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Exhibitions and Conferences

Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre 2012 - Part 1

Chuck Segal reports from London 2-4 October 2012, Grand Connaught Rooms, London, UK The carbon fibre industry is alive and well according to the recent international gathering of more than 120 engineers and marketing executives. The conference, organised by Smithers-Rapra is the 15th annual meeting of this group.

7th November 2012

Innovation in Textiles
 |  London

Protective, Transport/​Aerospace, Industrial, Sports/​Outdoor

Chuck Segal reports from London

The carbon fibre industry is alive and well according to the recent international gathering of more than 120 engineers and marketing executives.  The conference, organised by Smithers-Rapra is the 15th annual meeting of this group. 

While the majority of attendees were from the UK and Western Europe, there were a good number of representatives from the USA, the Middle East, and Asia.  As in previous years, the conference include one full day of workshops - one on carbon fibre manufacturing and a second on recycling of carbon fibre and composites. 

The second and third days were devoted to a range of carefully-selected and related papers.  Most, but not all of the papers will be reviewed in the paragraphs that follow.  Several of the presentations are worth noting, and more time will be spent in reviewing these. The reviewer has participated in all of these conferences and has published an anonymous review for the past 5 years.

This is Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre 2012 - Part 1.

Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre 2012 - Part 2 will be published on www.innovationintextiles.com tomorrow.

Carbon fibre production workshop

The workshop on carbon fibre production was particularly well attended and was organized and moderated by John Davidson of Carbon Fibre Technologies Int. (CTFI), (UK).  Davidson gave the lead-off paper on the fundamentals of CF manufacturing.  He pointed out that CF manufacturing is still a balance of art and science and that a proper PAN precursor (white fibre) is essential in making a good CF (black fibre). 

The paper included a concise step-by-step narrative of PAN precursor synthesis and spinning, and the multiplicity of steps involved in conversion to carbon fibre.  Major pieces of production equipment were shown.  The final part of the paper dealt with the basics of export control by the USA and the UK.

A second paper in this workshop was by Willie Paul of GSC Ltd., UK.  Mr. Paul has had many years of operating carbon fibre plants.  His paper was well-illustrated with photos of major items of equipment (ovens and furnaces) from a wide range of equipment suppliers.  His suggestions for making good carbon fibre included:

1.      good precursor

2.      proven equipment

3.      good line set up

4.      good line disciple and operating procedures

5.      attention to detail

6.      stringent quality checks

 His conclusions were seconded by several others in the audience.

This workshop also included presentations by 5 companies that make equipment for manufacturing carbon fibre:

Marcus Balzer of Eisenmann (Germany) discussed their oxidizing ovens and furnaces, the importance of gas flow and temperature control in these modules, and the method of saving energy by regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTO). 

Robert Blackmon of Harper (USA) described their wide range of sizes (lab scale to 4000 mt/a) of oxidizing ovens and furnaces, how to optimize production and minimize carbon dioxide emission, the importance of thermal oxidizers for waste gas, and Harper’s computerized program for estimating production costs.

Anguil Environmental Systems (USA) designs and manufactures thermal oxidizers for carbon fibre plants.  The multiplicity of noxious gases that are generated can be reduced by regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTO) or direct fired thermal oxidizers (DFTO).  As pointed out by Harper and Eisenmann the excess heat produced by thermal oxidizers can be used to replace some of the energy required in other CF production modules.

Matthew Kimpton-Smith of Cygnet (UK) specializes in web handling equipment, and they are a major supplier of creels (fibre feed systems) for carbon fibre production lines. 

On the far end of the production lines are the winders that make the final carbon fibre packages.  For example: Sahm (Germany), represented by Konrad Winkler, is a major manufacturer of automatic winders, both for carbon fiber packages and for feed spools of PAN precursor (up to 500 kg).

Carbon fibre recycling workshop

The second workshop was organized and moderated by Dr. Stephen Pickering, The University of Nottingham (UK).  Dr. Pickering has been a leading spokesman for recycling of carbon fibre and composites, and he has led several previous symposiums on this subject. 

His current presentation covered a broad spectrum from methods of separating carbon fibre from its organic matrix, to properties of recycled fibre, to end-use applications.  Efficient recovery of carbon fibre, such as that produced from fluidized bed thermal pyrolysis, may compete economically with virgin fibre. 

Less efficient processes, such as high temperature for extended periods of time, may only be competitive for low-cost, low-performance reuse applications.  A second paper in this workshop, by Soraia Pimenta of Imperial College (UK) provided detailed performance characteristics of carbon fibre derived from composites pyrolyzed over a range of temperature and time exposures. 

As anticipated, the more extreme conditions resulted in reduced performance of the fibres.  Low temperatures and times resulted in a high percentage of residual char which had reduced mechanical and electrical properties as compared with virgin fibre.  

