From the Sector

• Printing Expo Online is expanding again by doubling the size of Zone 2 with new exhibitors and feature zones making it one of the largest virtual trade shows in the world.

Visitors will be able to visit the new Zaikio underground catacombs that are accessible from several portals around the show. Click on a New York taxi, a London Phone Box or a funky Hot Dog Van and you will be transported into the Zaikio cavern environment where visitors will be able to watch application videos, arrange demos and sign up to this amazing new cloud-based platform.

Another addition to Zone 2 is the new Software Technology Centre (STC). This feature area will grow over time to show a wide range of software solutions that are available on the market.

Joining Printing Expo Online in the STC for the launch is EFI Fiery, who are showing their full portfolio of software solutions.

Design’N’Buy are also a new exhibitor in the STC with their all-In-One Web2Print software solution that helps users leverage technology, people and processes for the multi-fold growth of your printing business.

Also moving into the STC will be PrintIQ who offer the modern print shop a solution for businesses that need to be able to grow and scale as needed without slowing down or sacrificing quality.

Another new addition to the show is the introduction of the Global Print Trade Club. This initiate is free to all Print Service providers around the world and offers the opportunity to network on a global scale.

New to the exhibition is Kornit Digital with their multi storey showroom which will shortly be opening its doors where visitors will be able to view Direct to Garment and Direct to Fabric printing equipment, technical data, case studies, clothing designs and applications as well as visit the Kornit dedicated auditorium where live streaming content will be shown of Kornit Digital’s Fashion weeks as they happen throughout the year.

Another addition is the new application journey added to the Xeikon Innovation Centre at Printing Expo Online. Visitors will now be able to experience a virtual tour of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and garage where Xeikon will show applications for commercial, label and Wall Deco products that can be produced on their digital print engines.

Printing Expo Online is open 24/7 365 days a year and has now welcomed over 60,000 visitors from all over the world and continues to grow not only its footprint and total visitor numbers, but also its relevance as an important resource tool for Print Service Providers from around the world that, for whatever reason, are unable to attend live events.

• The Borvida™ portfolio introduces sustainable base chemicals to Borealis’ range of product offering
• The range will initially be based on non-food waste biomass, and chemically-recycled waste; in the future it will also draw from atmospheric carbon capture
• The traceability of the content will be based on Mass Balance, which is ISCC PLUS certified
• This is the next step in an ambitious sustainability journey, which will see Borealis move away from traditional fossil-based feed

Borealis is strengthening its EverMinds™ circular product offering with Borvida™, a range of sustainable base chemicals.

The Borvida portfolio will offer base chemicals or cracker products (such as ethylene, propylene, butene and phenol) with ISCC Plus-certified sustainable content from Borealis sites in Finland, Sweden and Belgium. The move is part of Borealis’ broader commitment to a Future-Positive Revolution, in which the unrivalled benefits of base chemicals and polymers can be enjoyed at minimal impact to the planet.   

The portfolio will initially comprise Borvida B, from non-food waste biomass, and Borvida C, from chemically-recycled waste. In the future, the range will evolve to include Borvida A, sourced from atmospheric carbon capture. Borvida is complementary and is the building block to Bornewables™, a portfolio of polyolefins based on renewably-sourced second generation feedstocks, and Borcycle™, which offers circular polyolefins produced from mechanically- and chemically-recycled plastic waste.

Borealis produces a wide range of base chemicals for use in numerous industries based on various feedstock, such as naphtha, butane, propane and ethane. Through its olefin units (steam cracker and propane dehydrogenation), it converts these into the building blocks of the chemical industry: ethylene, propylene and C4 hydrocarbons (butylenes, ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE) and butadiene), and C5-6 hydrocarbons (pygas, phenol) among others.

The basis of the Borvida portfolio is Mass Balance, a Chain of Custody model that enables sustainable content to be tracked, traced, and verified through the entire value chain, offering sustainability-assured products from feedstock to end product. Using this model, circular alternatives can be offered in a cost-effective and environmentally-conscious way, which can be scaled up quickly without compromising on quality or efficiency.

Borvida can be used for a wide range of different polymer and chemical applications, also beyond polyolefins (PO). Non-PO polymers, such as polycarbonates, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), super absorbant polymer (SAP) and other chemicals, are utilised for various end applications including coatings, plasticizers, adhesives, automotive, electronics, lubricants, detergents, appliances and sports equipment.

