REVscene Automotive Forum - Researchers Finally Figure Out How to Reuse Carbon Fiber

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Researchers Finally Figure Out How to Reuse Carbon Fiber

Will this bring down carbon fiber costs? to low low low low low...

Roadandtrack.com:

Quote:

Carbon fiber is both strong and light, making it ideal for use in performance cars. Unfortunately, it's also expensive, and (until now) difficult to reuse or recycle. But while companies are still working hard to bring down the cost, the recycling issue may have just been solved.

Researchers at Georgia Tech recently discovered that they could dissolve the epoxy that holds carbon fiber together by soaking a piece in an alcohol solvent. Once that's dissolved, the carbon fibers and the epoxy can be separated and reused.

And according to the team, there's no limit to the size of the carbon fiber piece that can be dissolved. That could allow it to be scaled up and used to reduce the thousands of tons of wasted carbon fiber produced every year.

We'll have to wait and see if reducing waste has a noticeable impact on the cost of carbon fiber, but it's at least a step in the right direction.

Researchers Finally Figure Out How to Reuse Carbon Fiber

most carbon fiber parts out there are fiberglass parts with WET CARBON layer on top of it.
those cheap "carbon fiber" bodykits are just fiberglass.

Is this for DRY CARBON that's been used for race cars? then I'd be impressed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timpo (Post 8782706)

The article is not talking about that.

it's talking about recycling real carbon fibre (close to 100%) or any carbon fibre portion of a car part (not the fiberglass or plastic or whatever).

will you put used carbon fiber parts on your car? probably not as cheap as you think.

Consider that the automotive uses of carbon fiber are miniscule compared to the aerospace industry. Boating, cycling, sporting goods, and filtration are also huge users of CF. This is a step in the right direction, and after seeing how they do it, it's such a simple process to seperate the fibers.

neat.