Merseburg, March 29, 2021. Modern vehicle seats consist of hundreds of individual parts, many of them made of plastics – and of very different types. This makes recycling these highly complex systems difficult and expensive – or in some cases, practically impossible. An international research project called “Passenger,” in which Exipnos is also involved, aims to change that.
The participating partners from Asia and Europe aim to manufacture all plastic components of vehicle seats from polyamide. This is intended not only to simplify recycling and reuse at the end of the product’s life cycle, but also to reduce production costs and spare parts supply. In addition to two South Korean companies, including the country’s leading vehicle seat manufacturer, a Danish company, several Fraunhofer Institutes, and Exipnos GmbH from Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt are also involved in the Passenger project. Exipnos will develop the plastic compounds for the various functional areas of the seat components. “Our goal is to primarily use recycled polyamide,” says Exipnos Managing Director Peter Putsch, going even further. This raw material will be supplied by APK, also from Merseburg, which has extensive experience in this field.
This transcontinental project is supported by EUREKA, the European initiative for application-oriented civilian research and development. The EUREKA certificate was awarded to Exipnos in March. The work of the German project partners (Exipnos and Fraunhofer) will be partially funded for three years using funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
