Information exchanges between experts for thermoset composites design for recycling

The use of composites in industry is ever increasing. However, end-of-life solutions for composites are still under development. In this paper, a solution linking design strategies with a recycling process for thermoset composite materials is proposed. The recovery solution for these materials is a supercritical water solvolysis process. The needs and multi-disciplinary skills required for taking recycling possibilities into account in the early stages of product design and the necessity to standardize product-recycling capabilities based on design requirements will be discussed. The paper highlights the need for designers to take a functional approach into consideration, including characterization of materials behavior, recycling process limits, constraints and opportunities. This paper will show the first lessons learned from experiments, using this technique

Identification des bases d'une synergie entre recycleurs et concepteurs : application au cas des composites

L'utilisation des matériaux composites à renfort carbone (CRC) et matrice thermodurcissable tend à se développer fortement dans les industries automobile, aéronautique et aérospatiale, malgré le prix élevé des fibres de carbone. Toutefois, dans une approche globale plus respectueuse de l'environnement, la principale limitation à l'utilisation de ces composites reste leur recyclabilité. Recycler un composite nécessite de disposer simultanément (i) d'un accès au matériau avec la possibilité d'identifier et sélectionner les composites, (ii) d'une solution de démantèlement et (iii) de la technologie de recyclage à proprement parler. Ainsi, la récupération des fibres de carbone permettrait aux concepteurs d'équilibrer coût et efficacité énergétique, tout en proposant les opportunités nouvelles de développer des composites de deuxième génération, destinés en premier lieu à la fabrication de pièces non-structurelles. Après un état des lieux de leurs principales utilisations et de leurs possibilités de recyclage, nous proposons une approche permettant de mettre en relation les acteurs d'une future filière de recyclage des CRC. Cette proposition s'appuie sur deux exemples de collaborations entre l'Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie - Bordeaux et des industries locales

Integration of end-user needs into building design projects: use of boundary objects to overcome participatory design challenges

Participatory design is perceived as a way of improvement in both manufactured and building design. Nonetheless high level of user involvement has its limits. Part of the difficulties of the participatory design is due to the tacit nature of conventions that are shared between professionals. Boundary objects are described as an interesting tool to bridge those boundaries and should be investigated in the context of participatory design in building projects

Composite Fiber Recovery: Integration into a Design for Recycling Approach

In industry, the use of composites, and more specially carbon fiber/thermoset matrix ones, is ever increasing. However, end-of-life solutions for these materials are still under development. In this chapter, a solution linking design strategies with a recycling process based on the solvolysis of the matrix by water under supercritical conditions is proposed. The needs and multi-disciplinary skills required for (i) taking recycling possibilities into account from the early stages of the product design, and (ii) the necessity to standardize its recycling capabilities with design requirements, will both be discussed. The present chapter highlights the need for designers to take a functional approach into consideration, including material characterization, limits of the recycling process, constraints and opportunities. The first lessons learned from experiments using this technique will be shown

Improving design for recycling - Application to composites

The use of composite material increases. End of life regulations, material consumption reductions or restrictions, ask engineers about their potential use. Innovative recycling solutions arise that recover efficiently carbon fibres. This paper explores the design for composites recycling issue. Recycler becomes a new knowledge expert for the designer. It is necessary to analyze their information shares and exchanges. The recycler is an end of life facilitator. He is also the second life material user and can ask for material evolutions. The collaboration must be improved using knowledge performance indicators. These discussions will be enlightened by examples from carbon recycling experiments

DEVELOPMENT OF A DESIGN FOR END-OF-LI Development of a design for end-of-life approach in a strongly guided design process. Application to high-tech products.

In response to a growing concern for environmental problems and to waste management from mass production products, several regulations have appeared to tackle end-of-life (EoL) issues. They address for instance end-of-life vehicles or waste electrical and electronic equipment. EoL management mainly lays on both EoL industry and product design. Thus, new methods of design have already been implemented since the past decades to answer the regulation requirements, notably through material choices and product architecture. However, some high-tech products remain out of the scope of these legislations. But for some years, initiatives have emerged for these products, coming from governments, international programs or customers’ requirements which become increasingly strict. This paper focuses on a new design approach that would allow taking into account EoL considerations for such type of products, based on EoL strategies and adapted to aeronautic and defence products

Recycling of carbon fiber. identification of bases for a synergy between recyclers and designers.

