Composites materials andtheir recycling · PDF fileComposites materials and their recycling ... The first road car to feature a full CFRP monocoque was the McLaren F1 (Figure 8) designed

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Composites materials andtheir recycling

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Citation: PAGE, T., 2016. Composites materials and their recycling. i-manager's Journal on Material Science, 4 (2), pp. 37-51.

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i-manager’s Journal o Vol. l ln Material Science, 4 No. 2 July - September 2016 37

composite has been more successful. Newly founded car

company Zenos Cars, has decided to use recycled CFRP in

the construction of their E10 sports car, and an informal

interview and case study was conducted. Informal

interviews in the automotive and marine industry have

reported their considerations, perspective and the

challenges they face. In the United Kingdom, the government

looks to organise the recruitment of professionals and

researchers in the form of Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN)

and Composites UK have provided information and

networking. Car companies have responded by forming

partnerships with composite manufacturers to pool their

research and knowledge, as well as to secure supply

chains. The main objectives are to: assess the use of

composites; understand the problems of recycling (the

materials in question); consider the impact of the end of life

directive; and gauge the response from automotive and

marine industry to recycling.

The aims are to explore the increased use of GFRP and

CFRP composites, how advances in research have

enabled techniques to be refined for mass production,

analysing if these advances has meant that research into

recycling composites has kept pace with the growing

application of composite materials recycling, and assess

their current use. Coming to an understanding of how

current and upcoming legislation such as the end of life

INTRODUCTION

Composites have been used for a relatively short amount

of time but the properties they offer of weight saving and

offering increased strength; have arguably transformed

the approach to design in both the automotive and

marine industry. Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) has

made boat ownership more affordable to a wider section

of people. In the automotive industry, the use of GFRP and

later Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) has influenced

the design of firstly racing cars and then this knowledge has

trickled down into the mass produced models.

However, little attention was paid to the problems of

recycling. Legislation to cut emissions and increase fuel

efficiency has increased the need for and use of

composites, but the ELV directive has also placed the

responsibility of recycling directly with the automotive

industry. The industry has appeared to be reluctant and

slow to respond but high land fill taxes have provided the

financial incentive for investment in research. Germany has

lead the way in this field and has a healthy commercial

GFRP and CRFP industry several years ahead of the UK.

Meanwhile in the UK, Hambleside Danelaw, a manufacturer

for the building industry and Filon, who also make GFRP

products for the construction industry; have made advances

in recycling composite waste from their own roofing products.

Due to the high value of CFRP, the recycling of this

By

TOM PAGE

COMPOSITES MATERIALS AND THEIR RECYCLING

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an assessment of the growing use of Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic and Carbon Fibre Reinforced

Plastic composites in the automotive and marine industry through the decades to current use. This report investigates

how legislation such as the End of Life of Vehicles (ELV) will force the automotive industry to prepare for end of life

recycling and gauge their progress with the aid of reports from the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and Stella Job, who

is Supply Chain and Environment Officer for the UK trade association Composites UK, outlining the process of pyrolysis and

solvolysis, with the aid of informal industry interviews and a case study at a small British sports car manufacturer to

consider the practical work required.

Keywords: Composite Materials, Recyclability, Life Cycle.

Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School, United Kingdom.

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The process of producing carbon fibre is a fairly

complicated and lengthy process in comparison to glass

fibre; this is one of the reasons for the difference in cost. The

starting material is a precursor based on acrylic fibres.

Several complex oxidation and carbonisation processes

convert the precursor into carbon fibres; the exact processors

are considered closely guarded trade secrets. The

precursor is drawn into long fibres (as seen in Figure 2), and

heated to reduce the composition of the fibres to consist of

carbon atoms with a purity rating of over 95%. The fibres are

collected into bobbins just like the glass fibre. The carbon

fibre bobbins can also be produced into woven,

unidirectional, braided and chopped matt configurations,

just like the glass fibre.

The 1953 Chevrolet Corvette (Figure 3) was the first mass

produced production car to be made from GFRP, it was a

revolutionary material that worked well as a USP (Unique

Selling Point) over its competitors. The body and all of its

panels were produced from the material, with a steel

directive will affect their use especially in relation to

recycling. Gauge how the industry has developed

commercial recycling of composites with an outline of the

process of pyrolysis and solvolysis and assess how the

industry is prepared for future increase use of composites

and therefore increased need for recycling.

