igus installs and now also removes old energy chains for
customers

Since 2019 igus has given
old energy chains a second life by recycling them under the “chainge”
recycling program. Now the motion plastics specialist is going one
step further. Because an upgrade often means installing a whole new system,
igus removes old energy chains and recycles them to avoid industrial waste.

Ultimately, every machine and
every component will reach the end of its life. Manufacturing companies are
then faced with the question: new machine or upgrade? According to the Global
E-Waste Monitor, 53.6 million tons of electronic waste were collected worldwide
in 2019 alone. Upgrade old machines is more environmentally friendly and means
instead of buying new machines, companies can have existing systems and
equipment converted or retrofitted in order to bring them up to date. But the
challenge of what to do with the old components remain.

Recycling made easy: the
igus installation service also removes old parts

Whether new installation,
retrofit or maintenance of a machine, igus
supports recycling instead of disposal – and this can begin during upgrade
installation planning. With each new installation service order, the recycling
service is automatically offered, with no additional cost or effort for the
customer.

In four simple steps, igus
takes care of the old material. First, it removes the old energy chain,
dismantling it into smaller pieces for removal. igus can then organize the
return transport and logistics. The customer only must collect the old material
and prepare it for collection. The plastic parts are then recycled as part of igus’ chainge program,
which applies to both igus e-chains and third-party chains from other
manufacturers. Customers receive a voucher based on the weight of the chains.
The discarded plastics are sorted, cleaned and re-granulated so that the raw
material can be reused.

The customer receives everything
from the manufacturer from a single source – including a 36-month warranty on
the newly installed energy supply system.

With the igus
installation service, customers save assembly time and costs, benefit from very
short downtimes and use parts with a longer service life. This also leads to
fewer long-term failures.

A special online tool even allows
users to accurately calculate the installation time for their energy chain
system. “igus’s
goal is to save customers valuable time with the installation service, and at
the same time offer them a sustainable solution for disposing of used
materials,” says Justin Leonard, e-chain director at igus.
“With this scheme, we want to make a further contribution to the more
sustainable use of limited resources,”

igus recycling program picks
up speed

A company that specializes in
high-performance polymers, igus
has launched chainge,
a recycling program for energy and drag chains, which has already collected and
recycled over 32 tons of material worldwide. So far, 13 countries have
participated in the program: Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland,
France, China, Italy, Brazil, Malaysia, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic
and Spain.

“We are very pleased that
the chainge recycling
program is very popular with our customers and we’re confident that
we will be able to increase the results achieved so far in 2022 by 100% – if
not more – over 2022,” adds Leonard.

The chainge program,
owned by igus,
recycles old plastic into useful products or into the commercial recycling
market, and promotes a circular economy.

Pull quote

“53.6 million tons of electronic
waste were collected worldwide in 2019 alone.” Source: Global E-Waste Monitor
2017