Technological watch

Austrian recycling specialist Erema says its new business unit Keycycle has received a warm welcome in the marketplace in the four months after being officially launched.

With the rising need for advice and integrated service solutions, Erema has clustered various areas that had hitherto been addressed separately into the new business unit which was launched with fanfare in June during the Erema Discovery Days in Ansfelden, Austria.

Keycycle offers engineering and integration services for plastics recycling systems. Furthermore, the unit supports customers in their early planning stage for new recycling plants and feasibility studies to integrate the appropriate recycling solution for them.

At the June launch event, Michael Prochazka, head of the Keycycle business unit explained the reasoning behind the creation of the new unit. “We saw that the value chain, as a whole, was not geared to one another. While in the future circular economy, things must mesh together.” He added that more players are entering the field and that the complexity of the new projects tackled by the company is rising. 

“Recycling projects are becoming increasingly complex because they have to interconnect a number of technologies,” he said. "For that companies need a high degree of system knowledge for industrial solutions, process know-how and experience in implementing large-scale projects."

Keycycle, according to Prochazka, merges 4 areas into 1 unit: whole system support; initial project phase support; overall process & project management experience and network building, with the latter referring to the company’s ability to work with what he termed  'big partners’. 

“The network is the key - not trying to do it alone,” Prochazka said. “We are talking about system integration with KraussMaffei, Berstorff, Amut, Coperion, Herbold, Lindner and more."

The range of services is geared towards both customers new to recycling and clients with existing facilities.

Michael Prochazka, sees the entire spectrum of engineering and integration services for plastics recycling solutions as the current focus of activities.

Also prominent are factory and logistics planning and project management on request, he explained. Projects today demand a coordinated and integrated approach that, if necessary, can encompass all aspects from pre-investment support to civil engineering. “And this is precisely what we offer our customers," he concluded.