1. Literature Review

Composites such as Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics (GFRP)

and Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) have been

used in manufacturing for decades, for example in low

volume sports car production, but have not been widely

used in mass production because of the lack of funding in

research for improved production methods. In the past, the

Automotive and marine industry were heavily reliant on

wood and steel for materials, like that of the 1930's

American Ford 'Woodie' (Figure 1).

Since the Second World War, the marine industry has

embraced the use of composites. While the automotive

industry preferred steel due to its ease of mass production

methods. The marine industry is often considered a low

volume production, but low volume in automotive terms still

contain a higher number of units, typically in the thousands

to that of the marine industry, which would be in the tens, or

hundreds depending on the product. Glass fibre is made

from a mixture of silica and recycled glass. The mixture is

heated, and extruded into fine strands, the strands are

collected onto bobbins. The bobbins can either be used

directly into making a product, or it can be produced into

woven, unidirectional, braided and chopped matt

configurations.

i-manager’s Journal o n Material Science, l lVol. 4 No. 2 July - September 201638

Figure 1. 1930's Ford Woodie (Source: Schnabel 1938) Figure 3. 1953 Corvette Components (Source: Montrief, 2007)

Figure 2. SGL Automotive Carbon Fibres, 2013

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amount of CFRP used within the engine, resulting in Rolls

Royce replacing many components with titanium, carrying

only the CFRP cowl through to production, in some

variations.

By the late 70's, The Lotus Type 88 (Figure 6) was the first

carbon fibre monocoque race car, which was designed by

Colin Chapman. The car was produced in time for the

1981 season; however, it was disqualified for having a trick

multi-sprung duel chassis system.

At the same time, McLaren were also working on a Carbon

fibre monocoque design (Figure 7) for their 1981 MP4/1

designed by John Barnard, but had difficulties and sought

outside help from Hercules Aerospace in the USA. The car

was not ready for the 1981 season, and was subsequently

entered into the next season. The performance of the

composite material was generally unknown, to the public,

until the McLaren was in a very serious crash, breaking in

half (McLaren Automotive Limited, 2014). This meant that

the material dissipated the energy very well, with the driver's

safety cell remaining intact. This was the point when carbon

Chassis supporting the running gear and body structure.

In 1956, Colin Chapman researched, designed, and

created a monocoque GFRP vehicle. The car was named

the Lotus Elite (Figure 4), and was the first vehicle to use

GFRP for the entire structure of the vehicle. The running gear

bolted directly onto the GFRP monocoque structure.

Between 1957 and 1964, 1078 vehicles were produced,

(Hayes, 2007:51) however during the production run,

techniques were refined and improved upon. Chapman

applied the experience he had gained from the local boat

industry in Norfolk.

Rolls Royce started quietly researching (CFRP) Carbon Fibre

Reinforced Plastics within the RB211-22engine (Figure 5).

Rolls Royce heavily invested into the material, redesigning

major components, like fan blades, out of CFRP. However

towards the end of the project, safety tests restricted the


Figure 4. 1957 Lotus Elite Monocoque (Source: Ortenburger & McCormack, 1977)

Figure 5. Rolls Royce RB211-22 Engine (Brossett, 2002)

Figure 6. 1981 Lotus Type 88 Race Car (Source: Collantine, 2011)

Figure 7. McLaren MP4/1 CFRP tub (Source: McLaren Automotive Limited, 2011)

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also designed by Gordon Murray. Production was set at

3500 units, but was discontinued in 2009, after only half that

figure was produced.

CFRP monocoque sports cars have become increasingly

common since the McLaren F1 in 1993, with manufactures

realising the potential, however up until recently, they have

only been available to wealthy customers purchasing cars

for prices more than, for example half a million pounds in

2003. The EU commission state that mandatory CO 2

emissions must average (for a manufacturers fleet) 95g/km

by 2020 down from 130g/km in 2015 (European

Commission, 2014). The drive to lower emissions put out by

vehicles has increased dramatically prompting

manufacturers to research and invest in lightweight

materials. Composites such as CFRP have become one of

the many focuses, as it offers strength to weight ratios far

better than other materials in the industry.