Together with key strategic partners, including Neste and Covestro, Borealis strives to provide a long-term solution in order to allow value-chain partners to meet their sustainability goals. Borvida will enable our customers to increase the sustainability of their products, keeping them ahead of forthcoming legislative changes, and meeting their customers’ demands for climate-conscious products.

Introduced on a smaller scale in early 2020, early renewable base chemicals customers include Covestro. “The use of alternative sustainable raw materials is one important pillar of our strategic ambition to become fully circular”, comments Frank Dörner, Managing Director Covestro Procurement Services GmbH & Co. KG. “The new product line is a good example for joint solutions, another strategic pillar, in order to establish new and reliable supply chains creating benefits for our customers.”

On the occasion of the 90^th year since its birth, Bemberg™ invests in the artistic spirit of Daniele Basso to create a work of art able to convey the values that characterize its fiber from the "craftsmanship elegance" through an innovative language.

According to the creative and strategic vision of the Italian artist - known for the symbolic works in sustainable steel developed for major companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Andrea Bocelli, Ferrari Rossocorsa and Mila Schon - sculptures can become a concrete expression of the entrepreneurial dream, of the culture and values of excellence that companies express in their own unique history and that they represent for the Community and the Territory that hosts them.

All of this is reflected in the work commissioned by Bemberg™, where the history of the Japanese brand takes concrete shape in a blue spiral, able to express both the company's adaptive nature to contemporary times through energy and proactivity, and its ability to build a new, harmonious visual identity. Moreover, the intertwining of the threads emphasizes the synergies and collaborations that lead Bemberg™ to constantly move towards new opportunities.

The piece will be donated to the mayor of Gallarate, where the headquarters of Asahi Kasei Fibers Italia currently reside.

AkzoNobel has announced that Gregoire Poux-Guillaume will become the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of November 1, 2022.

He will succeed Thierry Vanlancker, who has been CEO and member of the Board of Management since 2017, and whose term of office is coming to an end.

Gregoire (52), a French national, is an international business leader with 25 years of experience. He has a distinguished track record of building successful, profitable businesses in challenging environments, accelerating business growth and improving margins.

Previous roles include CEO of Sulzer, CEO of GE Grid Solutions (previously Alstom Grid) and Senior Managing Director of CVC Capital Partners.

Europe has a 7-7.5-million-ton waste problem, of which only 30-35% is collected today. The ReHubs initiative launched in 2020 has now completed a Techno Economic Master Study (TES) and it sheds light on key figures and options to collaborate to solve the European waste problem.

In two and a half year all EU member states are obliged to separately collect textile waste. Currently there are no large-scaled plans to use that waste.  The largest portion of the waste (around 85%) comes from households.

The ReHubs initiative brings together key European and world players to solve the textile waste problem by transforming “waste” into a resource and to boost textile circular business models at large scale. The completed TES has accessed critical information on solving the European waste problem. It is estimated that to reach a collection rate from 18 to 26 percent by 2030, 7 billion euro will be needed. Once matured and scaled, the textile recycling industry could become a profitable industry with a total market size of 6-8 billion € and around 15,000 direct new jobs by 2030. As a first step the ReHubs Initiative announces different actions forwards, including projects on this pathway, which one is to transform textile waste into feedstock.

TEXAID has been supporting ReHubs since the start and contributed significantly involved to the Business Council and the Steering Committee of the initiative. As strongly committed industry leader TEXAID is taking the lead on the project to transform textile waste into feedstock for recycling processes. In order to handle the increasing quantities of post-consumer textile waste a massive scale up of sorting and preparation for recycling of used textiles is needed. TEXAID is committed to lead the work on developing new technologies and building up additional capacities for the handling and preparing of textile waste for textile recycling in Europe. In a first phase this involves the built up of a new sorting and pre-processing facility with the capacity of 50’00 tons p.a. by 2024.

• New yarns for the contract furnishing world, for industrial sewing threads and the challenge of biodegradable polyester

At the product level, big impulse has been given to the range of industrial sewing threads for various uses, with new references both in the polyester + polyester compositions as well as in cotton + polyester. The industrial threads, marketed as raw material, allow the company to consolidate its position on some strategic markets, such as in Germany.

