Recycling and Resource Conservation - ALUSTECK® Environmental Aspects
The topics of "recycling" and "resource conservation" are playing an increasingly important role in economic activity, especially in view of a trend towards ever shorter product life cycles.
have been among the design principles in our company's constructive development process for proprietary products for many years, unless customer requirements or legal regulations explicitly oppose this.
The technical requirements for products increasingly demand the use of so-called "hybrid solutions" with composite components made of different materials. Combinations of various plastic parts with metal components, such as connectors with steel cores, are frequently used.
Disassembly is part of the recycling process as well as the product life cycle and therefore plays a role in considerations regarding this:
- Modular design with interchangeability of individual components as well as
- design of a product suitable for disassembly up to the complete disassemblability of an aged product
When used in dimensionally stable pipes and with proper construction of the overall system, this connector can generally be used without additional fixation by gluing, pinning, or screwing (accident prevention regulations and special safety precautions in sales rooms with public traffic must, of course, be observed). Thus, the aluminum square tubes, into which the connectors are installed, remain undamaged after proper disassembly of the connectors and are suitable for reuse.
Please note, however, that the product design is not intended for constant disassembly and reassembly of systems.
For numerous applications, no functional disadvantages are to be expected compared to hybrid parts where the individual components (e.g., by overmolding the metal cores) are materially connected and therefore require additional work steps during recycling. Sometimes, when designing with modules, even larger manufacturing tolerances of the parts in which our products are used can be compensated than is the case with hybrid components that are firmly connected materially.
The clicked product consists of recyclable polyamide ("Nylon") and is usually marked accordingly (PA). Nylon is a technical thermoplastic with relatively good aging resistance.
The metal components can be removed from the overall component without destruction. Recombination with other suitable components from our production can enable continued use - depending on the application - even after several years, without significant loss of quality.
If recycling is not an option, separate processing of the plastic and metal components by type is possible without additional disassembly effort.
