Automotive | environment
The Recyclite project will addresses consistency and availability of recycled plastics, according to Rachel Pucnh, Jaguar Land Rover’s Senior Engineer Sustainable Materials Innovation
cost for reductions in carbon emissions in the same way we can weight. But certainly, in the way our customers perceive our vehicles and our business, we recognise it is a very important thing to be doing and to be focusing on. Hence the large number of projects we have running in this sort of arena,” he says. A further appeal of the Recyclite project to Jaguar
Land Rover was the involvement of the complete supply chain, according to Crow. “You’ve got ourselves as an end user, IAC who are producing components, and then you’ve got Luxus. It encompasses the whole supply chain and that is important in this type of project if it is to stand a chance of success. We need to be able to work with our Tier Ones if we are to be successful in implementing these sort of technologies,” he says.
Bridging the gap The multi-disciplined approach of the Recyclite project is a key element in CIP’s Eco-Innovation initiative, which is intended to help European companies – and particu- larly SMEs – bridge the gap between research and market. A key requirement in this particular pro- gramme is that 500-600 tonnes of material is produced during the 24-month timescale. “We intend to be doing quite a lot more than that by the end of the first year,” says Luxus’s Atterby. A major part of the project funding has been invested
in a new compounding line, which has been developed for Luxus by project partner Coperion to handle the Hycolene materials. The 12,000 tonne/year line was commissioned at the Luxus facility at Louth in the UK last month The line is based around a Coperion Megacom- pounder extruder with 70mm diameter twin screws and a long L/D ratio of 56:1. The equipment is fitted with two side feeders and a special degassing unit. The line also features Coperion K-Tron feed systems, a Trendelkamp screen-changer, and a Gala pelletizing system. “We have a small lab line, but this is our first full-scale
production line from Coperion,” says Atterby. “It really is needed to ensure that we can compound these Hycolene materials in the way we need to. They need to be compounded in a particular way to get the best from the
www.injectionworld.com March 2015 | INJECTION WORLD 15
Jaguar Land Rover wants to reduce the lifecycle impact of its material production, says Robert Crow, the company’s Group Leader of Materials Innovation
A key part of the Recyclite project is optimising compounding to get the best from the lightweight products, says Luxus managing director Peter Atterby
light-weighting products that we’re adding.” In particular, the equipment has to be able to handle the Hyperform HPR-803i mineral-based fibre reinforce- ment. These fibres measure 0.5 microns in diameter and 20 microns in length and have a density of 2.3 g/cm3 which is lighter than the 2.7 g/cm3 2.6 g/cm3
, value for talc and figure for glass. According to Milliken, which manufactures the
Hyperform additive, a PP loaded with 12% HPR-803i will match the flexural modulus of a 30% talc-filled equivalent. Luxus utilises this performance gain in its Hycloene grades to allow substitution of some of the talc filler, enabling it to maintain or improve mechanical properties while reducing susceptibility to visible scratching of the surface. Atterby says Luxus will also be looking at opportuni-
ties to license the technology to support end-users across the world. The UK company already has a partnership agreement with Indian chemical and polymer sourcing group KPL International, which it established in 2013 to develop recycled polymer applications in the fast growing local automotive market.
Click on the links for more information: ❙
www.recyclite.eu ❙
www.luxus.co.uk ❙
www.coperion.com ❙
www.millikenchemical.com
Below:
Commercial Recyclite
grades will be produced on this new Coperion
compounding line, shown during
installation at the Luxus plant at Louth in the UK
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