Carbon Fibre Recycling from Milling Dust for the Application in Short Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics

A new approach to reuse accruing chips and dust from milling operations of carbon reinforced plastics (CFRP) is studied, showing how CFRP milling dust, in comparison to primary and pyrolysed fibres, can find application as a filler material in thermoplastic granulates. Recent examinations show an overall better handling of milling dust when separating it into different classes of fibre lengths reaching up to 600 μm, which typically occur while machining reinforced plastics. Furthermore, the carbon reinforced polypropylene granulates have improved material properties, e.g. increased rigidity and tensile strength in dependence of their respective filler content towards non-reinforced plastics.