PLASTICS P
BROANMAIN PLASTICS GETS REAL ABOUT POLYMER PROCESSING
lastics are like any other high performance engineering material, learned Cinnamon Lacey and Joel Sparksman from Datateam Business Media during a recent tour of Broanmain’s Dorking facility. “Any form of production uses resources,” explained Broanmain’s managing director Jo Davis. “Whether it is biodegradable, made of recycled materials, carved from wood or printed on hemp, every material and anything manufacturers produce will still impact the environment to some extent.” As technical mass moulding specialists, the components made by Broanmain are built for industrial applications where durability, lightweighting and reliability are all essential. These are not single use plastics, emphasised Davis, but components moulded, finished and assembled for high performance automotive, aerospace, industrial, construction and commercial
‘The zero-impact agenda’, ‘achieving net-zero’ and ‘zero-impact manufacturing’ are all terms frequently discussed when tackling topics surrounding sustainable production processes. But when it comes to polymer processing, how does sustainability factor in? Datateam Business Media’s Joel Sparksman and Cinnamon Lacey found out on a recent visit to Broanmain Plastics...
devices. Previously these applications might have used metal, but now plastics can offer significant efficiencies and quality features, including strength, stiffness, and resistance to wear, heat, and chemicals, at a fraction of the cost.
SEEING THE GOOD IN PLASTICS Plastics are often given a bad press when discussions turn to sustainability in manufacturing. However, while eradicating plastics completely might solve one problem, it would likely present countless others, as Davis explained. “Many blame the mass
manufacturing of plastics for current environmental issues. However, it
is often omitted how integral plastic is to daily lives and wellbeing, and that the root cause of plastic waste, carbon emissions and pollution can more often be attributed to inefficient production methods and waste mismanagement.
“Plastic packaging mitigates food waste attributed to spoiled product. Engineering plastics are lightweight and therefore a more fuel-efficient way to transport food and liquids, reducing energy
consumption, emissions of CO2 and transport costs. Plastic also makes vehicles, aircrafts and boats lighter, meaning they do not consume as
much fuel, nor release as much CO2 compared to other materials. And healthcare plastics are simply irreplaceable at this point in time as they are essential to patient and health worker safety and medical diagnosis and treatment plans.”
26
Summer 2025 UKManufacturing
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