With the research into production techniques realising new

methods, the cost has decreased significantly. In 2015, the

cheapest vehicle made from a CFRP material is the Zenos

E10 Sports car which starts from just under £25,000 (Zenos

Cars Ltd, 2014), which uses carbon for the occupants tub,

and aluminium chassis sections. The cheapest

conventional car is the BMW i3 (Figure 10) priced at

£31,000 (BMW UK Ltd, 2015), which also uses CFRP for the

monocoque 'life module', with an aluminium 'drive module'.

The i3 is made in the Leipzig vehicle plant in Germany,

which is carbon neutral and advertised as being 'one of the

world's most modern and sustainable automobile factories'

composite construction started to attract attention for its

possible uses in a wide range of industries. By the mid 80's,

all of the Formula One race cars had moved to a CFRP

monocoque construction.

The first road car to feature a full CFRP monocoque was the

McLaren F1 (Figure 8) designed by Gordon Murray, The

initial idea was sketched up in 1988 to produce a

homologated race car with a road car derivative. The first

customer car was launched in 1993, with total of 106

vehicles produced over a production span of 5 years.

Composite engineer Antony Dodworth was recruited to

help design a carbon monocoque, which took 3000 hours

to produce (McLaren Automotive Limited, 2014). The race

vehicle inspired design made the vehicle highly repairable

after damage. Many other companies were using CFRP

and GFRP within homologated road cars, like Ferrari F40

and Lamborghini Countach; however these used tube

section aluminium and steel for the main chassis.

In 2003, the first series production CFRP monocoque car

was a joint venture between formula one teams Mercedes

and McLaren, The Mercedes McLaren SLR (Figure 9), was


Figure 8. 1993 McLaren F1 (Source: Campbell, 2013)

Figure 9. Mercedes McLaren SLR Monocoque (Source: Hodzic, 2007)

Figure 10. BMW i3 Construction (BMW, 2013)

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both directions, as they own a mixture of mass production

such as Porsche and Volkswagen and low volume

manufacturers like Lamborghini and Bugatti. This large

association of manufacturers means that they can share

vehicle architecture, components and research which

they could otherwise not be able to do independently.

It could however be argued that, due to the expense and

high maintenance costs of current vehicles with their on-

board hardware and software, cars which develop an

electrical fault may not be commercially viable to repair

and therefore the generally accepted 13 year current

lifespan of a car is dropping to perhaps ten years. With

average annual mileage being 7,900 miles (Department

for Transport, 2013:21) the lifetime of a car is possibly

79,000 miles. Therefore, the gap between the break-even

point could be considered unviable. These problems of

longevity and recycling need to be addressed.

Depending on the quality of the initial build most GFRP

boats have a long life span. It has been noted that over the

life span of a GFRP boat the maintenance costs remain the

same whereas with a steel boat the costs increase over

time (Figure 12) (Russell, 2005:39), Although osmosis can

cause problems, this can be rectified and more recently

prevented. Boat owners in general, usually have different

expectations to that of the average car owner, as high

maintenance or re-fitting costs are quite common

throughout the life of the boat.

If they owned a wooden boat, this would need major work

every two to three years. GFRP boats in comparison require

much less time spent on them. This is one of the factors why

composites have been embraced by both the manufacturer

(BMW Group, 2014), winning many awards in the process.

The i3 is mainly constructed from CFRP and is perhaps the

forerunner of this new generation. There are three main

disadvantages of this model: cost of production is higher;

relative duration of production is longer; and CFRP supply

chains are unstable and inconsistent.

When compared to an equivalent conventional car, the

units and costs are significantly different. However, it could

be argued that these are teething problems and cost,

duration and suppliers will improve as technologies develop.

When BMW first started creating CFRP components in mass

production in 2009, they developed a business partnership

with Carbon Fibre manufacturer SGL Group. This guaranteed

a CFRP supply chain especially for their own products. A

new state of the art factory was built in North America,

which is powered by renewable resources, (which is good

as CFRP production is seen to be inefficient). In contrast,

Volvo's latest XC90 Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) is constructed

from various different grades of steel (Figure 11), and uses

this reason to advertise it as one of the safest vehicles in the

world while boasting of its efficient capabilities (Volvo Car

Group, 2014).

