The carbon fiber recycling demonstration project was launched on Earth Day on April 22, focusing on the reuse of carbon fiber components in the sports equipment industry. Business, Lineat Composites, University of Bristol and the UK National Composites Centre.
Fibres from broken or end-of-life carbon fibre components of sports equipment are recycled through the HiPerDif (High Performance Discontinuous Fibre) process developed by the University of Bristol, which rearranges the fibres into unidirectional prepreg tapes. The tapes will be supplied back to manufacturers within the league who will reuse the materials in new sports equipment. Early results from the demonstration showed that, in some cases, the new carbon fiber tape produced better results than the original virgin fiber.
The process is currently manual, with team members from Lineat Composites and University of Bristol researchers manually aligning the fibres. In the next phase of the project, a machine will allow Lineat to commercialize the process and align up to 80 billion fibers per day.
"Collaborations and alliances have been key drivers of this project," said the person involved. "We know that carbon fiber is often used heavily in sports, especially in high-end performance sports. However, carbon fiber is used in greater amounts in some other industries. This The demonstration project is the first step, and we are now keen to work with other sports and other industries to develop the next stage of the process."
