Denso Corporation, Toray Industries, Inc., Nomura Research Institute, Ltd., Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Matec Inc., and Rever Corporation have joined forces to createthe BlueRebirth Council. Initiated by these six companies, the council aims to build a manufacturing and recycling integrated value chain to realize car-to-car recycling, starting with automated precision dismantling, which efficiently disassembles end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) for material recovery and recycling.
The partnership addresses challenges faced by the automotive industry as it has sought to transition to a circular economy to help realize a sustainable society. Efforts to reduce the use of natural resources through conversion to recycled materials have been challenged by limited high quality materials,a lack of collaboration between manufacturing and recycling industries and inadequate supply volumes for mass production.
The BlueRebirth Council aims to address these challenges and, looking ahead to 2035, evolve the automotive recycling industry into a “recycled materials manufacturing industry” that plays a key role as part of a new resource-circulating value chain within the automotive industry. Through these efforts, the companies behind the council are committed to realizing a true Car-to-Car recycling system.
More specifically, the counil will engage in discussions and research, as well as advance technology development and demonstration projects together with participating companies, research institutions, and other stakeholders, starting with the automated precision dismantling of ELVs to build a manufacturing and recycling integrated value chain. In addition, we will make recommendations to relevant companies and organizations.
Automated precision dismantling is an advanced intelligent system that utilizes AI and sensor technologies to enable robots to operate along the optimal path even for deformed parts. This not only ensures the quality and volume of recycled materials that were difficult to achieve with conventional methods, but also contributes to fundamentally solving worker shortages.
Furthermore, by recording information such as material provenance and environmental impact on a digital platform and sharing it across the manufacturing and recycling value chain, we can ensure a reliable and stable supply of recycled materials.
