Luminaire lens are made from recycled plastic
A range of lens made from recycled plastic has been unveiled by chemical giant Röhm.
The components, which contain 30 per cent recycled PMMA, have a 30 per cent lower carbon footprint than standard, says the firm. The material – Plexiglas proTerra M5 – has already been used by Ridi in its Linia Evo light.
‘Our proTerra M5 moulding compound contains up to 30 per cent mechanically recycled PMMA from post-industrial sources, which is mixed with new Plexiglas in a controlled manner,’ Christian Bitsch, Röhm’s senior market tech consulting manager told the Circular Lighting Report.
‘At BWF Profiles, the processed materials alone account for nearly 80 per cent of the company’s carbon footprint,’ says Nico Sonntag, materials development engineer at components supplier BWF Profiles. ‘That’s why the company places such a lot of value on using resource-efficient materials and handling them sparingly – for example, by wasting as little material as possible when starting the extruder and by returning production waste directly to the internal recycling process.’
‘We had discussed possible approaches for the sustainable production of light covers,’ adds colleague Florian Bisle, director innovation and development. ‘We rejected the option of procuring mass-balanced material, and instead devised a solution based on a direct circular economy, which meant that we had to test various recompounded materials.
‘The prerequisite was that we obtained recycled materials without any inclusions or unwanted black specks. Plexiglas proTerra M5 convinced us with its high purity.’
PMMA plastic can be completely recycled time and again while maintaining virtually identical material properties. Its exceptional optical properties are also retained.
The optical components for the concept study on the Ridi Linia Evo continuous-row lighting system contain around 78 per cent proTerra M5. In order to achieve the light and production-related properties that Ridi was looking for, BWF Profiles co-extruded the 60-millimetre-wide profile with two PMMA products from Röhm. The centrally positioned TIR lens consists entirely of proTerra M5.
As with other crystal-clear Plexiglas moulding compounds, it possesses exceptionally high light transmission with virtually no absorption of visible light in the material, says Röhm.
The profile base, the crosspieces which hold the circuit board in place and the lateral snap-in hooks must withstand high mechanical stresses so Plexiglas Resist with a higher impact resistance is used in this segment instead.
• Learn more about sustainable lighting at Circular Lighting Live 2025, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition, which takes place on Thursday 25 September 2025 at the Minster Building in the City of London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2025 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. More info: www.circularlighting.live
