JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015 - 45

Railway

CFRT relief valve for the railway industry
This project consists in a new type of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRT)
relief valve, which will be used for railway
spats. It is composed of an upper valve cover,
a lower valve cover, a sealing washer and a
metal screw to tighten them up. The support
frame of the upper and lower valve covers is
rectangular. There are a pass-through avoidance through-hole pattern and bolt fastening
hole-slots on the front of the support frame.
When the connecting hole is used for connecting valve cover parts of a protruding cylinder
structure, the valve cover support frame is
assembled with a carbon fiber composite
reinforcing rib on the back. The reinforcing
rib is arrayed via longitudinal, transverse and
oblique cross ways. The support frame of the

upper and lower valve covers, sealing washers
and metal fastening pieces are an integrated
composite structure. This novel CFRT
relief valve cover has the advantage of high
strength, high stiffness, low specific gravity,
small curved fin deformation, stable parts
size, low absorption of moisture, excellent
impact ductility at low temperature, good
self-lubrication and UV-ageing resistance, as
well as resistance to chemical solvents and
corrosion, good flame retardancy, and being
manufactured by a precise injection moulding
process. In addition, the process used to make
the product is simple. As a comparison to
conventional processes, the production efficiency was remarkably improved, and the cost
was obviously reduced, while the service life

Winners: Beijing Nashengtong (NST)
Advanced Material Science & Technology
(China), Meishan CSR Logistics Equipment Co., Ltd (China)

was prolonged. This process has high energy
efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Recycling

Cradle-to-cradle recycling of a thermoset plastic composite structure
will be reclaimed and reused, while the
mushroom foam core will be composted
or reused.
This cradle-to-cradle composites
recycling demonstration of the surfing
hand-plane represents the larger general
concept of recyclable composites. Recyclable composites have enormous market
potential in industries where hundreds of
thousands of tons of composite waste are
generated annually, including automotive, aerospace, electronics (PCB), wind
energy, marine, and sporting products.
Based on the current market value of
reclaimed carbon fibre and copper, the
ability to reclaim and reuse high-value
materials from composite waste offers
the potential for significant cost savings
to composites manufacturers. Additionally, similar to the $60+B thermoplastic
industry today, the creation of a seconda-

Winner: Connora Technologies
(USA)
Partners: Ecovative Design (USA),
Enjoy Handplanes (USA)

ry market for reclaimed composite materials also has significant market potential.

No100 October 2015 / jec

Special JEC Asia 2015

The unprecedented recycling of thermoset plastic composites will enable composite manufacturers to meet their cost
reduction and regulatory compliance
needs in the fast-growing composites
industry.
The ground-breaking cradle-to-cradle recycling of a thermoset plastic composite
structure with a compostable bio-based
foam core will be demonstrated as part
of this project. The application will be
a bodysurfing board, aka "hand-plane",
representing typical foam core composite structures used in many sporting,
automotive, aeronautics, and marine
applications today. The foam core will
be comprised of a mushroom foam
fibre board made by Evocative Designs.
The thermoset composite will be made
from Connora's Recyclamine epoxy
resin system. All parts of the composite

composites magazine 45

http://www.mikrosam.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015