Realizing Sustainability
Making sustainable development possible
Sustainable action, management and production are the challenges of our time. The demands on products are continuously increasing, both from the regulatory side and due to more conscious consumer decisions. The demand for climate-neutral or at least more climate-friendly products is higher than ever. How can sustainable development be realized in concrete terms?
How do we integrate sustainability into your products and processes?
In order to be able to achieve sustainability goals in development, M.TEC Engineering solves the complexity of the requirements through systematic engineering. Sustainability at M.TEC means developing successful, functional and durable products. We solve this requirement through intelligent engineering with vision and method.
In every phase of product development at M.TEC, sustainability aspects are consistently regarded and considered. Truly good products are thought through responsibly from start to finish, beginning with the selection of materials through to production and distribution.
Sustainable product definition
When developing new products, M.TEC Engineering takes into account the complex interplay of product-specific material suitability, durability, manufacturability, recyclability and cost-effectiveness right from the start, i.e. in the definition phase. Preferably, we select low-impact materials that are biodegradable and/or can be returned to the recycling loop without any problems. When combining materials in certain products - so-called hybrid components - we always pay attention to the separability of the materials used in order to be able to guarantee optimum recyclability: So-called urban mining enables the materials to be reused without any loss of quality.
This is how we implement sustainability:
- Material selection
- Durability: use of durable components, durable design.
- Material properties: recyclable, renewable, biodegradable, pure, CO² footprint reduced
- Recyclability
- Resource and energy efficiency
- Reduction of material quantity, weight, number of parts
- Modularization of components Repair simplify / enable
- Low material mixing: material-saving exchange, single-variety material recycling
Sustainable development
In the conceptual design phase, M.TEC Engineering systematically analyzes the planned procedure with regard to sustainability aspects and thus optimizes it both economically and ecologically. Through our development system, we support the circular economy and offer both recycling and re-use consulting for repair and reprocessing of products and components.
This is how we implement sustainability:
- Cost analysis: Realize sustainability and economic efficiency at the same time
- Risk analysis: Error prevention saves resources
- Value stream analysis: calculate product impact, resource, energy consumption
- Reduce complexity increase reliability
- Interface definition: sensible placement of critical components
- "Impact" evaluation and use of components, material and manufacturing processes
Sustainable realization
To validate the chosen design, we apply high-level simulation and calculation to map the behavior of renewable and recycled material.
This is how we implement sustainability:
- In-house simulation and calculation department for validation before errors occur
- Validation on digital prototypes: Avoidance of physical prototypes to reduce material consumption
- Component manufacturing
- Use of environmentally friendly manufacturing processes
- Consulting on sustainable manufacturing process
- Reduction of scrap and material waste
- Assembly
- Avoidance of assembly aids
- Reduction of fastening elements
- Reduction of assembly complexity
- Risk minimization of assembly errors
- Transport
- Reduction of the transport volume
- Reduction and re-use or standardization of transport aids
- Optimization of the flow of goods
- Utilization
- Motivating the end customer to use the product for a long time
- Product individualization and expansion of the product application range through modularization
Achieving sustainability through innovation: M.OPT optimization processes
We try to avoid physical prototypes in order to keep raw material consumption as low as possible. Instead, with M.OPT we rely on new, AI-based technologies that realize amazing sustainability goals by means of component optimization using a digital twin:
- Realization of weight-reduced components
- Significantly shortened tool qualification
- Saving of resources
- Time saving
- Optimized part accuracy through warpage optimization
- Multiphysics optimization raises the potential for the use of alternative materials (e.g. poorly specified recyclates)
Sustainable series start-up
This is how we implement sustainability:
- End of Life
- Recycling & ReUse Consulting
- Consulting and concept development for repair and remanufacturing
- Integration of other product functions for "second life
- Simplification of disassembly and recycling
- Concept development for easier reuse of individual components
Our systematic and holistic development approach at M.TEC enables us to focus on sustainability aspects while simultaneously realizing economically attractive products. We develop sustainable products with the help of innovative technologies and thus secure a competitive advantage for our customers: through better, economically and ecologically sensible products that are thought through to the end.
Excursion: Sustainable plastics
As part of the Feddersen Group, we think sustainability beyond the raw materials we use. Nevertheless, it is also important to consider its environmental compatibility from the outset when selecting materials. Biobased or biodegradable plastics, such as those produced by the branch of AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, BIO-FED, in, have proven to be particularly suitable. Biobased plastics are produced based on renewable raw materials. With similar properties to conventional plastics, they can be stored under comparable conditions and processed on common plastics machines. Biodegradable plastics break down in various environments such as industrial composting, home composting, in the soil or in bodies of water.
The use of such sustainable plastics reduces dependence on fossil raw materials while significantly improving the carbon footprint of thei