As a result of the partnership with Trevira® for the spinning of the flame-retardant Trevira^®CS fibre, Filidea Technical Yarns reinforces its offer of non-dyed performant yarns aimed at the world of contract furnishings. The sector of hospitality, of furnishings for public and work spaces, fairs and areas for social-cultural gatherings will find a comprehensive answer to its demands in the Trevira^®CS-based yarns: with regard to fireproof standards, versatility, resistance to wear and tear, excellent colour rendering, and last but not least, the component of fibre sustainability, an essential value for the design of spaces for collective use.

Continuing in the development of sustainable production across the sector, the company has undertaken two important initiatives with other actors in the textile supply chain. Filidea participates in Trick, the European blockchain project – part of the European Horizon 2020 programme – involving 29 partners from six different nations to reinforce the circular economy thanks to the development of a digital platform which is complete, traceable and available to operators in the textile sector.

MagnoLab, the network of enterprises in the textile supply chain, and of which Filidea is one of the founding members, gives the impulse to constant R&D activities. MagnoLab was established in 2022 in order to develop tangible solutions for the sector, to create values and to collaborate with regard to current and future demands.

MagnoLab brings together textile companies which are active at various stages of and with complementary roles in the supply chain, and which work in synergy and share objectives, resourcefulness and long-sightedness, with the aim of developing innovation in a structured way. MagnoLab is also open to welcome new partners.

With the goal of making recycling of lightweight, high-volume fiber and flake recyclate much more economical and, in some cases even possible, Coperion has developed a new version of its ZS-B side feeder. Using the innovative ZS-B MEGAfeed, plastic recyclate with a bulk density under 200 kg/m³, long considered intake-limited and thus not worth recycling, can be reliably fed in large quantities into Coperion’s ZSK twin screw extruder and be concurrently recycled and compounded.

The ZS-B side feeder’s novel design makes it possible to feed very high rates of fiber and flakes, such as PA, PE, PET, and PP. As a result, the ZSK twin screw extruder’s high capacity can be fully exploited when the ZS-B MEGAfeed is used. Very high throughputs in both mechanical and chemical recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer waste are achieved.

Increased Throughput in Numbers
With a ZSK 58 Mc18 twin screw extruder, the throughput increase and thus the potential of the new ZS-B MEGAfeed becomes very clear. When recycling PA fibers with a bulk density of ~40-50 kg/m3, throughputs of 70 kg/h were previously achieved using conventional equipment. When the PA fibers were fed into the ZSK extruder using the ZS-B MEGAfeed, throughputs increased about fourteenfold to 1,000 kg/h. Similar results were achieved recycling carbon fibers with a bulk density of ~50-70 kg/m3; in this case, throughputs increased from 50 kg/h to 2,500 kg/h using the ZS-B MEGAfeed. When recycling PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) flakes, throughputs increased from 50 kg/h to 700 kg/h, and from 80 kg/h to 1,300 kg/h with multilayer film flakes.

Key to Economical Recycling of A Wide Variety of Plastics
Plastics previously considered not recyclable are becoming a valuable raw material using the new Coperion ZS-B MEGAfeed. For example, PCR flakes or recyclate from carbon fiber-reinforced plastics can now be fed into the ZSK extruder at high feed rates and recycled economically.

In the case of mechanical upcycling, upstream processes necessary for compounding, such as compacting, melting and agglomeration, are completely eliminated using the ZS-B MEGAfeed technology. In this recycling process, flakes and fibers can be fed directly into the ZSK extruder, where they are melted, compounded, devolatilized, and filtered in a single step. In so doing, both investment costs and energy consumption drop. The production process becomes significantly more efficient. Moreover, the thermal product stress is reduced and recyclate quality increases.

Even when recycling PET, the feed rate is no longer a limiting factor. With the ZS-B MEGAfeed, PET flakes and fibers can be fed into the ZSK twin screw extruder in large quantities with no pre-drying or crystallizing, where they can be processed with the highest degree of profitability.

The ZS-B MEGAfeed can also feed large quantities of post-consumer waste, adding appreciable value to the chemical recycling process with the ZSKs. ZSK throughput rates are very high with the ZS-B MEGAfeed. Preheating of the recyclate via mechanical energy input of the twin screws thus becomes even more economical for further processing in the reactor.

