Structures and Materials Commons^™

Carbon Fiber Composite Recycling, Wolfe Dennis

All Undergraduate Projects

During construction of Boeing’s aircrafts, carbon fiber reinforced composites are used as the primary material for the wings of the aircraft. Excess material during the manufacturing process is trimmed and discarded as waste. Although there is no viable process thus far, these trimmings have the potential to be recycled and reclaimed to be used in various other manufactured products. The trimmings of carbon fiber composite are approximately 10-12 layers of material bonded together. This project focuses on delaminating the trimmings into individual layers so that the carbon can be pyrolyzed from the bonding resin. In order to separate the layers …