EFFECTS OF FIBRE LENGTH AND LOADING ON ELECTROMAGNETIC SHIELDING OF THERMOSET COMPOSITE REINFORCED WITH VIRGIN OR RECOVERED CARBON FIBRES

摘要

The need for the recycling of polymeric composite materials has become an important requirement to guarantee their continued use and future growth. A fluidised bed process was used to recover carbon fibres from scrap epoxy prepreg. The fluffy recovered fibre was converted into a two dimensional veil using a papermaking process. The feasibility of developing an electromagnetic interference shielding material using the recovered fibre veil is presented in this paper. The effects of fibre length and loading on shielding performance were investigated using a similar grade of virgin carbon fibre. Overall, carbon fibre with length shorter than 14.4mm is preferable as good veil uniformity is easily attained to achieve a better shielding performance. The average shielding value of the recovered fibre veil was 12% lower than the 14.4mm long virgin fibre veil. An average shielding value of 41dB has been achieved using a layer of 80gsm recovered fibre veil.