CompositesWorld
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8 CompositesWorld Table 2 Recycled carbon fibers in SMCs Recycled carbon fbers also have been adapted in forms that can be used in sheet molding coumpounds (SMCs). Source | ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd. COMPOSITES: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE JULY 2016 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Frazer Barnes is managing director of ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd. (Coseley, Dudley, UK), part of the ELG Haniel Group, where he is responsible for developing the business into a global leader in carbon fber recycling. Barnes started his career working for SP Systems (now Gurit, Isle of Wight, UK), and more recently worked in the UK, US and China for Cytec Engineered Materials (now Cytec Solvay, Woodland Park, NJ, US), and at Hengshen Carbon Fibre (Jiangsu, China). the total use of carbon fber in these developing markets. From the environmental standpoint, reducing waste and reusing materials that have a high embedded energy, and which can be recycled in an energy-efcient manner, is the right thing to do, from a social responsibility point of view. It also is a legislative requirement in some countries. Finally, there's the question of the growth forecasts for carbon fber. It has taken the industry 15 years to add 40,000 MT of carbon fber manufacturing capacity. If the demand forecasts are to be believed, the next 40,000 MT of capacity must be added in the next 5 years. Making use of high-cost materials that, today, are consigned to landfll can be part of the solution to flling the antici- pated gap between supply and demand. In summary, a number of companies across the globe have developed cost-efective solutions to carbon fber recycling, and an initial range of products now available for the compounding and composites industries. Te time is right for the industry to work together, to move recycling from the fringes to its rightful place as an integral part of the carbon fber market. In doing so, we improve the cost and the environmental footprint of our busi- nesses, create additional and sustainable supply chains for critical raw materials, and help the overall carbon fber composites industry grow. Properties of Recycled Carbon Fiber SMC Reinforcement 40% Recycled Carbon Fiber Density (gcm -3 ) 1.40 Tensile Strength (MPa) 370 Tensile Modulus (GPa) 33.3 Flexural Strength (MPa) 650 Flexural Modulus (GPa) 41.7 T g (°C) 151 High Density Urethane Tooling Board and Core Material (800) 845-0745 • www.precisionboard.com • Closed cell structure • No out-gassing • 15 standard densities • Low-to-no dust machining • Exceeds aviation flammability standards Make it Precision Board Plus New Material! Low-to-no dust! See the 22-second machining video on our website