Way2K: Industry interviews in the run-up to K

Our society faces challenges such as climate change and resource conservation. The plastics industry plays a central role in this. At K 2025, the focus will be on the circular economy, digitalisation and responsibility towards people and the environment – all of which are crucial for sustainable development.

The VDMA is inviting representatives from the plastics machinery sector and other stakeholders to take part in weekly interviews to share their perspectives. These discussions highlight our responsibility to support skilled workers and to harness the potential of plastics for a better future.

Results (28)

  • "We create added value for the customer "

    Interview on the road to K 2025 with Georg Kiesl, General Manager at Billion Georg Kiesl Mr. Kiesl, economic development is sluggish in large parts of Europe. Do you still see location advantages? Georg Kiesl: The advantages we have in Europe, especially in France and Germany, are basically the advantages that characterise the SME sector, of which high flexibility is one. We are very good at recognising situations and adapting to the actual needs of each customer to a very high degree. Other advantages are a flexible organisation and an intact ecosystem within plastics machinery manufacturing. This means that there are many companies that are similarly positioned, and there are corresponding organisations and structures. As a whole, this enables us to recognise new topics and trends very quickly and adapt to them. Do these advantages outweigh the disadvantage of generally higher costs? Kiesl: I think so. We pursue the goal of satisfying customer needs in the best possible way. In doing so, we create real added value for them. If we maintain that focus on added value in the future, things will continue to go well for us. At Billion, for example, we can clearly see that standard products are no longer in demand. Customers want customised machines that are tailored to their specific needs, and we are able to meet these very specific requirements. When we look back over the past two years, we can clearly observe that these value-added applications work. At a competitive level, this means we can stand our ground very well, even internationally, including China. It's not all about price; it's about special applications, responsiveness and production efficiency across the entire production cycle. We have a customer that produces plastic parts for household appliances, in other words, mass products. You might assume that this customer prefers low-cost machines from the Far East to ours, this is not the case however: that particular customer chose us because we generate added value for them when they consider their entire production chain, and due to the fact that we are close to them. This proximity is still highly valued today. How do you define the added value for the customer? Kiesl: We ask ourselves what we can change so that customers can find a way to depart from their standard applications. We look for additional functionalities and additional efficiencies. We ask ourselves whether we can simplify assembly steps, how we can improve the stabilisation of processes, whether the customer could operate better with other materials, and how we need to adapt our machines accordingly. Our multi-component technology, the sandwich process, plays a major role here. It has been available for a long time, but today it is providing increasing numbers of customers with added value; for example, if they want to use recyclates but the surfaces of their products have to be absolutely flawless. We then virtually hide recyclates inside a part and surround it with virgin material on the outside. In another application, a customer wanted to give polypropylene roof tiles better protection against UV radiation by adding an expensive additive. Using the sandwich process, they now only use the additives in the outer layer. On the inside, only polypropylene is used. How do you keep your production costs in check? Kiesl: We have a platform approach. We still have our basic machines, one all-electric machine and two types of hydraulic machines. However, these machines are very customisable. A large part of the machine can be easily reproduced, such as the chassis, the clamp and the injection unit, but everything else can be customised. Thanks to the platform approach, we have the opportunity to adapt each machine to the customer on the one hand, and on the other we can still remain within a competitive price range; that is absolutely essential. After all, the customer must be able to afford the added value. Will the momentum of the circular economy continue? Kiesl: The circular economy has now reached a high level of maturity. At K 2022, the main focus was on presenting the new technologies. These technologies are now much more mature. Now people are talking more about how and where these technologies can be utilised. It's not quite as spectacular, which is why you won't hear the word circular economy as often as you did three years ago. However, the basic idea of moving from a linear economy to a circular economy is becoming increasingly important. We can see this very clearly in our technical centre, where around three quarters of all experiments concern the sandwich process. This involves the use of various recyclates and the saving of valuable resources. How do you see the future of plastics? Kiesl: Plastic will play an important role in the future. Climate change, the greatest challenge of our time, cannot be tackled without plastics. Let's take electromobility as an example, which should lead to a reduction in the CO2 footprint: The cooling systems, batteries and battery trays required for this are only economically feasible with plastic. What's more, plastic has major advantages over many other materials: It is lightweight, recyclable and the energy required to produce it is lower. Plastic should therefore be viewed from a macro perspective, as its advantages will then soon become apparent. Source VDMA Way2K 2025

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  • "Design for recycling is the key"