Existing Coperion extruders can be retrofitted with ZS-B MEGAfeed technology to greatly expand their spectrum of applications and increase their throughput rates.

The automotive industry currently faces a complex set of market dynamics: rising material and transport costs, reduced budgets, changing consumer expectations, increasing challenges related to CSR, etc. In this context, improving efficiency across the whole value chain has become a strategic priority for vehicle and equipment manufacturers. Lectra supports its customers by designing and developing cutting-edge solutions that combine software, equipment, data and services to make its offer the gateway to Industry 4.0.
 
With Industry 4.0, a new range of possibilities is opening up to businesses. The concept and its technologies bring in new value creation and cost control models based on synchronized, flexible and fast processes.
 
The Automotive Cutting Room 4.0 offer is a set of solutions connected to one other: Vector, the fabric cutting equipment offering the best performance in the market; Empower, a new generation of digital services to leverage Vector's capabilities; Valia, the heart of the new offer, a software for preparing and scheduling production; and Algopex, an application for exploiting and capitalizing on all the data generated by the cutting room, so you can make the best decisions as quickly as possible.
 
Connecting up all the elements of the Automotive Cutting Room 4.0 offer delivers this unprecedented value and enables an unparalleled level of performance to be achieved. Nicolas Favreau, Lectra’s Automotive Marketing Strategy Director, explains: “When the whole cutting room process is digitalized, the data generated are centralized and accessible in real time, helping our customers to make the best decisions at every step of the production process. The benefits are huge. For example, the key performance indicators from the offer’s first users show productivity gains of around 5% and a reduction in material consumption of nearly 2%. That’s unheard of! These results, combined with the agility that the Automotive Cutting Room 4.0 brings and the complete process control, demonstrate the offer’s maximum relevance.”

• Biotransformation technology for nonwovens

Avgol^® has received the prestigious Innovation Award at the RIGHT Hygiene conference in recognition of its collaboration with Polymateria in development of pioneering biotransformation technology for nonwovens.
 
Biotransformation is a unique functionality wherein a conventional nonwoven fabric can be modified to react to certain triggers to then begin a cascade, and importantly a fundamental chemical transformation of the polymer resin into a wax that is readily degraded by natural bacteria, microbes and fungi normally found in the environment.
 
“The transformation is triggered through the combined effects of the natural elements of decay - air, moisture, heat and sunlight,” said Mr. Sanjay Bhayani, Director of India Operations with Avgol. “Once triggered, the material will transform into a low molecular weight wax structure leaving no microplastics or toxic residue behind. Moreover, if the product comprising the biotransformation technology is disposed of in the normal way and facilities are available, then it can be recycled by readily available means.”

“By bringing the Biotransformation technology to the various potential markets in India, we hope to offer a real-world solution to waste management,” he said. “We particularly hope to address aspects of the creation of fugitive waste and remove this from the environment without causing additional, and potentially more dangerous, problems.”

• Joining Science Based Targets initiative

ith its Advance Sustainability Strategy 2025 launched in 2018, Autoneum defined ambitious goals in the areas of environment, society and governance. In the past year, significant quantitative and qualitative improvements were achieved, as shown in the Corporate Responsibility Report 2021 published today. For example, CO2 emissions were reduced in 2021 and the proportion of reused production scrap (recycling) was significantly increased.

Following Autoneum’s decision last year to extend its environmental targets with quantifiable targets for all direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and a time horizon to 2027, the Company has recently signed the declaration to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Autoneum acknowledges the urgent need for action and will submit its ambitious, science-based targets to the SBTi to reduce CO2 emissions in the near term. In addition, Autoneum is reporting its Scope 3 emissions in full for the first time. In line with the strategic goal of continuously reducing electricity purchases from fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energies, ten plants worldwide were converted to renewable energies in 2021.

In the past year, Autoneum again implemented a large number of projects in the areas of “Sustainable Products and Production Processes”, “Fair and Attractive Workplace”, “Good Corporate Citizenship” and “Responsible Supply Chain Management”: 29 eco-efficiency projects with a focus on materials efficiency and recycling contributed to more environmentally friendly production and correspondingly more sustainable components worldwide. The result was a significant reduction in waste and a further optimization of processes for a range of products. Moreover, new eco-efficient products were successfully launched on the market.

A complete overview of all targets and activities during the past year can be found in the Corporate Responsibility Report 2021.