Materials matter massively
GN News
Dec 13, 2024
At GN, we are immensely proud of the positive difference our products make to society and people’s lives. The materials we choose to use for our products can have a significant impact on the environment. So how do we work to ensure our materials are as sustainable as possible?
In this article, you’ll meet Seven Huang who works as a Mechanical Project Lead in our Xiamen office in China. She talks about the critical work the entire team does to continue to challenge the materials we choose to make sure we push ourselves into a more sustainable direction.
Research is the first step
It’s essential to carry out research to understand the pros and cons of the different materials and implement changes based on what we find out.
In the sustainability team, we research all materials extensively to make sure the materials we work with are actually more sustainable than the virgin material and therefore the right investment to work with.
Next, we test!
We test all new material and verify the performance comprehensively. We test for how it can be manufactured, how it looks, and how reliable it is.
When the validation is complete, we approve the materials to be used in our products. Since we started researching this in 2019, we have identified a suitable plastic containing 75% recycled material, which has already been deployed in 9 products.
Extending into other types of material
We have a target to use minimum 50% materials in new products by 2025 that meet our sustainability requirements, where this is feasible. To meet this target, we don’t just focus on plastics but also look into more sustainable alternatives for metals and fabrics. And within plastics, we are investigating more plastic types to satisfy the design requirements.
When designs challenge us
With increasingly light and slim designs, and high reliability requirements and not to mention various safety requirements, we have high performance requirements for the materials we choose.
Some properties of recycled materials may have more stringent requirements for design and manufacturing processes, such as a wide range of mechanical properties and a narrow manufacturing process window.
So how we meet all the design needs is a big challenge for us. In addition to design and process optimization and control, we have also developed some alternative environmentally friendly materials such as renewable and bio-based to meet the different design needs.
Who is part of the team working on this?
It’s a big cross-functional team working on the material searching and validation.
Every year, we will present the study scope to different stakeholders to make sure we are on the right path. It's teamwork to match our study to our customers’ needs.
The collaboration is central to making sure we make the right decisions at the right time. So a big thank you to everyone involved!