    Interview on the road to K 2025 with Dr. Stephan Gneuss, Managing Director of Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH Dr. Stephan Gneuss Dr. Gneuss, how has recycling developed in recent years? Dr. Stephan Gneuss : Many distributors of plastic products have now recognised that they also need to identify recycling routes for products. For this reason, recycling processes have been developed in recent years that did not previously exist. The aim is to show that products can be recycled or at least made recyclable in the first place. Many new applications have been supplemented with recycling concepts that at least work on a technical level. Whether they will work in practice remains to be seen. The collection channels need to be improved, as they are still far from perfect. Has food suitability of recycled material already been achieved? Gneuss : There have been some successes here, driven by the Americans. The admission board FDA in that nation is much more flexible in its approach than its EU counterpart, EFSA. In the US, the range of authorised plastic materials has now grown significantly. A lot has also happened in Europe; however, the solutions have so far been very unsatisfactory. In principle, food suitability can be realised for the vast majority of recycled plastic materials. Has the use of recyclates meanwhile become economical? Gneuss : There are phases in which virgin material is more expensive, but there are also phases in which recyclates are more expensive. The big boom in the recycling of PET bottle flakes came about because they were not more expensive; the situation has currently changed again, however. Virgin material is very cheap at present, and this is putting recyclates under extreme pressure. This is because their production costs are very high due to high energy costs and high costs for collecting, sorting and cleaning. This situation is particularly worrying for recyclers, and naturally also reduces the incentive for companies to use recyclates in the first place. Basically, those parties who use recyclates today do so because they have to, either because there are legal requirements, or because their customers demand it, but if you don't have to do it for one of these reasons, nobody will, as it is simply more expensive. What would have to happen for this situation to change? Gneuss : There has long been talk of introducing binding quotas in Europe. Of course, these only make sense if the legal framework is in place. There are still a lot of problems to overcome.The quota provisions are expected to come into force very soon, but the legal framework has not materialised. For example, it would have to be determined which processes are approved so that recyclate can be used in the food sector. The EU has now found a kind of interim solution, granting the corresponding approvals subject to reservations. However, this is simply disastrous for machine manufacturers like Gneuss. Who is going to invest in a new machine with reservations that mean that they might not be allowed to use it later? What do you think of quotas? Gneuss : My take on them is a positive one. Quota specifications as content specifications, where it makes sense, and otherwise as usage specifications, because then design for recycling would win acceptance; that is the key. At the moment, design is mostly about visual or cost optimisation, which does not usually improve the recycling capabilities. I believe that there is still great potential to achieve simpler and more cost-effective recycling processes. Closed-loop recycling does not make economic and ecological sense for all products; in my view, the decisive factor is for as much plastic as possible to be recycled in the first place. What is the situation of recycling elsewhere in the world? Gneuss : We see some promising regions such as India, for example. There are already statutory quotas and corresponding regulations. This is currently triggering a boom in demand for recycling machines in the plastics sector. If other Asian countries take India as a model, the market can become huge. North and South America are also fuelling demand. There is still little legal pressure in the US, but in principle, we believe that the recycling segment has not yet exhausted its full potential in the US. By contrast, the economic situation in Europe is not good, and is particularly bad in Germany. Are there nevertheless new competitors for Gneuss? Gneuss : Yes, there are, and most of them come from China. It's a large, dynamic market. China has also taken a few regulatory measures to support recycling, which is why there are many new machine manufacturers in this area. Sooner or later, they will also want to serve other markets; initially perhaps the Asian markets, but eventually also those in Europe and the USA. However, we will find solutions that will allow us to continue to set ourselves apart technologically. It is simply our job to always be one step ahead. Do you still see location advantages in Germany? Gneuss : Germany traditionally has a competitive advantage in the area of vocational training. Thanks to the dual system, which does not exist in a comparable form in many countries, we still have relatively well-trained skilled workers. The US, for example, is a more - 3 - attractive location from a tax perspective, but the shortage of skilled labour there is much worse than here. Here in Germany however, the situation is also getting worse, due to demographic changes, as well as a growing hostility towards technology. What do you want to convey at the K? Gneuss : We want to emphasise that plastic is something positive and powerful and has considerable ecological potential. Of course it should be recycled. We are working on that. In this respect, I think the K motto "The Power of Plastics - Green - Smart - Responsible" is a good choice. The Gneuss slogan for K has not yet been finalised, but it will be something in a very similar vein. Source VDMA Way2K 2025

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  • "Mono-material structures are increasingly in demand"

