The second life of carbon fiber
With the growth of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, Washington state has added a new carbon fiber regeneration center, and the local Boeing company has a huge demand for carbon fiber composite materials. Local officials held a ground-breaking ceremony for the composite materials recycling technology center on September 21. The center will develop new products based on carbon fiber composite preimpregnated materials. Jennifer States, the director of business development, told plastic news that the recycled carbon fiber produced tennis rackets and other sports and entertainment supplies. She stressed that the recycled material would not be used for aviation structural components. In the opening ceremony of the center for four days later, the neighboring Toray Composites north American companies [Toray Composites (America) Inc.] in Washington state for its massive expansion of presoak material factory held ceremonies to designed to meet the aviation market growing demand of the Composites. "The state of Washington is going to ditch two million pounds of carbon fiber preleaching each year," States said. Most of them are buried in landfill. Currently, there are about nine factories in the world that regenerate carbon fiber based on composite materials. The resale value, she estimates, is about $90 million, or about $45 per pound. Native carbon fiber presoak costs as much as $65 - $100 a pound. The States believe that lower prices for recycled preleaching are expected to persuade more companies to start experimenting with the material. The center, which covers an area of 25,000 square feet, is equipped with fresh cold storage space for unprocessed preleaching, States said. She added that the entire Washington state aviation community would be involved in the center. The main sources of unprocessed pre-leaching are Boeing, the aircraft giant, and materials supplier toray, Janicki Industries Inc., and Zodiac Aerospace SA. The center will eventually purchase unprocessed carbon fiber preleaching from companies other than the state. Doni recently spent millions of dollars expanding the carbon fiber presoak plant in Pierce county, Washington. The factory is close to Boeing's composite manufacturing plant. The dongli plant also supplies products to aerospace factories outside Washington state, and recently announced new orders with Bell Helicopter and Embraer SA. The factory employs more than 400 people and has pre-leaching supplies of sports and industrial applications. Boeing is a big customer of carbon fiber composites, which are used in Boeing 777s and 787 commercial aircraft. In 777-9x, the 12-foot wingtip can be folded because of the carbon fiber composite. When the aircraft is on the ground, the wing tip folds up so that the large aircraft can be used for existing airport facilities. Boeing, which makes composite wings at a large factory in Everett, wash., is equipped with three 120 feet of autoclave. Other original equipment manufacturers also use carbon fiber/plastic composites extensively. With the advantages of replacing other materials to reduce the weight of the aircraft, carbon fiber composites have a bright future. In addition, original equipment makers are churning out more planes to replace aging machines and to meet the overall growth of tourism. Boeing estimates that about 36,770 new aircraft will be produced between 2014 and 2033. Toray company in North America vice President Tim Kirk in the center of the regeneration of the foundation stone laying ceremony said: "with the carbon fiber composite materials constantly help transport system is the process of lightweight and improving energy efficiency, we have a responsibility to continue to focus on the entire lifecycle of our products." The new centre will also provide space for the peninsula college's advanced manufacturing - composite materials technology training course. Local, state and federal governments are spending $4 million to help build the nonprofit center.
