Innovative Materials for A More Sustainable Future
For almost 4 years Juno Composites have been an innovation partner inside a Horizon 2020 programme on a project called ‘VIBES’. Recently Juno Composites manufactured a carbon fibre bisphenol-free epoxy resin panel successfully with resin infusion. As an innovation partner in the VIBES project, Juno Composites have focused on the development bio-based composites utilising novel bio-based and recyclable epoxy resins combined with lignin based carbon fibres and natural flax reinforcements. Juno validated that the novel constituent materials developed within the VIBES project, can be successfully manufactured into the composite using state-of-the art liquid moulding techniques including; resin infusion and resin transfer moulding (RTM).
The novel epoxy resins were synthesised by Specific Polymers (France), the lignin derived carbon fibres from DITF (Germany) and University of Limerick (Ireland), the flax reinforcement textiles woven by FLIPTS & Dobbels (Belgium). Furthermore, Juno mechanically characterised the novel VIBES composites with regards to their fibre and resin dominated properties and compared their performance against composites manufactured from commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) epoxy resin (Sicomin France), carbon fibre reinforcements (Crammer Germany) and flax textiles (ECO-Techlin)
What is the VIBES Project?
Find out more on VIBES Project here
The VIBES project explores sustainability at every stage of the value chain from the constituent fibre and polymer matrix manufacturers to the composite fabricators and end users. The aim is to mitigate the disposal of the composite material at the end of its life. Within the VIBES project this is being achieved via the development of not just new constituent polymer matrices and fibre reinforcements, in addition the development of ‘green’ processes to separate the constituents when the composite comes to the end of its useful life.
Why is the VIBES Project Important
The trend towards increased sustainability could soon become legislated requirements in the European Union, for example within the automotive sector, the ‘End-of-life vehicles Regulation; mandate that manufacturers need to declare the recycled vehicle content, 25% of plastic used for new vehicles must be from recycled feedstock along with other requirements that incentivise manufacturers to recycle more effectively and recover better quality raw materials (reference: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/end-life-vehicles/end-life-vehicles-regulation_en).