A new €700,000+ regranulation unit at its plant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, is allowing the highly efficient re-use of materials rejected from the production process for Freudenberg Nonwovens.

“At Kaiserslautern, we have been recycling rejected materials such as start-up material and edge strips for many years,” says plant production manager Steffen Reuther. “Nevertheless, the new unit represents a quantum leap in our everyday work. It will allow us to further improve the quality of our products and to offer our customers even better solutions. The overall investment process was very fast and we only needed four weeks to install the unit, which is the size of a three-to -four room flat.”

In the new unit, rejected material from production is melted, cooled and then chopped up into small pieces to form a granulate. The chips produced are returned to the manufacturing process and used to produce nonwovens.
“This production loop allows us to use raw materials more effectively,” said Reuther. “It also makes a contribution to environmental protection. In view of the increasing scarcity of natural resources such as oil, on which our raw materials are based, the recycling of rejected materials is extremely important”.

The Kaiserslautern plant produces spunlaid nonwovens for the construction, hygiene products and carpet industries as well as applications in horticulture and was established in 1970. In addition to Freudenberg Nonwovens, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies and Helix Medical are also active at the location where 561 people are employed.