M.H. Akonda of Advanced Textile Materials (UK) described a unique combination of discontinuous, short recycled carbon fibre with a discontinuous organic fibre (PET) to form a continuous comingled yarn or sliver.  This yarn could then be converted into fabric, prepreg, and pultruded rods.  This project was conducted by a group that included Sigmatex, Umeco, University of Leeds, Excel Composites, netComposites, Advanced Composites Group, and was funded by the UK government.  The final paper in this workshop was presented by Silvestre Pinho of the University of Leeds (UK).  His paper described the microstructure of epoxy laminates made from mats produced from discontinuous recycled carbon fibre.  These recyclates were derived from epoxy resin composites or prepreg from the University of Leeds and Boeing.  The sources of pyrolysis were either Recycled Carbon Fibre Ltd. (UK) or Materials Innovation Technologies (UK).  The composite’s failure mechanism varied depending upon the type of fibre (T300 vs. T800) and the method of pyrolysis.

Conference - Day 1

Seeking New Opportunities in Carbon Fibre

The first day of the conference was ably co-chaired by John Davidson, President of CFTI (UK) and Dan Pichler, Director of HCC (Russia).  In addition to two keynote papers, the papers were divided into two separate tracks:  Seeking New Opportunities in Carbon Fibre and From Fibres to Composites. 

The first keynote speaker was Edward Carson; Consultant to Smithers Apex (USA) gave a comprehensive overview of the carbon fibre industry, from fibre production, through converted forms (e.g., prepreg and woven fabrics), to fabrication methods (e.g., autoclave curing and automated fibre handling), and finished articles (e.g., aircraft, automobiles, and wind turbine blades). 

The presentation included forecasts: for example, carbon fiber manufacture would have a CAGR of 17% and reach approximately 120,000 mt/a in 2017 (up from ~50 mt/a in 2012) and a value of 7.3 billion USD in 2017.  The carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) segment would have a 16% CAGR through 2017 and reach a value of 26 billion USD by 2020.  The industrial market segment (including wind turbine blades) was forecast to have a 20% CAGR. 

Prepregs (both thermoplastic and thermoset) would continue to hold a 40% share of the converted forms of fiber, and automated methods of material handling would grow at the expenses of labour-intensive hand layup methods.  The primary source of information in this presentation was a recent publication by Smithers Apex, entitled “The Future of Carbon Fibre Through 2017” (authored by Carson).  All of the industry consultants have left open the question of whether available supply of carbon fibre will match demand, and how the industry will react if demand continues to grow.

The second keynote address was by Dr. Armin Plath, Head of Materials Research for Volkswagen AG (Germany).  He addressed the possibilities of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles by reducing fuel consumption in automobiles.  The current CO2 emission level for Volkswagen vehicles is 137 grams/km.  The target is 95 g/km. by 2020. 

One method of reducing CO2 emission is to reduce the weight of the vehicle, specifically the body weight.  Light-weighting can improve by moving from steel to aluminium to carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP).  The economics of converting to CFRP will require lowering the cost of the material (new low-cost carbon fibres) and lowering the cost of part manufacturing (reduced cycle time).  Other methods of reducing CO2 emission include improved drive train (engine), reduced rolling resistance, and improved aerodynamics.

The first track had the title of “Seeking New Opportunities for Carbon Fibre”.  The first paper was by Christian Wilms of AACHEN University (Germany).   His paper dealt with the laboratory-scale spinning of PAN, and examined variables such spinneret geometry, coagulation conditions, fibre washing conditions, and fibre stretching.  All of these variables affect the performance of the resulting carbon fibre.

AACHEN is seeking optimum conditions through their laboratory experimentation. Neil Barker, Chief Technology Officer, Bluestar Fibres (UK) addressed the cost variables in full-scale production of carbon fibres from PAN.  The company has been reporting the cost of carbon fibre since 2001. 

According to Bluestar (one of the earliest manufacturers of carbon fiber from PAN), the cost of a PAN precursor is highly dependent upon the cost of acrylonitrile (AN) and the amount of AN in the polymer. In turn, the cost of AN is highly dependent upon the cost of propylene (crude oil).  Based upon the current cost of equipment, infrastructure, utilities (energy), and labor, the cost of carbon fibre (almost without regard for type of fibre) is approximately $20 USD/kg and has a 60% cost content due to precursor.  That is one of the reasons that researchers are seeking a lower cost precursor. It is this reviewer’s opinion that there is no viable alternative precursor to PAN at this time. 

The final paper in this track was by Dr. Marco Barsacchi, Board Member of DOWAKSA Advanced Composites (Turkey).  The newly-formed DOWAKSA is positioning themselves as a “fully-integrated” composites company.  AKSA is the world’s largest manufacturer of acrylic fibres and has recently begun full-scale production of a wide range of carbon fibres.  DOW is one of the largest manufacturers of epoxy resins, many of which are being used in high performance composites.  Lightweight composites are an enabling technology for aerospace (commercial aircraft) and industrial (automotive, wind, and pressure vessels) applications, and DOWAKSA is seeking an increased presence in this industry segment.

Read Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre 2012 - Part 2 tomorrow

Chuck Segal

Managing Director, Omnia LLC, [email protected]

(On behalf of Smithers Apex)

Buy the The Future of Carbon Fiber to 2017 report.

 

 

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