The pursuit of the perfect plastic film

The RENOLIT Group is an international leader in the manufacture of high-quality plastic films and related products for technical applications. Its commitment to the continuous development of film technology has made it one of the most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany.

IN the 67 years since Renolit was established in the German city of Worms in 1946 this independent family-owned business has been setting benchmarks for quality and innovation. It now employs a workforce of approximately 4500 at more than 30 production sites and sales entities on four continents. With its worldwide distribution network, RENOLIT is a global player in the film industry. Specialized know-how for manufacturing RENOLIT film products is concentrated in every plant. Manufacturing to international standards guarantees consistently high product quality at all locations.

RENOLIT thermoplastic films provide furniture, building components and consumer electronics with a decorative surface finish; they also seal roofs and underground structures and line swimming pools. The company produces films and tubes for medical applications and recyclable composite panels incorporating natural fibres for the building sector and automotive industry. RENOLIT film is also used as a key material for office management supplies, in the interiors of vehicles, in self-adhesive products for the graphic design and labelling industry and in technical products.

The RENOLIT brand stands for unequalled technical expertise and advanced product design as well as a mutually beneficial service with application engineering consulting. All production is carried out with state-of-the-art machines and the latest process technologies, backed up by a sophisticated quality control system.

Maintaining the momentum

Renolit is well aware that these days the innovative momentum of a company largely decides its long-term success. Becoming and remaining a market and innovative leader like RENOLIT requires a constant willingness to innovate. This includes the willingness to permanently embrace new technologies which precursor technology advances in the whole industry.

However, innovations are never an end in themselves for RENOLIT. The focus is always

on customer benefit and the added value generated by these developments. Ultimately, RENOLIT products and the technologies used must satisfy the demands of society and do justice to the interest of the environment.

According to the German all-industry company ranking “Top 100”, RENOLIT is among the 100 most innovative medium-sized companies. A think-tank like RENOLIT HORIZON along with the knowledge platform RENOpedia and an intensive idea management which draws on the latest methods are the basis for the permanent development of new ideas. The innovative momentum of RENOLIT is also highlighted by advanced services such as Colour Road, an innovative colour and design trend service which RENOLIT offers its customers.

Material of the month

A good example of this continuing innovation is RENOLIT GORCELL, a lightweight, resistant, easy-to-process, cost-competitive and recyclable material that is being used in an increasing number of sectors, as interior trimming, wall cladding, furniture or flooring. The numerous positive characteristics of RENOLIT GORCELL have now been discovered by Material ConneXion Cologne. The Colognebased material reference library has presented the composite from RENOLIT with the first Material of the Month Award 2013.

Karsten Bleymehl, Director Library & Materials Research at Material ConneXion Cologne, was impressed by RENOLIT GORCELL: “The novel technology enables the customer-specific, energy and resourceefficient manufacture of lightweight honeycomb cores and sheet stocks which can be fully recycled (mono-material). Subsequent thermoforming of the composite opens up a multitude of new application opportunities.”

RENOLIT GORCELL is a combination of RENOLIT composites and an ultra-light honeycomb core. These honeycomb structures

are very strong and also waterproof. Customers then use thermoforming processes to manufacture complex elements which are both lightweight and resistant. By combining it with non-wovens, anti-scratch films, various fibres or decorative RENOLIT films, RENOLIT GORCELL is highly versatile and offers completely new design opportunities for constructional elements. Furthermore, such components can be cost-effectively manufactured and later fully recycled.

Environmental responsibility

As a leading international manufacturer of high-quality plastic films and products and as a major employer in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan region, RENOLIT is aware of its responsibilities for the environment, society and its own employees. RENOLIT puts these responsibilities into practice with active participation in industry and regional initiatives as well as with in-house initiatives to maintain its competitiveness. Examples of these include VinylPlus, a sustainability initiative by the PVC industry, a working group “PVC und Umwelt e.V. (AgPU)” an initiative whose objective is combining the interests of PVC and environmental protection and the association “Zukunft Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar e.V.” which aims to develop the quality of life and the economic strength of the region

VinylPlus, the European PVC industry sustainable development programme, had a record 362,076 tonnes of PVC recycled last year, keeping it on track to meet the challenge of recycling 800,000 tonnes per year by 2020.

Innovative technologies to recycle difficultto-treat PVC waste are under currently evaluation and significant efforts have been made to address the ‘legacy additives’ issue related to the presence of restricted chemicals in recycled PVC.

In 2012, VinylPlus registered a decrease of 76.37 per cent in lead stabiliser consumption in the EU-27 compared to 2007 levels, well on track to complete the substitution by the end of 2015.

These and more results of 2012 were presented at the Vinyl Sustainability Forum 2013 in Istanbul. n