Successful PhD Defense Guillaume Vincent
For the past years, Guillaume Vincent has been shredding and mixing thermoplastic composite materials as a PhD student stationed at the ThermoPlastic composites Research Center (TPRC). On Thursday 3 October 2019 his work was rewarded by successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled: 'Recycling of Thermoplastic Composite Laminates: The Role of Processing'
The aim of this research is the role of processing in the recycling route of thermoplastic composites. Since the applications and production of thermoplastic composites are increasing, so does the 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 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). It was 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.
Learn more about the TPRC's core research program on recycling here.
