ProWiFa - Process for sustainable recycling of fiber composite systems

In all currently industrially considered recycling processes of fiber composites, these structures must be mechanically reduced in an upstream step due to the structure size in order to be able to subsequently feed them into a process that brings about the separation of high-performance fibers and the surrounding matrix.

Depending on the recycling process, different fiber yields, degrees of purity and mechanical fiber properties are obtained, so that direct reuse of the recycled fibers as a substitute for the original high-performance fibers is currently already ruled out due to the fiber geometry and the originally applied sizing, which creates adhesion with the surrounding matrix. Also, each process step along the recycling chain means that process energy has to be introduced.

The "ProWiFa" project takes up this initial position and has set itself the goal of optimizing the recycling process for high-performance fiber composites on the basis of mechanically introduced energy to subsequently convert the material systems obtained into fiber composites in combination with thermoplastic materials. With the optimized disintegration of the high-performance fiber composite systems, the focus here is on an evaluation of the necessary process conditions on the material depending on the upcoming further processing on shear-induced processes such as extrusion and injection molding, whereby further processing by means of additive manufacturing is also considered.