Jaguar Land Rover has also made advances into

lightweight aluminium vehicle construction, no doubt

helped by the parent company TATA steel. Jaguar Land

Rover has made the move from steel construction to a

'state-of-the-art lightweight aluminium structure' (Jaguar

Land Rover, 2012) construction saving 420 kg from the

previous model. Whereas, the Porsche Automobil Holding

SE, is such a large organisation consisting of twelve

automobile manufacturers, they can invest in exploring


Figure 11. New Volvo XC90 Steel Structure (Volvo Car Group, 2014)

Figure 12. Structural Maintenance Costs Over Boat Lifetime (Russell, 2005: 39)

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association Composites UK. In a report the KTN commissioned

in September 2010, Stella Job explained “UK carbon fibre

composite production amounts to about 2,130 tonnes.

While carbon fibre composites represent about 40% of UK

composites production by value, they correspond to about

2% of UK composites production by volume, the vast

majority being glass fibre composites” (Job, 2010:3). Job

stated that in 2010, there were only two functioning

composite recycling companies in the UK.

Job also stated that it is more profitable to recycle carbon

fibre commercially, than glass fibre, due to the high costs of

carbon fibre. She reported on ELG Carbon Fibre, a carbon

fibre recycling centre in the West Midlands, they use the

pyrolysis process, which is the most widespread recycling

method, which uses thermal decomposition in an inert

atmosphere. Pimenta and Pinho state that “Pryolsis is

currently the one recycling method with full size

commercial scale implications” (Pimenta and Pinho,

2014). Figure 14 displays the methods of recycling, and the

and purchaser. Figure 13 displays a GFRP mould for an

Oyster 575.

The Materials KTN was set up to improve the position of the

UK with composites. They are funded by the UK

Governments Technology Strategy Board. Stella Job, has

worked as an advisor for KTN, and is currently a freelance

consultant in the composited sector, and works part time as

Supply Chain and Environment Officer for the UK trade


Figure 14. Pyrolysis Recycling Process (Pimenta and Pinho, 2014)

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Figure 13. GFRP mould for an Oyster 575 (57ft Sailing Yacht)

Germany, because of landfill restrictions, has developed a

lead in recycling GFRP; the 'economic case' has been

proven to be more viable to industry, thereby 2014 Job

reported an increased use of GFRP waste. It was being

added to cement as a filler in Germany. The Belgian

company Reprocover not only manufactured manhole

covers, but were also developing their own railway sleepers,

which have proved in testing to be better than traditional

wooden sleepers. Railway companies are currently

researching alternatives for the traditional sleepers, as due

to European Union legislation in 2018 that will restrict the use

of creosote, which is a carcinogenic wood preservative.

The market for this could be vast.

Recently, Nordic countries have begun studies to gather

information on their leisure boat ownership. It is estimated

that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland have between

them half of the six million leisure craft thought to be in

Europe (Eklund et al., 2013). Concerns had been raised as

many of these small boats were reaching their end of life

and were being abandoned on river banks. The Båtskroten

project in Sweden is due to start in the latter half of 2015, to

collect and dismantle these boats. Recycling opportunities

potential application for the reclaimed material.

ELG Carbon Fibre's website currently lists their products as:

pellets for compounding; milled fibres for coatings; yarns

for Direct Injection Moulding and weaving; and mats for

press forming and pre-pregging. Job has also done

research on composite recycling companies worldwide.

Germany has very strict land fill regulations, and have had

little option but to embrace the composite recycling

processes. Reprocover based in Belgium has had success

with recycling GFRP into manhole covers. With this experience,

they have branched out to manufacture planters, ashtray

bins, cable duct covers and post boxes (Job, 2014).

Reprocover charge companies to take their waste that

would otherwise incur landfill taxes.

Job suggested that the solvolysis process for recycling

CFRP could be of “particular interest” (Job, 2010:3). Figure

15 displays the brief differences between pyrolysis and

sovolysis processes. The Hitachi Chemical Company Ltd

and Siemens Corporate Technology have researched this

process intensively and are excited by the results. It is said to be

“more environmentally friendly than pyrolysis” (Gardiner,

2014).


