Abstract
European union end of life vehicle directive mandates the use of more sustainable/recyclable materials in automotive industries. Thermoplastics matrix-based composites allow recyclability of composites at the end of life; however, their processing technology is more challenging than thermoset composites. Manufacturing process and mechanical testing of sustainable sandwich composite made from sustainable materials: flax, recycled carbon fiber, polypropylene, and recycled PET foam are presented in this article. High pressure compression molding with adhesive thermoplastic polymer film was used for manufacturing sandwich composite skin. The recycled PET foam core was integrated/joined with the skin using a thermoplastics adhesive film. A three-point bending test was conducted to compare the flexural properties. The results show that such sustainable sandwich composites will be an excellent material for truck side panel to operate in adverse wind/storm conditions. The sustainable sandwich composite can potentially be an excellent candidate for the fabrication of light-duty, lightweight, and low-cost engineering structures in automotive industry to meet the EU end of life requirements.
Highlights
In the transportation sector, since the number of fossil fuel-powered vehicles projected in this decade is environmentally unsustainable, there is a rapid movement of automotive manufacturers towards hybrid propulsion and electrification to substitute non-renewable sources of energy, that account for approximately 96% of the fuel used for propulsion.The electric vehicles have battery limitations to achieve a long range
The bonding between the skin and the foam core in the sandwich composites is a critical issue in manufacturing
This work was carried out to manufacture a fully recyclable sandwich composites usingThis sustainable materials, carbon fibers, PETsandwich foam, andcomposites flax fibers
Summary
Since the number of fossil fuel-powered vehicles projected in this decade is environmentally unsustainable, there is a rapid movement of automotive manufacturers towards hybrid propulsion and electrification to substitute non-renewable sources of energy, that account for approximately 96% of the fuel used for propulsion.The electric vehicles have battery limitations to achieve a long range. The electric vehicle manufacturers are exploring strategies to increase the driving range of the electric vehicles One such strategy is to design and develop lightweight sandwich composites made of green alternatives: low-cost natural materials which are promising candidates that could rope in recyclability and sustainability in tandem to the enhancement of performance [1,2,3,4]. Several researchers have reported sandwich composites manufactured from natural, renewable or recycled materials [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] These include balsa wood [5,6,7,8], hardwood [9], bamboo [10], rubber from waste tires, foams of mushroom, PET, and PVC, and honeycombs of flax/LLDPE and PP. The face skins used in these studies encompassed a combination of synthetic fiber (glass fiber) and natural fiber (jute and flax) reinforced thermoplastics and thermosets
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