"2nd Life Metal Components" - A project supported by the Werner-von-Siemens Foundation
2nd Life Metal Component - Upcycling by Remanufacturing
While topics relating to energy as a resource have recently attracted a great deal of attention, materials as a resource often go unnoticed, even though both types of resources are essential for sustainable production technology. Industrialized nations in particular have a very high demand for materials - especially metals - which cannot be met by the energy-intensive production of new materials alone or with existing recovery strategies such as recycling. In future, goods in use must therefore be used directly as raw materials. The energy-intensive recycling step of returning the material to a melt will no longer be necessary and will be replaced by direct reuse of the material. However, production technology is currently not equipped for this new type of raw material extraction, meaning that there are no adequate process routes or chains that enable these resources to be processed. This is where the research project comes in, in order to develop a practicable process route for the largest proportion of metallic components - the sheet metal components - in which the areas of laser processing, material characterization, forming and planning interact in a complementary manner. As a result, it should be possible to sustainably manufacture a new component with a proportion of 75% from materials that have already been used at least once without a classic recycling step:
¾ previously used component + ¼ new semi-finished product ⇨2nd Life Metal Component
Contact person: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Brosius
Here you can see the process route in which the areas of laser processing, material characterization, forming and planning work together in a complementary way.