Recycling carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites

Advanced composite materials are being used more and more in structural applications, which raises the question of the disposal of this kind of material. In this paper two different possibilities for recycling carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites are presented. One approach focuses on the grinding of thermoplastic composites in order to use the various grinding fractions as a high-quality reinforcing material in injection molds or as press molding compounds. The manufacturing processes investigated are suitable to reuse fiber-reinforced thermoplastic waste. The properties evaluated are on the same level as comparable injection molding materials. Another approach investigated for reusing thermoplastic carbon-fiber-reinforced composite parts is a reforming process. The reforming experiments performed did not change the material properties evaluated.