Upcycling of aerospace carbon scrap: Impact of material properties

Prepreg scrap commonly generated during ply cutting operations are in the form of off-cuts, skeletons, trim waste, end-of-roll waste, and from those that have surpassed the shelf life and/or out-time. Several of these off-cuts and end-of-roll waste often end up in landfills as they are of little use for upcycling. More so, it is adding cost to disposal as they must be cured before being dumped as landfill. Therefore, in view of upcycling prepreg scrap to manufacture sporting goods, the ageing effect on the cure pattern of the prepregs were determined using dynamic mechanical analyser in a single cantilever mode, and the percentage of cure was determined using differential scanning calorimeter. The results highlight a linear relationship between volatile uptakes and out-time, with a maximum value of 0.6% being associated with longer out-time. The Tg values were similar to those quoted in the manufacturer's data sheet showing negligible intra-sample variations. The percentage of cure of all the laminates manufactured in this work displayed values greater than 90% and the void content in the laminates increased by more than 100% when the out-time was increased from 12 to 24 hours.