Resilient value chains – Resyst

The Fraunhofer Innovation Program “Resilient Value Creation Systems (RESYST)” shares the goal of providing for emergencies so production can continue. A secure supply of raw materials is high on their agenda. Germany has relatively few raw materials, which means that the future will be about ensuring that recycling is as complete and high-quality as possible. The new “reProd” approach shows how this could work for metallic substances. The abbreviation stands for “resource-independent production based on secondary products.” Rather than shredding scrap metal and smelting it down in an energy-intensive process, it aims to recycle secondhand components into secondary products and transform them directly into new components − for example, high-strength screws from drive shafts. Other possibilities for the secondary products are sheet metal, boards and tubes. “We want to recycle the material in a way that ensures the highest possible level of value creation,” says Markus Werner from Fraunhofer IWU. But the reProd application still has a way to go. First of all, waste flows in Germany have to be digitalized for it to reach its full potential. What secondary products are available? Where? In what volumes? And what is the quality like? All of this will be captured by digital twins to make production more independent in the future.