Ecopolplast has slashed injection times for its thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) material made with 100% recycled content.
The Poland-based manufacturer has developed a TPE called Ecoplastormer available in two grades, PP and HDPE. Its technology creates strong bonding of rubber and plastic without chemical additives or stabilisers, which facilitates recycling at end-of-life. The composites exhibit excellent balance of stiffness, resilience, impact and UV-light resistance as well as dimensional stability.
The material is made entirely from post-consumer recyclate and recycled tyre rubber crumb. Ecopolplast manufacturers rounds pellet about 2 to 3 mm in size, which can be used in injection moulding machines producing parts for automotive, construction, and outdoor applications.
In recent trials, Ecopolplast demonstrated that its PP grade of Ecoplastomer has a 13% shorter injection moulding cycle than virgin material. In particular, Ecoplastomer showed a total cycle time of 39.07 seconds, against 44.6 seconds for virgin material. Differences were noted in injection pressure (60 bar vs 56 bar for virgin), compression pressure (58 bar vs 54 bar), dosage time (2.07 s vs 2.6 s), pressing time (3 s vs 5 s), and cooling time (34 s vs 37 s).
Shorter injection moulding cycles, in turn, translate into lower energy consumption and operational costs.
“This reduction not only accelerates production cycles but also significantly decreases energy consumption, helping manufacturers save on operational costs and reduce their environmental impact,” said Katarzyna Pokwicka-Croucher, CEO of Ecopolplast.