Abstract

The content of this project is focused on the development of a process to reuse uncured A350 prepreg scrap obtained in production plants. The main aim is to reduce the current buy to fly ratio, which is the used raw material versus the material that will finally fly and, thus, to achieve clear benefits in terms of environmental aspects. The key properties of the new virgin material obtained after this reusing process have been evaluated in order to assess potential applications in aeronautical or other fields (e.g. automotive, sport, civil works…). Additionally, some aeronautical demonstrators or pilot cases with the reused material and process were produced. Regarding the key conclusions of this workt up to now: an effective process has been developed to reuse A350 uncured prepreg scrap, mainly mono-ply, based on chopping the prepreg to obtain a new virgin material, which will be used to produce a part by applying a compression molding process. Although the properties of the new raw material show high scatter, some of them stay close or even higher versus the reference (e.g. CAI). To end with, several aeronautical demonstrators with acceptable quality have been produced with the prepreg reuse process developed in this project (e.g. complex brackets, gaskets, manholes…).