    Interview on the way to K 2025 with Markus Gschwandtner, Managing Director and Chief Sales Officer (CSO) at Brückner Maschinenbau Markus Gschwandtner Mr Gschwandtner, how does Brückner stand its ground in the face of increasing international competition? Markus Gschwandtner : We achieve this through innovation. Our aim is to always be one step ahead in terms of technology. Competition has indeed become more intense, with new providers in our industry segment coming primarily from Asian countries, which is why we have to counter this with innovation, focusing on our research and development department. It is a relatively large department within our company, which has been expanded even further recently. Our technical centre plays a key role in this regard, as it is the technology centre par excellence within our sector. This technical centre brings together all the well-known partners in our value chain, from raw material manufacturers to users, from Dow and Total to PepsiCo; they all try out their innovations with us, testing to see what works and what doesn't. Can you provide an example? Gschwandtner : In our technical centre for example, we test structures that we need as part of the transition to a circular economy. We are carrying out tests with packaging mono-materials that usually consists of different materials, for example, a bowl with a lid on top. The development is shifting towards manufacturing this product from one single material, so that it can be recycled later. These mono-material structures are increasingly in demand these days. The circular economy is clearly the driver here. Just a few years ago, functionality was the most important goal. Packaging had to be easy to print on, it had to have good barrier functions, and it had to be easy to seal for reasons of hygiene. All this was achieved with different materials, different plastics, but also paper or aluminium. The trend towards reducing this mix of materials was clearly fuelled by EU regulations, aimed at boosting the circular economy. At our technical centre, we can show that we are able to manufacture a product from mono-material that previously consisted of five or more materials. If the mono-material products are easily recyclable, are the recyclates also suitable for use in food packaging? Gschwandtner : So far only to a very limited extent. It requires authorisation from the food control authorities in the individual countries, such as food approval from the American FDA, for example. In addition to collecting the plastics, it is very important to sort them, in order to keep them as pure as possible. During mechanical recycling, the plastics are shredded, melted, filtered and processed back into raw materials. In this process, it is not very easy to get the same food approval again. This is certainly the case with chemical recycling; it can actually go back into the same application. How do you recruit the technical staff needed for your innovations? Gschwandtner: Young talent plays a very important role for us. Employees who have been with us for a long time naturally contribute their experience, but the new employees bring new technologies with them, and they can also handle them, for example, with artificial intelligence. We have entered into partnerships with universities and colleges so that we can attract these new talents. Today, talented young people do their internships, and write their Bachelor's and Master's theses at our company. These well-trained individuals are very familiar with all the new technology. Once they join us, we introduce them to our business. We also attract young people on dual training programmes, always with the aim of utilising their knowledge in other areas at Brückner. What is the situation like in your international subsidiaries? Gschwandtner: We now also have excellent junior staff there, especially in India and China. The young people who join us there are very well trained. They hone their technological skills at Brückner on our customers' construction sites. They show a lot of initiative and are prepared to adapt to cultural differences. At the same time, their country-specific perspective helps us to better understand and serve the different customs and needs of our customers in those countries. The new employees at home and abroad, together with our technical centre, ensure that we remain innovative. Do collaborations also play a role in this regard? Gschwandtner: We have always worked with partners over the last 50 years. The early innovations came >from collaborating with those manufacturing partners, and they are partnerships that we have expanded. Today, we also carry out joint projects with research institutes such as Fraunhofer, or the universities in Rosenheim and Aachen, which conduct important plastics research. Again, our technical centre is the linchpin. In addition to the circular economy, organic raw materials, both biodegradable ones, and those made from renewable raw materials, are currently a major topic in this field. Where is the plastics machinery industry heading? Gschwandtner: Plastic has a bright future. The material has undeniably great advantages. It is light, easy to mould, inexpensive and is the material with the lowest carbon footprint in production compared to other materials such as metal or glass. If it can then be recycled as well, then that would make it the most sustainable of all. Achieving this is largely the task of plastics engineering, which therefore also has a bright future. Source VDMA Way2K 2025

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  • K defies all challenges to remain the centre of the plastics industry

