The Aachen-based company W. Köpp produces, processes and trades in cellular rubber, polyethylene foam and sponge rubber. The products are used in many areas of industry, including the packaging industry and the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors.
Institutions such as the Deutsches Museum and the Louvre in Paris have already sold their valuable artefacts. in material from Köpp and sent on their way well protected. Customised solutions Köpp materials are also used for protection and padding for individual components in automotive engineering and other industrial sectors, e.g. for high-quality electrical appliances or a wide variety of glass. Köpp material can even be found in the aerospace industry (Ariane rocket).
For several years now, the company has been working on Products and production processes more sustainable and at the last plastics trade fair K in Düsseldorf launched the campaign „Hand in Hand with Nature“ started. We have worked with Marketing and Sales Manager Axel Wynands about how the company is positioning itself for the future.
pj: Mr Wynands, your company supplies many sectors. Which products from your portfolio are of particular interest to the packaging industry?
Axel Wynands: It is above all our Polyethylene and cellular rubber qualities, which are used in the packaging sector. Köpp is the only company in Europe, that produces both. With us, customers always find the right material to transport their goods safely - from simple load carriers to complex items such as paintings or car parts.
The polyethylene qualities produced for the packaging sector can be customise and deliver them contour-cut, punched, water jet-cut, as slabs, blocks, strips or sheets, just as the customer wishes.
Cellular rubber qualities are also used in the packaging sector due to their High mechanical load capacity and Good compression set for heavy construction or concrete components, for example. Our Koeppcell cellular rubber are manufactured using an expansion process on the basis of natural and/or synthetic rubbers.
pj: Conventional plastics are not having an easy time on the market at the moment. How important is the topic of sustainability in your company?
Axel Wynands: We have been working for years to improve our Products increasingly sustainable design. In the cellular rubber sector, for example, we use, among other things Raw material from renewable raw materials. The situation is similar with polyethylene: Here we can use PE, which Not mineral oil-based is. For example, at last year's K plastics trade fair, we produced the first blocks from renewable raw materials in our laboratory for both rubber and plasticising oils. We are currently transferring this experience to polyethylene. Here, too, we are already seeing the first results.
For us, however, acting sustainably also means always the entire production cycle right through to waste. Residual material can, for example, be shredded and compacted. for other applications or it is recycled and reintroduced into the production process. We want to be pioneers when it comes to sustainability - hence the current „Hand in Hand with Nature“ campaign.
pj: However, not all materials can be converted to plant-based raw materials. Are there other options?
Axel Wynands: In the long term, thehe circular economy strategy lead to the fact that more and more substances after use chemically recycled can be produced. The production of chemical raw materials from CO2 or the processing of used plastics into a purified pyrolysis oil are already showing the way. These raw materials can be fed into the existing large chemical parks at the beginning and thus replace the oil used today. In the medium to long term, we will be able to do this, all necessary raw materials sustainably to produce.
As a first step towards greater sustainability, two years ago we certified one of our polyethylene products to the strict regulations of the „Blue Angel“ certified.
With K/PE 30 we now have the first Block foam polyethylene in the portfolio that fulfils these strict requirements for emissions and pollutants. Koeppcell K/PE30 is the only PE foam in the world to have received this award.
pj: How does this go down with your customers?
Axel Wynands: The „Blue Angel“ is not yet so well known abroad, but from customers in Germany, our main market, we receive a lot of positive feedback. consistently positive feedback on the certification.
pj: You have a very broad portfolio of conventional and sustainable products. What does that mean for your customers?
Axel Wynands: Köpp used to be a trading company, but it was only about ten years ago that we started our own large-scale production. We wanted to Independent of suppliers and are pleased to have achieved this. Today, we always find the right and best solution for our customers. As we offer the complete portfolio, we don't have to push customers towards a particular product. This is a great advantage and significantly shortens the entire process from enquiry to delivery.
[infotext icon]About W. Köpp
The headquarters of the company, which was founded over 85 years ago, is still located in Aachen. At the German branch in Bovenden near Göttingen, all manufactured material qualities are developed, tested and monitored in a fully equipped laboratory. Since 2012, Köpp has been operating another production site with its own laboratory in Romania with its wholly owned subsidiary SC Koepp Romania S.R.L. Since 2011, there has also been another production site with the 50:50 joint venture Roop Koepp Foam Technologies in New Delhi, India. W. Köpp currently employs around 350 people worldwide[/infotext].
