Katharina Prammer

Katharina has been working at Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid for 6 years, starting in the department for surface technologies and R&D. Since 2020, she has worked more on sustainability topics and EcoDesign for decorated parts and is part of the “Wekstoffforum der Zukunft (Future Materials Forum)” focusing on sustainability project along the value chain.

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Presentation

Sustainability of surface decorated parts

How sustainable can coated materials be? Can they be sustainable at all? Recyclability is one of the major topics these days but is very complex when it comes to coated or decorated components. But what are the main drivers in calculating the carbon footprint of a component? Is recycling the only key factor? Do process chains and high durability maybe even compensate for the lower recyclability? These are some of the leading questions that are currently investigated in various projects at the Kunststoff-Institut in Lüdenscheid. How to calculate the footprint combined with investigations on processes and influencing factors will lead to a holistic understanding of how to make coated components more sustainable without a negative influence on quality and design.