In order to decrease both energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, the automotive, aeronautics and aerospace industries aim at making lighter vehicles. To achieve this, composite materials provide good opportunities, ensuring high material properties and free definition of geometry. As an example, for cold applications, the use of carbon fiber/thermoset composites is ever increasing, in spite of a high fiber price. But in a global and eco-friendly approach, the major limitation for their use remains their potential recyclability. Recycling a composite means having a recycling technology available, getting a dismantle solution and an access for the product, and disposing identification plus selection possibilities to the materials. Thus, carbon fibers recovery (i.e. recycling and re-processing) would both help design engineers to balance energy efficiency and cost, and open new opportunities for developing second-life composites, dedicated to the manufacture of medium or low loaded parts (non-structural in many cases). A first section presents an overview of composite recycling possibilities. Indeed, environmentally and economically, composite incineration is not attractive (even with an energetic valorization), let-alone burying. Reuse and recycling thus remain the two most interesting options. Aeronautics offers a high potential in terms of fiber deposit. In southwest France, composites recycling will increase in terms of quantity due to dismantling platforms TARMAC (dedicated to civil aircraft applications) and P2P (for the disassembly of ballistic weapons). In addition, from a technical point of view, and even if end-of-life solutions for composites still remain under development, solvolysis (i.e. water under supercritical conditions) already offers the opportunity to recover carbon fibers. The resulting recyclate retains up to 90 percent of the fiber's mechanical properties. A second part will explore the recycling to design issue (i.e. how recycling processes have to balance the previous aspects of the end-of-life proposal). The recycler clearly becomes a new supplier in the carbon fiber lifecycle, by revalorizing wastes with alternatives to burning. Moreover, increasing carbon fiber shelf life reduces its product life impact. Finally, promoting carbon fiber end-of-life would ensure to link aeronautics, automotive, and leisure and sports industries; but one can create demand for recycled reinforcement, by packaging it in useful and attractive forms for those end-users (e.g. pseudo-continuous fiber, felt, strips, bands, patches, etc.). These sections will be enlightened by several examples from collaborations between I2M and local industries

A review of LED lamp recycling process from the 10 R strategy perspective

Recycling LED lamp technology requires a change from the traditional bulk material-based recovery process. Unlike preceding lighting technology, LED lamps cannot be recycled to meet the regulatory minimum recycling rate of 80% due to multi-materials, including small quantity precious metals, which reduce the sorting efficiency. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the challenges have been approached in the scientific literature in this context. The review article investigates the circular solutions to the challenges that the end of life LED lamp management is facing. This review applies PRISMA systematic literature review to locate the relevant studies and investigate whether the proposed processes can increase the recycling rate, using the circular economy strategy as a theoretical framework. Several recycling processes have been proposed in the academic literature. However, the techniques have not been evaluated against the circular economy strategies to identify current gaps and possible ways. This review attempts to fill this gap by assessing the current approaches against the 10 R strategies (refuse, rethink, reconsider, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle and recover). The study suggests that recycling is the dominant strategy, but the higher R strategies such as reuse, repair, and remanufacture have also been discussed as potential life extension strategies. The study concludes by proposing an integrated treatment approach that focuses on higher R’s (reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture and repurpose) instead of focusing on lower R’s (e.g., recycling)

Recycling chains : a proposal for an exhaustive definition

In the context of a circular economy, recycling presents as an interesting solution to reduce the impact of raw materials extraction and to reduce the quantity of waste that is incinerated or landfilled. However nowadays, there is no global and complete definition (which could be used as a common reference) of recycling chains.Listing the parameters to be taken into account, such a definition would allow manufacturers and researchers to better assess the efficiency and the stability of supply chains (not only at the beginning of the product lifecycle, but also towards the next one), and to accurately compare them.Therefore, we need a better definition of recycling chains, describing the system in its whole dimension (i.e. all internal and external factors) so as to improve (i) our understanding of the system and (ii) its inherent problems.Firstly, the recycling chain will be defined and described as exhaustively as possible. Then, the second part will focus on the best way to integrate this information when analyzing and optimizing recycling chains. Lastly, perspectives of this preliminary work will be detailed