Interview with Estera Jamrozek, MAS Austria Area Sales Manager.
What do you mean by upcycling? How is it different from normal recycling?
Upcycling turns waste into a higher-quality product while recycling slightly decreases the quality of certain materials. MAS Austria stands for upcycling to the next level and is the trendsetter for plastics upcycling with efficient extrusion machinery and lines. Whether it's an individual machine or a full upcycling line, post-consumer upcycling or production waste upcycling, from regular plastics to high-grade extrusion of PET and other engineering plastics, from regrind to sheet or fiber - MAS realizes your extrusion technology requirements with tailor-made solution concepts.
MAS twin screw technology is specifically designed to meet the requirements of high-quality recycling and re-compounding processes.
You describe yourself as a trend-setting company in upcycling. Please tell us more about MAS Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Schulz GmbH.
MAS was founded in 2006 by the internationally renowned recycling pioneer Helmuth Schulz. Helmuth Schulz, with over 40 years’ worth of experience in plastics machine manufacturing, realized that the then market-wide established recycling machinery couldn’t sufficiently cover the quality standards of the future of recycling.
He developed the idea for the (patented) technology of conic twin-screw extrusion, one of the most important innovations in the mechanics of recycling in recent decades.
In 2017, Katharina Schulz took over as owner of MAS. The company displays continuity in owner structure; MAS is a family-owned business in its second generation.
Estera Jamrozek, MAS Austria Area Sales Manager
The production site in Austria is being continuously expanded, with a growing number of employees. At the head office of MAS, we combine know-how for solution-oriented technical sales and distribution, electrical and mechanical construction and development, software development, and process technology with the production of machines and equipment. We are proud to have established a core workforce of employees with long-term job tenure. Over the years, we have expanded internationally with local partners for distribution and technical equipment support.
The spirit of innovation, purposefulness, sustainable growth and trustworthiness to our partners have all left their mark on the history of MAS and are the foundation on which we continue to shape the company's further development. We strive to improve continuously in all areas to make our partnership with MAS even more attractive to our customers.
Helmuth Schulz, whom you mentioned, is the author of the unique technology of conical twin-screw extrusion. What are its characteristics?
The patented conical, co-rotating design of the processing unit features a large feed opening for processing a wide variety of plastics fractions, such as materials of the lowest bulk density, mill materials, flakes, new products, or fibers. Additives, filling materials, and fibers can be added directly via the feed opening without complicated and high-maintenance side dosing. These materials are processed into the polymer across the entire process length using the lowest screw rotation speeds while simultaneously purposefully applying energy. Thus, melting occurs with extremely gentle polymer treatment at maximum energy efficiency. Thanks to the purposeful application of power, one cooler blower at low performance in the metering section are sufficient to cool the processing unit.
