For Leonhard Kurz, the focus in Friedrichshafen will this year be on progressive solutions that make a significant contribution to conserving resources and reducing the ecological footprint. As a pioneer in the plastics processing industry, the company already offers series-ready solutions to lower energy consumption, reduce waste, and make the entire life cycle of products sustainable. Fakuma 2023 offers the Fürth-based thin-film specialist the opportunity to present innovations that drive the sustainability goals of the industry - from recycling materials, through resource-efficient machines and production processes, to recyclable end products.
Next to the exhibits on the Kurz stand, visitors may familiarize themselves with the latest developments in the field of sustainable plastics processing at the stands of our partners Arburg and Deckerform. Various products made from the post-industrial recycled material Recopound will also be on display. Rainer Süßmann, executive senior vice president of the Plastic Decoration business area, explained that Kurz is ‘continuously increasing the proportion of recycled and bio-based materials and has set itself the goal of maintaining the recyclability of end products and components and constantly optimizing its own decoration processes and solutions’. Various exhibits including clothes pegs made from Recopound and finished with hot stamping (Deckerform), add-on parts for a tool case (Arburg), a window box developed together with the Munich-based start-up Greenling, and other sample parts made from Recopound. It will further be demonstrating its hot stamping Performance+ innovation, a patent-pending, optimised, energy-saving further development of 3D hot-stamping technology. On a GEBA machine from the KURZ subsidiary BAIER, innovative aerodynamic wheel rim inserts will be given a wafer-thin decorative layer in an elegant real chrome look, live at the stand. The big advantage is that this product is REACH-compliant in manufacture and processing and does not contain any chromium VI, which brings with it significant added value in terms of sustainability. With the optimised hot stamping process, which is now even more suitable for the finishing of 3D-shaped components, vacuum deployment means that - unlike previously with hot stamping - the transfer carrier no longer needs to be pre-heated. This in turn saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions.
Kurz has built up a wealth of expertise in the fields of decoration, functionality, technology, as well as process and tool technology. This knowledge is used to continuously develop innovative products and processes in a sustainable manner. This includes, on the one hand, the increased use of recycled materials and, on the other hand, the reduction of the carrier thickness and coating layers. In some cases, Kurz already uses materials that are more than 50 percent derived from renewable resources. In addition, the Fürth-based specialist for high-quality surface finishes ensures that the use of solvents is reduced and that they are switched to water-based or bio-based variants. Kurz has been a member of the UN Global Compact Network since 2021 and has thus committed itself to transparency in matters of ecological, economic, and social sustainability.