Discarded VULKAN Products Re-Staged
WUXI VULKAN Technologies Co. Ltd, the Chinese subsidiary of the VULKAN Group, opened a new research and development center with modern workstations and additional capacity on the factory premises in WUXI in June 2023. As part of the renovation work, WUXI VULKAN used discarded products from its own production to make furniture for the new building as well as fitness equipment that employees can use for their training.
Unfortunately, individual scrap parts cannot be avoided in production. “Usually the value of recycling is very low and the costs of disposal are high,” says Dr. Jackie Li, Managing Director of WUXI VULKAN. Therefore, during the planning phase for furnishing the new building, he had the idea of converting discarded VULKAN products into furniture that could present the VULKAN portfolio and at the same time have a useful function. Rubber elements from clutches, mounts and brake parts were processed. “In this way, decorative and unique coffee and side tables were created,” which are used in the new research and development center.
With the experience gained from converting the scrap parts into pieces of furniture, the next step was to use discarded VULKAN products to create four different pieces of fitness equipment, including barbells and dumbbells, which were placed in the offices of the new building and can be used by customers and employees.
Positive Feedback from Employees and Customers
“The integration of VULKAN products into everyday objects leads to a higher level of identification with VULKAN and its own products,” Dr. Jacki Li is convinced. “In addition, regular exercise helps keep employees healthy. Training with fitness equipment that is reminiscent of VULKAN products is twice as much fun,” he says. The feedback from the workforce and customers was very positive.
This is one of the reasons why WUXI VULKAN plans to exhibit the fitness equipment at the VULKAN stand at Marintec 2025, a major marine trade fair in Shanghai, in order to promote interaction with customers and demonstrate the concept of sustainable development at VULKAN.