ELG Carbon Fibre, a leading supplier of carbon fibre products, is exhibiting and presenting at the Global Automotive Lightweight Materials (GALM) European conference that takes place from 26-28 April.

As the cost and supply of carbon remains a prohibitive factor for OEM’s, ELG Carbon Fibre is presenting a range of recycled carbon products for use in automotive applications that are designed to offer significant weight savings at an affordable cost.

Lightweight vehicle applications

From a dedicated recovery plant in the UK, ELG Carbon Fibre has developed a recycling solution that converts manufacturing waste into products that can be incorporated into vehicle design.

The company is currently working with a number of automotive OEM’s on a range of projects from the development of end-of-use recycling solutions for carbon fibre components and structures, to the demonstration of the economic and technical performance of recycled carbon fibre materials in lightweight vehicle applications.

Principle products

Carbiso CT is a short fibre product that is used for the manufacture of carbon fibre reinforced thermoset or thermoplastic compounds. These are in turn used in injection and compression moulding applications

Carbiso M nonwoven mats can be used individually or in conjunction with virgin carbon fibres in most composite manufacturing processes. The mats are said to offer lightweight structures and components at considerable cost saving compared to conventional carbon fibre composites. Carbiso M nonwoven mats also form the basis for structural SMC and fast curing prepreg materials used in high volume compression moulding processes.

Carbiso TM nonwoven mats are manufactured from recycled carbon fibres, blended with thermoplastic fibres, which can be compression moulded to form structural mouldings. Potential applications include interior mouldings and seating.

New approach

“The availability of a recycling solution that can turn manufacturing waste into a product that can be used within the vehicle design will make a significant contribution to reducing the cost of carbon fibre composites,” said Frazer Barnes, Managing Director of ELG Carbon Fibre.

“We see carbon fibre composites becoming an important part of a multi-material solution to automotive lightweighting, especially where high rate manufacturing processes such as injection moulding and compression moulding can be used.”

Frazer Barnes will be co-presenting with Andy Smith, Chief Engineer of Materials and Analysis at Gordon Murray Design, at GALM on 28 April. The presentation is titled Recycled Carbon Fibre: A new approach to cost effective lightweighting. 

www.elgcf.com