For a wide range of applications – e.g. in the aviation, wind power, automobile manufacturing and leisure industries – carbon fiber composites (CFK) are being increasingly used. When traditional fiberglass is replaced by carbon, product weight savings of up to 25 % can be achieved. However, the manufacture of carbon fiber is highly energy-intensive and expensive, and in the manufacture of CFK components 10–30 % waste loss is generally unavoidable. Therefore it is desirable to recover the recyclable carbon fiber contained in the waste material.

This has been done by CFK-Valley Stade Recycling GmbH & Co. KG in cooperation with the Kunststoff- Institut Lüdenscheid: the project partners developed a process by which the carbon fiber contained in composite materials waste, production waste or »end- of-life« products can be recycled and transferred to new, highquality carbon fiber products. The CFK waste is first treated in such a manner that it can be processed in a pyrolysis installation. Through special process control the polymer matrix is pyrolized and the carbon fiber is recovered in the form of loosely intertwined, two- dimensional bundles. 

Compacting the material into »fiber balls« 

The subsequent challenge was to put the recycled fiber into a form suitable for further procesing. The solution was found to be grinding the fiber to a fine consistency and compacting it into small fiber balls. These fiber balls are free-flowing and can be introduced into new compounds dust-free and, therefore, used in fiber-reinforced plastics. The compounds  manufactured thus can be further processed in injection molding- and extrusion procedures.

Project implementation:
CFK Valley Stade Recycling GmbH & Co. KG
Stader Straße 55-63
21737 Wischhafen
Telefon:    04770 | 801-217
info@cfk-recycling.com
www.cfk-recycling.com

Cooperation partner:
Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid
(Kunststoff-Institut für die mittelständische Wirtschaft NRW GmbH)
mail@kunststoff-institut.de
www.kunststoff-institut.de

AZ 30692