Toho Tenax Co., Ltd., the core company of the Teijin Group's carbon fibers and composites business, announced today that its German subsidiary Toho Tenax Europe GmbH has developed a new compound, based on recycled thermoplastic carbon fiber material and PEEK (polyetheretherketone) thermoplastic. A serial aircraft "Wing Access Panel" was manufactured as a demonstrator part.

The closed-loop-concept from production residues via TENAX-E COMPOUND to final part was the awarded winner at JEC Asia 2016 in the category "Recycling" in Singapore on November 16, 2016. At the coming JEC World 2017, Toho Tenax will exhibit its thermoplastic recycling solutions and several application options.

TENAX-E COMPOUND rPEEK CF30 is a reinforced material combination of waste materials generated during processing of TENAX ThermoPlastics and recycled semi crystalline PEEK polymer, which contains 30% of carbon fiber by weight and offers a high performance in strength and stiffness for injection molding applications.

This compound has an almost identical performance to virgin standard material in terms of tensile modulus and strength, which also includes elongation, viscosity, chemical resistance, abrasion and a very low moisture to absorption ratio, to round off the highlight characteristics of this recycled material. The created value of this compound is linked to the combination of high performance materials as well as a low-cost price of 40-60 % compared to virgin carbon fiber reinforced PEEK compounds.

In conjunction with its partners, an OEM Aircraft manufacturer and Sintex NP Group, we have demonstrated that a serial Aircraft "Wing Access Panel" can be manufactured to prove the performance of the recycled granules. The Sintex NP Group was selected as the partner responsible for the part manufacturing process based on TENAX-E COMPOUND rPEEK CF30 and the assessment of material processability compared to today's virgin material standards within their production processes. It was shown that it is possible to combine best performance with full manufacturing and design flexibility without any parameter adjustments in the production chain. This way TENAX-E COMPOUND rPEEK CF30 is able to reduce the part costs significantly.

TTE and Teijin Kasei Europe will cover the European market. "By separating the market into Aerospace, Industry and Automotive, both companies can use their strengths in the corresponding market segments", so Falk Ansorge, Sales Manager Aerospace at TTE. TTE will concentrate on creating applications in the Aerospace field. Teijin Kasei Europe already supplies PC, PC/ABS and PC alloy compounds to various industries mainly for automotive applications, so that their product range is ideally widely expanded with TENAX-E COMPOUND rPEEK CF30.

ThermoPlastic Recycling Solutions

Toho Tenax developed three different ThermoPlastic Recycling Solutions: Compound, Chips and Crushed. They are reinforced material combinations made of recycled TENAX TPCL and TENAX TPWF and recycled semi crystalline polyetheretherketone (PEEK) polymer to offer high performance in strength and stiffness for injection molding applications.

Toho Tenax have been active for many years in the CFRTP market and intelligently developed the product range of TENAX ThermoPlastics (TPUD, TPCL and TPWF). These materials offer a rapid production and processing, low scrap rates, high mechanical performance, strong chemical resistance and recyclability. The TPCL are qualified for the application in primary composite structures in the A350XWB aircraft, Airbus's new-generation extra-wide-body midsize jetliner. In consideration of the aircraft production ramp-up and the increasing material consumption of these high valuable materials, efforts have been made to develop recycling solutions with an immediate effect. Toho Tenax's intention was to develop a closed-loop-concept for the thermoplastic materials and to reconvert the exceptional properties of this high performance material combination.