Designed and manufactured to withstand high mechanical stress and demanding operational environments. The unit has undergone comprehensive mechanical stress, impact, and structural resistance testing protocols to guarantee performance and durability.
Description: The PITS project improves plastic identification in recycling plants by delivering a hyperspectral camera with application‑specific AI to enhance material separation and recycling quality. This solution allows a 99% identification accuracy on targeted plastics even in mixed and contaminated waste streams.
Markets/materials: Plastic and textile recyclers, sorting centres and industrial sites. Particularly interesting for mixed, multilayer, textile and rubber-related streams.
Replication: Adapt knife geometry to the machine, throughput and contamination profile; validate lifetime and energy use under site conditions.
Business case: A retrofit-compatible solution with fewer
Description: SMART-MOLD bridges the "data-operational gap" in injection molding by synchronizing real-time machine telemetry with manual work orders through an open analytical platform, enabling the zero-defect manufacturing essential for the circular plastics value chain.
Markets/materials: Injection-moulding SMEs and larger manufacturers in automotive, appliances, packaging, consumer goods and technical parts; especially valuable for variable recycled feedstocks
Replication: Connect heterogeneous machines and sensors, and harmonise data
Business case: Anomaly detection and process optimisation reduce downtime, increase predictive
Description: The project proposes an automated system based on NIR (Near-Infrared) technology, multispectral imaging, and machine learning algorithms to identify and classify plastics with high precision.
Markets/materials: Recyclers, compounders and manufacturers in automotive, electrical/electronic, appliance and technical-plastics value chains.
Replication: Build a site-specific library (colour, surface, contamination etc.).
Business case: Higher feedstock purity and traceability improve recycled-material quality and access to demanding applications.
Description: CLARA addressed this gap by developing an accessible intelligent vision system, combining advanced AI monitoring, vision transformers, and depth sensing to enable robust plastic classification through a user-friendly interface, with a strong focus on affordability, simplicity, and adaptability.
Markets/materials: Recyclers, sorting centres and manufacturers handling recurrent plastic side-streams that can be differentiated by visual and geometrical features.
Replication: Train the system on representative site data and integrate suitable conveyor and ejection equipment.
Business case: Affordable, modular automation can replace or assist manual sorting, improve consistency
Description: MOIK addressed rapid wear and corrosion of industrial shredding knives in plastics recycling by applying circular metallization using recycled Inconel powder to extend tool lifetime and improve process stability
Markets/materials: Plastic recyclers, knife manufacturers, maintenance providers and recycling-equipment OEMs.
Replication: Validate coating compatibility, wear and corrosion resistance.
Business case: Refurbishment extends tool life, reduces maintenance and thus reduces costs and increases sustainability. Supports a “made in EU” service-based circular business model.
Description: TRO developed and validated powder metallurgy cutting knives (PM steel) for granulator that last 2–3× longer than conventional tool steel alternatives, reducing downtime and total tooling cost for recycling operators at the granulation and size-reduction stage of the plastics recycling value chain.
Markets/materials: Mechanical recyclers, waste processors, compounders and shredder/granulator OEMs.
Replication: Adapt knife geometry to the machine, throughput and contamination profile; validate lifetime and energy use under site conditions.
Business case: A retrofit-compatible solution with fewer knife changes, less downtime.
Modular, lightweight storage box featuring thin-wall flow optimization and high stiffness.
Consumer showcase part injected to demonstrate uniform dispersion of organic cellulose fibers.
Medical/wellness device housing injected with biocomposite achieving precise micrometric fit.
Functional internal component successfully validated under cyclic washing thermal protocols.
Flexible, snap-fit modular fasteners verified to resist chemical stress-cracking from detergents.
Highly rigid protective housing validated mechanically to withstand constant motor vibrations.
Strong potential for further product integration across multiple caravan and vehicle models.
Good processability during standard injection moulding under highly stable process conditions.
Casing manufactured from high-strength material resistant to continuous heat deflection.
Flawless aesthetic and visual validation achieved for railway passenger cabin interiors.
Structural load-bearing element injected with cellulose-reinforced biocomposite without compromising strength.
Successfully processed under standard industrial conditions without warp or leakage.