I am Jos. I’m working on research in circular economy and automotive sector, and I would like to know your point of view. If you accept, I’m going to record our conversation, transcribe it, and put the transcription with a pseudonym, not your real name, in a repository of text documents that will be used for the research. If we do this and you change your mind and no longer want to participate, get in touch with us and we will immediately remove your interview from the repository. I’m leaving you an information sheet with contact details after the interview, and please tell me your name and if you agree.
My name is Peter Weigand and I agree. Thank you.
Thank you Peter. So the first question, can you tell me a bit about your educational and professional background and interests?
My background is chemical engineering and in my profession I’m currently primarily in marketing for our thick film pastes and ceramic foil portfolio. And I have global responsibility for our automotive segment.
What is the area of your expertise?
The area of expertise is automotive, electronics, and everything that is associated with those products that we deliver into this market space.
The theme of this conference is The Future of Electronics Reshaped. What does what does the idea of reshaping electronics for the future mean to you?
Reshaping actually means in particular the the progression of of printed electronics. I mean, in the past we didn’t talk a lot about printed electronics, but it has become a dominant theme, which is also now penetrating the automotive industry in a way that we couldn’t actually anticipate, let’s say, even ten years ago or something like that. There is a game changer for, for this particular for automotive. Yeah.
What do you think is the relationship between electronics and sustainability?
There is a strong relationship. There is an increasing demand for sustainability. The entire value chain has to address it with products. With technologies. Yeah. And novel ideas. Yeah. Along the entire value chain, sustainability will be one of the major differentiators in the future. Yeah.
Can you define a circular economy in your own words?
Are a circular economy. Maybe there is. It is still certainly challenging. But for instance, for in-mold electronics, there are some. Let’s say there is some some trend into the into the right direction thinking about substrates which are which are biodegradable and which are recyclable recyclable. In our company in particular on the on the engineering polymer side, there is a very strong emphasis on our circular economy, on sustainability and also the recyclability of of certain materials. I think this is what what I can say about that. Yeah.
Do you participate in a circular economy yourself in any aspects of your life?
No, but I mean not personally, but with our work, we are supporting customers who are actually active, active in this field. But as I said, our company in in other areas has a very strong emphasis on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, reducing the ecological footprint, etcetera. So yeah.
Yeah. Let us talk about automotive sector. Do you think electronics can play a role in making the car industry more sustainable?
Yes, it it can. And I just want to get back on this example for In-mold electronics. When you look at this technology, the our materials are an enabler for this technology. And the technology has a very strong impact on sustainability, recyclability etcetera. Just due to the number of if you just take an example of an overhead console or any HMI module which you do in this technology, you’re saving space, weight and the number of components. So the total impact and the enabler of this technology has a very strong influence and an impact on sustainability. So the the answer is is yes. Yeah yeah yeah.
And regarding to the more circular, do you think electronics can play a role in making the car industry more circular?
I don’t have a lot of insight on that, to be honest, so I can’t comment too much on that. I’m sorry I have to skip skip this one. Yeah.
No problem. What can the automotive industry do, in your opinion, to promote circular economy? Or do they do this already?
Yes, I think and again I get back to this inward electronics since there is a lot of activity there. And just recently there was a conference where Mercedes and Stellantis were present, and you could see that there is a strong commitment to go, to go into this, to this direction. Yeah. Unfortunately, qualifications and new product introductions and automotive are a long, winding and very time consuming thing, but it has become quicker. I mean, when you compare it to the situation ten years ago, I mean the industry has become more agile. Yeah, but but not sufficiently yet I would say. Yeah. Yeah.