ALBIS PLASTIC
Acquisition of carbon fibre compounds specialist Wipag / CRP recycling for lightweight applications
With effect from January 2018, German plastics compounder and distributor Albis Plastic (Hamburg; www.albis.com) will takeover Wipag (Neuburg / Germany; www.wipag.com), a specialist in processing and production of carbon fibre compounds for injection-moulding, with sites in Neuburg and Gardelegen / Germany. With this move, Albis is investing in its recycling activities.
Wipag has recycling technology that uses carbon fibre waste, mostly coming from the automotive industry, and processes it into carbon fibre-reinforced compounds. In future, the Hamburg-based company will offer carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CRP) compounds made with PP and PA, which it says will offer weight and cost advantages compared with some glass fibre-reinforced PA.
Albis is especially looking towards lightweight construction applications in the auto industry. From 2021 on, newly approved cars in the EU will have an allowance to emit a maximum of 95 g of CO2/km, increasing the demand for lighter weight solutions. Automotive OEMs and suppliers will need to comply with these new CO2 emission limits in order to avoid penalties. The last few years have seen weight reduction concepts such as metal substitution and engine downsizing, but cost-efficient CRPs provide new opportunities, the company says.
"In Wipag, the Albis group has gained a company which, on the one hand, has cutting-edge and forward-looking CRP technology and, on the other, has years of experience in the closed-loop recycling business," says Philip Krahn, CEO of Albis Plastic. Closed-loop refers to techniques such as composite separation of instrument panels or removal of paint from bumpers as part of the recycling process.
Wipag also receives recyclable PP from post-industrial and post-consumer applications. "These open-loop activities provide an excellent platform for our "Altech Eco PP" compounds and expand our range of high quality "Near-to-Prime" recycling compounds, which are already used in numerous applications for the automotive industry," says Bernd Sparenberg, vice president of Technical Compounds at Albis.
Wipag has recycling technology that uses carbon fibre waste, mostly coming from the automotive industry, and processes it into carbon fibre-reinforced compounds. In future, the Hamburg-based company will offer carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CRP) compounds made with PP and PA, which it says will offer weight and cost advantages compared with some glass fibre-reinforced PA.
Albis is especially looking towards lightweight construction applications in the auto industry. From 2021 on, newly approved cars in the EU will have an allowance to emit a maximum of 95 g of CO2/km, increasing the demand for lighter weight solutions. Automotive OEMs and suppliers will need to comply with these new CO2 emission limits in order to avoid penalties. The last few years have seen weight reduction concepts such as metal substitution and engine downsizing, but cost-efficient CRPs provide new opportunities, the company says.
"In Wipag, the Albis group has gained a company which, on the one hand, has cutting-edge and forward-looking CRP technology and, on the other, has years of experience in the closed-loop recycling business," says Philip Krahn, CEO of Albis Plastic. Closed-loop refers to techniques such as composite separation of instrument panels or removal of paint from bumpers as part of the recycling process.
Wipag also receives recyclable PP from post-industrial and post-consumer applications. "These open-loop activities provide an excellent platform for our "Altech Eco PP" compounds and expand our range of high quality "Near-to-Prime" recycling compounds, which are already used in numerous applications for the automotive industry," says Bernd Sparenberg, vice president of Technical Compounds at Albis.
09.10.2017 Plasteurope.com [238072-0]
Published on 09.10.2017
German version of this article...