Figure 15. Recycling Technologies for Composite Waste (Morin et al., 2012)

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informal interviews with professionals in the relevant

industries. Because of the nature of informal interviews, the

questions varied slightly, and were personalised to the

responses and the interviewee. The interviews offer a

valuable insight into the various industries, but it must be

remembered that the views expressed, were personal

opinions and could be biased. Each interview will be

analysed separately.

Kevin Webster–General Manager, Oyster Marine, Wroxham:

Oyster Yachts is a manufacturer of high end luxury sailing

yachts. The Oyster 575 (Figure 18) is the most popular

model made by the company. The boats consist of a GFRP

construction to the hull and deck with highly customisable

wooden interior.

Martin Bridgland– Director, Bridgland Moulders Ltd

Bridgeland moulders are the moulders that manufacture

the Oyster Yachts. They lay up the hulls and decks.

Matt Windle - Head of Engineering, Zenos Cars: Zenos Cars

is a small sports car company which builds affordable

lightweight sports cars in Norfolk, set up by Ansar Ali,

previous Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Caterham Cars,

and Mark Edwards, previous Chief Operating Officer (COO)

of Caterham Cars. They are proud to mention that their E10

sports car (Figure 19) consists of a reclaimed CFRP

construction, with an aluminium chassis which the running

gear is attached to. The body panels are made from GFRP.

Gavin Gilliatt–General Manager, CFTech, part of the

Multimatic UK group: CFTech manufactures high quality

carbon fibre components for the automotive, aeronautical

and communications industries. CFTech have made one

are being considered. In the UK, the Broads Authority in

Norfolk collects old abandoned boats from the river banks

(Figure 16).

But recycling opportunities are limited. Unlike Oyster Yachts,

these small crafts have limited value, but require river tax

that would outweigh the worth of the boat. In the past, a

culture of sinking and abandoning Norfolk Wherries

(traditional old wooden craft seen in Figure 17) in 'wherry

graveyards' was accepted, however, most of these crafts

have decomposed. One or two have been refloated and

restored at great expense. It could be argued that the

marine industry has escaped the legislation that the

automotive industry has been forced to comply with, but

the author thinks that this is a situation that will change.

2. Empirical Data

The methodology used to collect empirical data was by


Figure 16. Abandoned Broads Cruiser Boat (Dibbler, 2005)

Figure 17. 1898 Albion Norfolk Wherry (Broads Authority, 2014)

Figure 18. Oyster 575 (Oyster Yachts, 2013)

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extras. Carbon material sails have also been provided to

help cut down on weight, and increase longevity in

comparison to regular sails. Although Oyster has not

provided lightweight racing boat hulls made from CFRP,

these can be obtained.

One incident Kevin recounted (in this case thankfully not an

Oyster yacht), a carbon fibre mast snapped in a

transatlantic race several years ago. Had this been

aluminium, it would have cracked through metal fatigue,

and this would have provided warning, enabling the crew

to reduce the amount of sail, and make repairs. However,

the CRFP mast snapped and fell overboard. The crew had

to cut the lines and let the mast go. This was worth in the

region of £40,000.

2.2 Interview 2: Matt Windle, Zenos Cars Ltd

The Zenos E10, which is currently the only car in the Zenos

range, is made from recycled CFRP, aluminium and steel.

The CFRP is used in the occupants tub built around an

aluminium extruded frame. The suspension and drive train

components are attached to steel front and rear sub

frames. For the company's first vehicle, this has been well

received, and has obtained credit in the automotive

journalists around the world.

The reasons for using recycled CFRP are firstly safety, and

secondly cost, as recycled CFRP is 10% of the cost of virgin

carbon fibre, and thirdly innovation to give the product a

“USP”. The recycled carbon has 70% of the strength of the

virgin carbon fibre, but this is combined with the steel

protection frame. More carbon fibre would have been

used, but this would have been limited by cost, performance

has not been compromised.

The end of life has been considered from when the product

was designed. Matt said that materials and coatings had

been planned carefully. The outer body panels are made

from GFRP, and have been designed to be easily

removable. GFRP can be repaired easily for minor issues. In

the UK, GFRP recycling opportunities are limited. Matt was

aware that Germany was “leading the way”, but as a

business decision, could not justify the cost of transporting

waste to Germany.