    Interview on the road to K 2025 with Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman of the K Exhibitor Advisory Board, and Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association Ulrich Reifenhäuser Large areas of the global economy are currently experiencing economic headwinds. So, what sort of signal does an already fully booked K 2025 send? Ulrich Reifenhäuser: It shows that the global assessment of the industry remains positive. In the past, the plastics industry has developed outstanding products and valuable solutions, and this will continue in the future. Plastic is a relatively young material, which still has enormous potential. Yes, we are going through difficult economic times, but they will pass. In principle, this does not change the need for plastic solutions. We want to display and see them. That's why the K defies all challenges and remains the centre of the plastics world. Thorsten Kühmann : We are going through a time of great uncertainty. However, there are some fixed stars of considerable radiant power, of which K is one such star. Everyone knows that the K is taking place, and the world is heading there. It provides the orientation that is especially needed in difficult times. This is also reflected in the motto of K 2025: "The Power of Plastics - Green, Smart, Responsible. That motto exudes great self-confidence. What is it based on? Kühmann: We believe that plastic as a material offers the solution to the major issues facing our civilisation. For example, plastic helps to improve the global climate. This is because CO2 emissions are decreasing as vehicles are becoming lighter due to the higher use of plastic, thereby consuming less energy. Energy consumption is also greatly reduced in the construction industry because buildings are better insulated with plastic. The CO2 footprint is reduced because plastic packaging means less food spoilage. These are all major contributions from the plastics industry. Another point is the circular economy: resources are not only used once, but again and again. We are creating recyclability. A great deal is already possible, hence the motto "The Power of Plastics". We just need to do it. Reifenhäuser: It is a fact that we have a huge climate problem in this world. It is also true that plastic is the most climate-friendly material. Its production consumes significantly less CO2 than that of other materials. This climate advantage would be immediately visible if, for example, the CO2 footprint was labelled on packaging. It is therefore not presumptuous to be very self-confident. Thorsten Kühmann The circular economy is still in its early stages. Where do we stand today? Reifenhäuser: We are further than we were three years ago. Mechanical engineering has now reached an astonishingly high level. The technical solutions for recycling are largely available. However, we could actually be three times better off than we actually are; in other words, we could recycle much more. Why aren't we doing that? Because recycling is technically demanding, and therefore more expensive than virgin plastic. No-one is prepared to pay the higher costs. Consumers are extremely cost-conscious, plus brand manufacturers are under enormous competitive pressure. Plastic has been a success because it is far better than other materials. However, the step towards a circular economy is costly. It will not be possible to get to grips with this cost problem without regulatory requirements. Kühmann: That's true, but there is light on the horizon. One key to reducing costs would be a vastly increased penetration of digitalisation. On the one hand, this concerns the digitalisation of machine and plant systems, allowing processes to be better controlled. It also makes it easier to handle difficult materials – and recyclates are more difficult to handle. On the other hand, material flows also need to be digitalised. This is where the digital product passport comes in for example, which digitally tracks a product over its entire life cycle. Machines and products are two levers that can be used to bring costs down. It will still take time, but we are well on the way. How far have companies actually progressed with digitalisation? Is AI already being utilised? Kühmann: Virtually every company in the plastics machinery industry is now focusing on digitalisation. This topic is now current all across the globe, with many companies even already focusing on digital sales. Recently, artificial intelligence has also been finding its way into the industry. In the process of digitalising their operations, companies have so much data available, that they can simply solve certain requirements much better with intelligent algorithms. Three years ago, nobody was talking about artificial intelligence, now it’s on everyone’s lips - and there are also the first practical examples. Reifenhäuser : Automation has been used in plastics machinery manufacturing for over 40 years. Now almost everyone is going one step further and focusing on digitalisation. In essence, this means that much larger amounts of data and therefore more information are being registered due to faster processors. This allows processes to be noticeably improved once again. The next step is the intelligent processing of the different types of information. This brings us to AI, which generates enormous added value – in design, production and service. The potential is enormous. Where do employees stand in the future of plastics engineering? Kühmann : Our employees are one of the most important assets we have - all the more so because demographic trends show the difficulty in recruiting enough young people with certain qualifications. On the one hand, we must therefore try to make mechanical engineering attractive to more people, especially women. On the other hand, we need to push ahead with digitalisation, including AI. This will streamline processes and ultimately allow us to manage with fewer but qualified staff. How will the VDMA address these specific issues at K? Kühmann : At the trade fair, we will bring to life the motto we have developed together with our members and partners: "The Power of Plastics - Green, Smart, Responsible". We will make all facets of this motto visible to visitors. In the outdoor area of K, companies will present concrete solutions and thereby show where we currently stand as an industry: in recycling, in plastics processing, and in digitalisation. To this end, we will be providing an overview of all these machine applications and digitalisation solutions in the VDMA Dome. There, we will also be discussing topics relating to talented young prospects. Reifenhäuser: This exhibition in the outdoor area will of course be flanked by the innovations and special developments that will be on show at the individual companies' stands. So, you can experience both: the strength of plastics as a whole on the VDMA site, and the technical finesse at the company stands. There will once again be plenty to see. In plastics machinery manufacturing, the development cycles in the companies are closely aligned with the three-year cycle of the K trade fair. This also explains why suppliers are always so keen to present their products, and why the trade visitors remain so interested. Source VDMA Way2K 2025

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