Extrusion International 3-2024-USA

51 Extrusion International 3/2024 How is your company responding to the current challenges for global supply chains? Westphal: Originally, our pro- duction operations were located in Bielefeld, and we shipped our products worldwide. Today, we are using our global production setup, and we are very proud of it. It makes us more independent of the uncertainties arising from global challenges while at the same time increasing efficiency and reducing costs. The decentral- ization of production also leads to shorter delivery distances and therefore fewer CO 2 emissions. In addition to digitization, sus- tainability is one of the key issues of the future in the industry. How do BST solutions help customers achieve more resource-efficient production? Westphal: Every system that we develop and produce for our cus- tomers makes a lasting contribu- tion to the optimization of the value chain and makes production itself more sustainable: it reduces scrap and makes it easy to see de- fects right away, so that they can be fixed quickly. Our technologies essentially aim to prevent waste: we want to not only signal sav- ings potential but also ensure that waste is either not created in the first place or else is reusable with proper sorting. For that purpose, for example, there is the coding of synthetic materials, and that can be identified by our automated in- spection systems. This reduces raw materials consumption and CO 2 emissions. With product features like this, we are making a clear contribution to climate protection. How does BST make sure that quality doesn’t suffer as a result of the use of recycled raw mate- rials? Westphal: Recycled materials are a very popular subject these days, and they are being used more and more often. Recycled plastic is dif- ferent from freshly produced plas- tic in both its outward appearance and qualitative features. In other words, there are different qual- ity grades involved. But there are also different requirements with respect to quality, and our systems are capable of automatically iden- tifying the quality involved during the material inspection. As a result, products can be produced at the quality levels desired to match the requirements at any given time. What is the most important is- sue facing the industry in the years ahead? Westphal: Digitization, without a doubt. We are already very well positioned in that regard, and our customers are already profiting from SMARTData. But like much else having to do with digitiza- tion, this is a process that we are continually optimizing and refin- ing, always for the benefit of our customers. Thank you for this interview. BST GmbH Remusweg 1, 33729 Bielefeld, Germany www.bst-gmbh.de