2.3 Interview 3: Gavin Gilliatt, CFTech Multimatic UK

off prototypes for companies like Aston Martin, creating the

body of the Centenary CC100 Concept car (Figure 20).

ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd is the UK's first carbon fibre recycling

company. They collect wastes from industry, and once

processed, sell the recycled material for use in a range of

applications including fillers for injection moulding

machines. All of the above companies were approached,

but Bridgland and ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd did not respond,

however the ELG Carbon Fibre website offered valuable

information.

2.1 Interview 1: Kevin Webster, Oyster Yachts

All Oyster Yachts are made from GFRP; a lot of components

are made from CFRP. The motivation for customers to have

CFRP was it seemed mostly for the image and aesthetic

reasons, as instrument panels and steering wheels would

save negligible weight, but would be on display as a

fashion statement. Mast, booms, rudders and bulkheads

would save a significant amount of weight for the keen

racer, who can afford the extreme costs for these optional


Figure 19. Zenos E10s (Zenos Cars, 2014)

Figure 20. Aston Martin CC100 Concept Car (CFTech Multimatic, 2012)

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moved upmarket, a gap in the market opened, offering

similar performance for a fraction of the cost.

With a price established, costs were calculated, as well as

links with suppliers and partners. Zenos plan to build 200

cars a year with four teams of two assemblers, aiming for a

build time of 60 hours per unit. However Matt mentioned

that, the current build time is significantly longer. But the

company is only just starting to build their first few vehicles,

and the build time is expected to reach the target as the

teams become familiar with the build, and small niggles

are refined and amended. Initial engineering drawings

were produced, with all main running gear, suspension

components and chassis complete. The passenger tub

was then designed around the occupants needs. A basic

layout was created with rough dimensions and positions

from a wooden mock up (Figure 21) mimicking the tub and

central extruded chassis.

This enabled an effective, yet cost effective way to test

ergonomic seating positions to accommodate a wide

range of people from a range of markets, ensuring the

“perfect driving position” is achieved. The steel impact and

roll over protection system was then designed around

these findings, which is well hidden from view within the

body of the vehicle.

The Zenos E10 features a chassis that takes the

appearance of a central spine. This extruded aluminium

chassis is anodised using automotive techniques to protect

the metal against the elements throughout its life. The

running gear, suspension components and steel impact

protection system with roll over hoops bolted to the central

The first part of this interview was about the people transport

company called River simple, who are trying to establish a

new business model, where a vehicle is leased, rather than

sold. The vehicle's manufacturer, partners and suppliers

would in effect, retain ownership and be responsible for the

vehicle. Their aim is to achieve enhanced longevity and

recyclability designed from the outset. Gavin did not think

that this would be a viable business model stating “it's

basically going to be good, until they damage it, and at

that point, what's that got to do with me because I made it”.

Apart from Riversimple, no other customers have mentioned

recycling to Gavin.

The company explored the uses of reclaimed carbon fibre,

but after some tests and experimenting, they concluded

that the material would not have the properties that would

interest them. They try to keep waste to a minimum; they

had explored the possibility of recycling either cured or

uncured carbon. But we are surprised that they would have

to pay for this service. Gavin said “I'm sure that is the way it

will go, but at the moment, there isn't really an incentive for

us to do it….. If you are going to use [recycled] filler then

great, it's a recycled waste product, but you know being

hard-nosed about it, I want the benefit or I might as well stick

it in a hole in the ground”.

The ELV will force car manufacturers to take recycling

seriously. The larger car companies have already spent

time planning for this. Gavin supplies to Aston Martin in

creating CFRP components for their niche vehicles, which

are either concept vehicles for motor shows, or for

production numbers less than 10. The very nature of these

vehicles means that they will either end up in museums or

car collections where they will be cherished and preserved.

End of life of this sort of product would not apply in the same

time scale.

