PhD defence on recycling
On October 3, 2019, researcher Guillaume Vincent will defend his PhD thesis in the field of recycling thermoplastic composite laminates.
The rise in applications and production of thermoplastic composites comes with increasing volumes of scrap. The high economic value of this scrap and legislative incentives are encouraging its recycling. A recycling solution has recently been implemented and comprises: shredding of scrap to flakes of 2-3 cm, blending of the flakes in a low-shear mixer, extrusion of a dough, followed by its transfer to a press for compression molding. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the role of processing in this recycling route. The main material properties and their relations to the various processing steps were identified and characterized. This work has resulted in processing guidelines for the recycling of thermoplastic composites.
The research has been performed at the Thermoplastic composites Research Center in cooperation with the Production Technology research group of Professor Remko Akkerman (University of Twente). This research is part of a collaborative project led by TPRC and TPAC/Saxion University of Applied Sciences, with the involvement of GKN Fokker, Toray Advanced Composites, Dutch Thermoplastic Components, Cato Composite Innovations and Nido Recyclingtechniek. The financial support of the Dutch Organisation of Applied Research - SIA (grant SIA-RAAK 2014-01-72PRO) is gratefully acknowledged.
Recently, recycled thermoplastic access panels saving weight, costs and production lead time were used for the Bell V-280 Valor, delivered by GNK Aerospace. Learn more about this project.
Contact us if you would like to receive more information on the recycling project.
