What is the challenge here in particular?
Meyer zu Drewer: Grass fibre is a natural product that is subject to the fluctuations of growth in climatic conditions. In recent years, for example, only two cuts per season were feasible. Although grass is a very robust plant, the yield and quality per hectare can vary. On the one hand, this makes planning for the future quite challenging, especially since we have to forecast demand a year in advance. On the other hand, we have to match production to fibre quality in order to guarantee a consistent quality of the fibres.
For which processing methods is the material suitable? Where is it used specifically?
Meyer zu Drewer: Our natural fibre-reinforced plastic AgriPlast is suitable for both injection moulding and extrusion. Experience has shown that in injection moulding the fibre content is 30-50 %, while in extrusion higher grass fibre amounts of up to 75 % can be processed.
AgriPlast is ideally suited for the injection moulding of various consumer goods, such as clothes hangers, stacking boxes, pens, lipstick tubes, design objects such as furniture handles, or decking boards.