The European Remanufacturing Network (ERN) hosted an event in Glasgow earlier this week.
The Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse (CRR) reported on the event, held on 13 and 14 September at the Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, hosted by the ERN with the workshop having aimed to “bring together leading industrial and academic partners from across Europe to share knowledge and best practice in remanufacturing processes across several sectors”. Collaborative workshops on “automation in remanufacturing processes, certification in remanufacturing standards, and a European remanufacturing action plan” also took place.
Finally, a tour of the lab at the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering was held, and CRR noted that the event had been “an opportunity for manufacturers to investigate how remanufacturing can boost their business or for established remanufacturers wanting to improve current processes”.
The ERN, which was created last year, is a European Commission scheme to “form, coordinate and support” remanufacturing activities throughout Europe, and is funded by the Horizon 2020 framework programme of the European Union. It held a networking event in late January, which saw it present and discuss the organisation’s recently-launched European remanufacturing study, before later holding a meeting in Grenbole, France in March and another in Kaunas, Lithuania.
After that, in May, it announced the launch of a digital toolkit for sharing “knowledge and expertise” from EU remanufacturers, before events, in Dubrovnik, Croatia in May and in Bergamo, Italy in June. CRR reported that the network “has been busy in the last few months”, with the workshops “held to hep existing and aspiring remanufacturers to learn more about remanufacturing best practice”.
These events also help attendees to learn about the “business, societal and environmental benefits of remanufacturing”, and are free to attend. The Recycler reported earlier this year that three new members joining the network included cartridge remanufacturing industry companies Armor, Bioservice and Recoll, joining fellow industry companies PRINTek and Printerland, who were already part of the ERN.
The network also offered members a free process assessment, with the Fraunhofer Project Group Process Innovation of the University of Bayreuth offering the opportunity to “get a two-day assessment of their remanufacturing operations”. The ERN’s formation of the European Remanufacturing Council, or Conseil Européen de Remanufacture (CER), was also announced earlier this year.