RUNCORN – Sigmatex, the UK-headquartered manufacturer of textile reinforcements to the composites industry, is launching a new recycled carbon fibre nonwoven fabric to the market.
The company has developed an energy-efficient process that enables the reprocessing of its internal waste, as well as that of its customers, into the new material, which is both versatile in its end-use applications and easy to process.
It is anticipated that this will lead to the avoidance of up to 500 metric tons of carbon fibre waste going to landfill each year by 2025.
The nonwoven is produced from high quality carbon fibre waste, with sizing intact, offering improved fibre-to-resin bond strength, with area weights from 100-600gsm. The highly conformable product is an isotropic material with excellent mechanical properties that can be debulked, improving processing via composite prepregging methods.
“One of the most important considerations when selecting a recycled carbon fibre product is the energy demand required to recover the carbon fibre before converting it into a fabric form for reuse,” said Paul McMullan, commercial director at Sigmatex. “While all recycled carbon methods are positive to the environment if they displace the use of virgin carbon fibre, some recovery methods are superior to others. Our process, unlike other recovery methods such as chemical or pyrolysis solutions, is an ultra-energy efficient recovery method that only uses around 10-20% of the energy demand of those alternative methods, making it product the best solution for environmentally conscious customers.”
Sigmatex will be at JEC World, Paris, Hall 6, stand G5 from March 3-5th 2020, and will be happy to discuss the benefits of the new product.
www.sigmatex.com
