Sustainable production is becoming increasingly important. In contrast to foiled, painted or PVD-coated surfaces, chrome-plated components are 100% recyclable. Automotive supplier BIA has closed the loop and started to both recycle chrome components and offer new components based on recycled materials.
Discarded chrome components are first shredded and then the metal fraction is separated from the plastic substrate purely mechanically. The degree of purity of the two components is over 99%. While the metals are melted down and separated by type, the plastic is regranulated. The regranulate can then be reused for the production of new raw parts. "The use of recycled materials for the production of new chrome components has no negative impact on quality and durability. On the contrary: our components, which are manufactured with recycled parts and also entirely from recycled plastic and then electroplated, show the best adhesive strength properties in the industry-standard tests," said Dr Markus Häp, BIA Technology Manager Automotive. Even color differences in the granulate, which vary depending on the admixture of recycled plastics, are not a problem, for example for translucent components, whose color differences in the substrate material can be compensated for by backlighting the components. "The process is in place, now the infrastructure for the institutional return of used chrome components must be created across the industry," Häp pointed out the "bottleneck" in the recycling process.
