Carbon fiber recycling to make composites more accessible, circular

Vartega (Denver, Colo., U.S.) recycles carbon fiber and composite materials into near-virgin-quality chopped fiber to support manufacturing of high-strength thermoplastic and thermoset components. Such initiatives are highlighted by the company’s recent partnership with Mito Material Solutions (Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.) and a display of parts comprised of these materials.

Vartega’s materials can be found on the market in automotive components, sporting goods, electronics assemblies and many other applications. The company’s patent-pending fiber postprocessing technology converts discontinuous virgin and recycled carbon fiber into easy-to-handle feed bundles, maintaining original mechanical properties at a lower cost than the virgin material. The process densifies loose, fluffy fibers into aligned fiber bundles with significantly higher bulk density and improved flowability for use as a drop-in replacement to traditional virgin carbon fiber in pellet, flake or stick form.

The resulting EasyFeed Bundles are low dust, with fairly uniform fiber lengths. The bundles enable thermoplatic compounding via traditional equipment to serve injection molded composite material applications; they are compatible for use with various thermoplastics including ABS, PLA, PP and PA. Vartega also supplies recycled carbon fiber in other formats for compression molding, additive manufacturing (3D printing) and other composite material manufacturing processes.

Vartega is showcasing its recent partnership with Mito Materials to launch a combination of Vartega’s carbon fiber, Fenix Fiber, with Mito’s functionalized liquid graphene Ligra, under the Vartega product name Fenix Fiber+. This development is capable of creating composite structures with higher stiffness and strength than carbon fiber alone.

Vartega’s EasyFeed Bundle chopped fiber format along with several examples of highly filled thermoplastics incorporating Vartega’s recycled carbon fiber into structural applications will be on display. Specific parts include a cross-car beam, automotive seat structure, bicycle wheels and more.

Vartega seeks to make carbon fiber more accessible to more industries, create circular supply chains, decarbonize transportation and enable a sustainable future. Its patented carbon fiber recycling process is said to connect a captive supply in the composites wastestream to an unmet demand for low-cost carbon fiber downstream.