RECYCLED CARBON FIBRES, A VALUABLE REINFORCEMENT IN SHORT FIBRE COMPOSITES

摘要

This work presents preliminary findings from the European project REVALUE (REcycled carbon fibres for high VALUE composites), funded in the framework of KIC Raw Materials. The aim of the project is the development of injection moulding compounds for automotive applications obtained using recycled carbon fibres (RCF). Several issues have been faced in this project, including sizing of RCF coming from pyrolysis recovery processes, compounding and analysis of composite properties. Compounding of polyamide 6 and polypropylene with RCF for injection moulding has been performed considering the effect of a new sizing specifically developed and properly tuning the mixing parameters. Mechanical properties have been analysed accounting for fibre length and orientation in order to get the elastic constants and ultimate properties of an equivalent transversely isotropic lamina reinforced with aligned short fibres. These data can be then exploited at the design stage depending on the orientation of fibres resulting from the injection process.