Recyclage des chutes de composites thermoplastiques préimprégnés

Abstract

This thesis is part of a project aimed at developing a solution for reusing waste generated during the production of carbon fibre pre-impregnated rolls with a polyetheretherketone matrix. This waste comes from trimming the edges of the pre-impregnated, which do not always meet the expected fibre content and thickness. Generated before the winding process, these trimmings are randomly reduced into smaller pieces to facilitate storage. Referred to as Tape Edge Trim (TET), they resemble traditional strands but exhibit significant geometric heterogeneity. A sieving carried out prior to this study is based on the hypothesis that mechanical performance improves with the uniformity and fibre length of the strands. Panels were compression moulded from the various batches obtained from the sieving process, as well as from unsorted TET strands and commercial products for comparative purposes. The panels underwent ultrasonic inspection to locate areas of potential defects, which were then analysed through microscopy. Tensile and flexural tests were conducted on each of these panels. A general improvement in strength was observed with the fibre length of the TET strands. However, the results exhibited significant variability. The stiffness values in both flexion and tension are of the same order of magnitude and show little variation between the sieves. They appear to be less sensitive to geometric and orientation fluctuations of the strands compared to the strength values. The recycled strands demonstrated properties similar to those of parts made from commercial products. Overall, the performance of unsorted TET strands is comparable to that of the other sieves. A brief analysis of the environmental impact of reusing the TET instead of virgin strands is presented.

Date	1 Nov 2024
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Martine Dubé (Supervisor)