THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE
MATERIALS RECYCLABLE SOLUTIONS THAT ARE TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIES
Lightweight, high-performance organic composite materials have spread into every industry, including aerospace, wind turbines, auto manufacturing and sports gear. But right now, end-of-life products containing thermoset resins can’t
be recycled. The current growth in thermoplastic composites, which can be melted down again, is set to be a long-term shift. And Arkema is helping to fuel that trend. Through an array of industrial partnerships, we’re developing a line of solutions
unlike any other in the world. One of our innovations — Elium® liquid resin — is redefining the scope of what’s possible.
More than 10 million tons of organic composite materials are produced worldwide each year, according to JEC Composites, in a market that
is growing 5% annually. Reinforced with either glass or carbon fiber, polymer-matrix composite materials have been snapped up for decades by manufacturers in a wide range of industries, from shipbuilding to automaking, aerospace, wind turbines, construction
and sports gear. For good reason: they deliver outstanding performance in terms of cost, mechanical strength, toughness and lightness. This last criterion is increasingly vital in transportation, where lighter parts equal fuel savings. In fact, composites
make up 50% of airplanes such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.
But the success of organic composites has a downside. The lion’s share use thermoset matrices such as epoxy, polyester and other resins hardened permanently by polymerization. Those thermoset materials can’t be recycled when products reach the end of
their lives, creating a major environmental headache in the medium term. Finding composite solutions that combine recyclability with ever-better performances has therefore become a crucial issue for manufacturers in a wide range of sectors subject
to regulatory pressure. Auto manufacturing, which won’t adopt new materials if they aren’t recyclable, is one example.
THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE MATERIALS, A TURNING POINT
To meet the challenge, industry has for the last ten years turned to composite materials with thermoplastic matrices, that is, that can harden or soften reversibly depending on temperature. This property allows them to be recycled by remelting the polymer.
Examples include polyamides, fluoropolymers such as PVDF, and polyether ketone ketone (PEKK). Arkema, a world leader in high-performance polymers, is an engine of the boom in thermoplastic composite materials. We market an extensive line of carbon-fiber-reinforced
prepreg tapes based on specific grades of Rilsan® (bio-based polyamide 11), Kynar® (PVDF) and Kepstan® (PEKK) resins. These solutions, co-designed with composite makers as part of innovative industrial partnerships,
are manufactured using mature, cost-competitive processes. They offer the same — and often better — mechanical properties as thermoset resins, with a significant added bonus: parts made of thermoplastic composites can be assembled by simple heat welding,
while thermoset parts require often complex bonding processes.
At the same time, our R&D teams have developed a truly revolutionary resin, Elium®, the world’s first liquid thermoplastic resin that is compatible with all existing industrial processes for thermoset composites that also start with a liquid
matrix. Elium® makes thermoplastics’ advantages — chief among them recyclability — available to an endless array of applications. After the turning point, prepare for takeoff!
