENGEL Austria<br />
with the State’s Environmental Award for the<br />
company’s commitment to promoting the circular<br />
economy and for its skinmelt technology.<br />
Additionally, ENGEL is optimising its Industry<br />
4.0 programme for the processing of recycled<br />
materials. iQ weight control is a smart assistance<br />
system that can automatically adjust qualityrelevant<br />
parameters and thereby guarantee a<br />
higher process stability. iQ weight control identifies<br />
fluctuations in the raw material (e.g. varying<br />
qualities of recycled materials) and the ambient<br />
conditions while adapting the injection profile,<br />
the switchover point and the holding pressure<br />
for each individual shot to current production<br />
conditions. Fluctuations in the properties of the<br />
recycled material always pose a major challenge<br />
for the processing of purified plastic waste. As<br />
it enables the use of recycled materials from<br />
different sources, iQ weight control offers many<br />
benefits, especially with regard to the circular<br />
economy and the use of higher contents of recycled<br />
materials.<br />
In 2021, ENGEL developed a machine with<br />
a new two-stage process. In this process, the<br />
recycled material (plastic flakes) is directly fed<br />
into the machine and processed in two finetuned<br />
process steps. As a result, plastic waste<br />
can be processed with the injection moulding<br />
machine directly after the waste was ground<br />
to flakes. In the first stage, the raw material is<br />
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