AVK Innovation Award 2023
STFI takes third place in two categories each
The renowned Innovation Award for Fibre Reinforced Plastics of the AVK – Industrievereinigung Verstärkte Kunststoffe e.V. was presented this year in Salzburg. The award goes to companies, institutes and their partners in each of the three categories "Products and Applications", "Processes and Methods" and "Research and Science" for outstanding innovations with fibre-reinforced plastics. Criteria such as level of innovation, degree of realisation and sustainability are evaluated. STFI was nominated in two categories and was awarded third place in each.
"HiPeR – High Performance Recycled Carbon Fiber Materials" (3rd place, category: Products and Applications).
The aerospace industry is increasingly relying on carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). These valuable fibres from production waste or end-of-life components can be recovered on a large scale using pyrolysis. However, widespread use of these recyclates has not occurred to date due to the price-performance ratio: The effort required to recover the carbon fibres results in an unattractive price. Due to the relatively low performance of the length-reduced fibres compared to continuous virgin carbon fibres, the achievable performance is in a range that is unattractive for high-performance applications. The aim of the project consisting of German and Japanese project partners, led by CTC GmbH, was to improve the price-performance ratio of recycled carbon fibre semi-finished products through a high degree of fibre alignment. With extremely promising mechanical parameters and several full-size aircraft demo components, the basic feasibility was convincingly demonstrated.
Project partner:
Composites Technology Center GmbH (CTC GmbH), Faserinstitut Bremen e.V., Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI), C.A.R. FiberTec GmbH, CFRI Carbon Fiber Recycle Industry Co., Ltd., IHI Logistics and Machinery Corporation, ICC Kanazawa Institute of Technology
"VliesSMC – recycled carbon fibres with a second life in the SMC process" (3rd place, category: Research and Science)
In the VliesSMC project, the researchers succeeded in embedding recycled carbon fibres in the form of nonwovens or unbonded nonwoven layers in an SMC semi-finished product and then enabling processing in the impact extrusion process. In this way, nonwoven-based SMC semi-finished products can be used for the production of complex components with high degrees of forming and stiffening elements. Together with a project committee of 25 industrial partners, the research partners were able to demonstrate that the SMC semi-finished products developed can be manufactured more cost-effectively than products made of primary material available on the market and that they offer equivalent or even improved performance. The results were not developed on a laboratory scale, but were already validated on a pilot plant scale and a big step was taken towards feasibility.
Project partner:
Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut (STFI) with the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT)