Abstract
In light of climate change, fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) are becoming increasingly important due to their lightweight construction potential. This benefit is additionally expanded on with the low cycle times, scrap rates and material costs of Sheet Moulding Compounds (SMC), making it the most often used material on the FRP market. While extensive studies regarding the recycling of SMC with unsaturated polyester-based matrices (UP-SMC) have been conducted in the past, this is not the case for vinylester-based SMC (VE-SMC). In this research, VE-SMC components were subject to a particle-recycling approach. Recyclate in the form of VE-SMC regrind was used to substitute SMC matrices during the compounding process. The dependence of the mechanical properties and failure behavior of VE-SMC containing regrind was investigated by means of microscopic and mechanical test methods for varying mass proportions of SMC regrind. Due to the addition of SMC regrind, a decreased fiber/matrix adhesion was observed. Furthermore, an increase in pore formation was observed with an increasing proportion of SMC regrind. The flexural modulus increased by 20% with a low percentage of regrind (ωrSMC = 10 wt.%) in comparison to virgin SMC. In contrast, the tensile properties decrease (up to 30%) with the addition of SMC regrind independent of the investigated proportions of SMC regrind.
Highlights
Due to their lightweight construction potential and durability, fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) are finding ever-wider applications, ranging from the transport sector to the construction and electronical sector [1]
The mechanical properties of the Sheet Molding Compounds (SMC) components with ωrSMC = 0 wt.% recyclate content manually manufactured for this research are compared with the conventional SMC manufactured by BYK
Since all SMC preforms were produced under the same conditions and the properties were examined as a function of the proportion of recycled material, the findings of this work permit a valid comparative evaluation
Summary
Due to their lightweight construction potential and durability, fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) are finding ever-wider applications, ranging from the transport sector to the construction and electronical sector [1]. The material classes of Sheet Molding Compounds (SMC) and Bulk Molding Compounds (BMC, which is similar in composition to SMCs but usually have a lower fiber volume fraction (vF )) are the largest market segment in the FRP industry, accounting for around a quarter of the volume processed. These semi-finished products can be processed in large production volumes and low cycle times using compression moulding (SMC/BMC). The total production volume in 2019 in Europe alone accounted for 287 kilotons [1]
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