JEC ASlA awards Isotropy and integrity testing solution for recycled carbon fibres Carbon fibre waste is precious, so there is high motivation to develop recycling. High-quality parts can now be produced from waste short-cut fibres. For the first time, the novel SURAGUS sensor makes it possible to assess the uniformity and isotropy (alignment) of recycled carbon fibre material nondestructively. The challenge for recycled products is to reclaim the material at minimal cost while achieving almost the same mechanical properties as the virgin product. The two main properties of recycled carbon fibres (rCF) are their orientation (degree of isotropy) and fibre distribution (weight uniformity). The innovation aims at determining both properties nondestructively during manufacturing and post-production. The underlying concept consists in using the electrical properties of carbon fibres to measure their amount and alignment locally. The innovation comprises a new sensor design and algorithm to measure both the fibre areal weight and the prevalent bulk-fibre orientation for rCFRP or CF-SMC. It is a non-contact eddy current based solution that can determine the isotropic or anisotropic character of chopped or continuous fibre parts for semi-structural or safetycritical use. The clue is to use a focused sensor to quickly monitor fibre angles and distribution. The non-contact isotropy testing sys- Closing the loop for Tenax® thermoplastic composites Toho Tenax has pursued the target to recapture the full value of CFRTP by developing recycling solutions as recyclability will become an important factor for Aerospace industry as it is today for the Automotive field with stringent standards. The Tenax®-E COMPOUND PEEK CF30 is a "green" composite innovation based on recycled by-products from Tenax®-E TPCL PEEK-HTA40 (Carbon Fiber/ PolyEtherEtherKetone) production and customer scrap. The material reinforced combination of recycled 30% carbon fiber and recycled semi crystalline PEEK, offers 40 high performance in strength and stiffness for injection moulding applications. This material is almost identical to virgin material at much lower costs. Toho Tenax's intention was to develop a closed-loop concept for their thermoplastic materials, reconverting the exceptional properties of this highperformance material combination through the use of different reprocessing techniques to turn the materials back into serial non-structural aircraft OEM parts. The Sintex NP Group was as partner responsible for the part manufacturing process based on Tenax®-E COMPOUND PEEK CF30 and the jec composites magazine / No109 November - December 2016 NDT Winner: SURAGUS GmbH (Germany) tem enables effective re-manufacturing and efficient re-use of rCF, rCFRP and CF-SMC due to novel sensors that non-destructively measure the key properties for mechanical use: main fibre directions (an/isotropy) and fibre distribution. RECYCLING Winner: Toho Tenax Europe GmbH (Germany) Partner: Sintex NP Group (France) assessment of material processability compared to today's virgin material standards within their production processes.