2.4 Case Study: Zenos Cars

The author was invited by Matt Windle, Head of Engineering

at Zenos Cars, to visit the factory in Wymondham, Norfolk,

showing in detail the product, and how the application of

recycled carbon fibre is used. The E10 sports car is a new

vehicle designed from the floor up. Matt explained that the

project started out with a price that Zenos aimed to sell the

cars for, in this case, £25,000. Since their competitors have


Figure 21. Ergonomic Mock Up (Trent, 2013)

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three parts. An outer layer of rCFRP, a centre layer consisting

of recycled polycarbonate drinking straws arranged in a

honeycomb pattern, and an inner layer of rCFRP. The

Carbon used within the production of the Zenos E10 sports

car uses recycled continuous woven virgin carbon fabric

offcuts. This is the best type of carbon to use, as it is not pre-

pregnated with resin, and is not cured. The strands are

chopped up (Figure 24) and stitched together (Figure 25),

and formed in an aluminium die technique.

Zenos Cars worked with Antony Dodworth to further develop

the material to work within the financial restrictions Zenos

was experiencing. Dodworth is the past principle research

manager for carbon fibre at Bentley (and also a previous

composite engineer for the McLaren F1 road car project)

and Larry Holt, CEO of global automotive component

manufacturer Multimatic. Zenos Cars appeared to have

chassis (Figure 22). The vehicle is built to be used with track

days and small series racing in mind. So the car has been

designed and engineered to be easily dismantled and

repaired as efficiently as possible.

The body panels are relatively small, to aid removal and to

minimise cost. The recycled carbon fibre tub has also been

constructed in several sections with this philosophy in mind;

the tub is then bonded together and fastened to the

central aluminium spine. But unlike conventional carbon

fibre tubs like that of the McLaren F1, the CFRP would be

expensive and far more time consuming to repair, due to

the use of continuous weave carbon fibre, this in theory

creates a single constructed component. The recycled

CFRP components that make up the occupants tub in the

Zenos E10 can be seen in Figure 23.

The recycled Carbon Fibre (rCFRP) Panels are made up of


Figure 22. Left–Bare Aluminium Spine Chassis, Middle-Impact Protection and Running Gear Attached, Right–Part of the Carbon Tub in Position (Zenos Cars, 2014)

Figure 23. Components that make the Zenos E10 CFRP tub Figure 24. Recycled CFRP (Pimenta and Pinho, 2014: 274)

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that the response to this deadline was slow with no

commercial “viable” composite recycling industry

worldwide in 2006. However, governments have

recognised the vast task that they have obliged the vehicle

manufacturers to take on. Support in the form of

information, education and networking has been made

available. In the UK, the KTN and UK trade association

Composites UK, Stella Job working for both organisations

has used her research to provide vital information to the

industry but calls for more investment and research.

Companies in the UK such as Hambleside Danelaw and

Filon with their recycling techniques for GFRP and ELG

Carbon Fibre in the West Midlands have been noted for

their investment in this field. In Europe, Germany is

acknowledged as having the most advanced

commercial facilities for recycling composites. Those

interviewed in the automotive industry in this report were

aware of this and acknowledged that the UK must improve

its position.

Several global brands have made partnerships to

advance their development in this field. Their motivation

initially may not have been 'green' but simply to comply

with legislation. The marine industry may have been more

willing to take up the use of composites initially. However,

the automotive industry has made more progress in the use

of recycled composites. There is a need for further research

and investment, as the use of composites is set to increase.

References

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In conclusion, the use of composites has grown over the

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As with the aeronautic industry, composite materials are a

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Figure 25. SGL RECATEXTM Recycled Carbon Fibre Nonwoven

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom's background is in avionics, worked as a development engineer for Ferranti Defence Systems Ltd. in Edinburgh. In 1990, he took up a two-year fixed-term research assistantship at the Engineering Design Research Centre in Glasgow. Upon completion of this role, he taught Computer-Aided Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. Since moving to Loughborough University in 2003, Tom has taught electronic product design, interaction design, design and manufacturing technology and physical computing. He is the organiser and co-ordinator of all design and prototyping activities required for the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) workshop and is the outreach and widening participation coordinator within the Design School. Tom's work has been widely published in the form of journal papers, book contributions, refereed proceedings, refereed conference papers and technical papers. He has supervised research students, acted as external examiner on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, examined PhDs and MPhils and has acted on the reviewing panel of a number of key journals and conferences. His research interests are in Engineering Design, Design Education, Technology Education and Electronic Design Automation.

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Documents

Composites materials andtheir recycling · PDF fileComposites materials and their recycling ... The first road car to feature a full CFRP monocoque was the McLaren F1 (Figure 8) designed