Sustainable Manufacturing with Out of Autoclave Vacuum Bag Only (OOA-VBO) Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Prepreg including Reuse-Upcycling of Scrap Prepreg
This work was sponsored by NSF under the G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research, "Interdisciplinary Program on Material Efficiency - A first step towards sustainable manufacturing" and was performed by Dr. Nilakantan while he worked at the University of Southern California. Dr. Nilakantan's work on reusing and upcycling scrap prepreg was one of the down-selected nominees for the prestigious ACMA ACE and CAMX awards in 2014. He was recognized for his pioneering work in this field as one of the early innovators and advocates demonstrating both the technical and business feasibility of this important green and sustainable initiative to reduce the amount of uncured composite waste that is annually landfilled. One of the demonstrator parts he made with scrap prepreg was the "Gazelle" composite prosthetic foot. He also conceptualized "Infinipreg", a sheet molding compound comprised of scrap prepreg chips.
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Relevant Journal Publications
- Reuse and Upcycling of Thermoset Prepreg Scrap: Case Study with Out-of-Autoclave Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Prepreg, Gaurav Nilakantan; Steven Nutt; Journal of Composite Materials, Vol. 52, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 341-360. (URL)
Relevant Conference Proceedings and Presentations
- Vacuum Bag Only Processing of Complex Shapes: Effect of Geometry, Material Properties, and Processing Conditions, Yijia Ma; Timotei Centea; Gaurav Nilakantan; Steven Nutt; American Society for Composites 29th Technical Conference, San Diego, CA, USA, September 8-10, 2014
- Surface Porosity in Out-of-Autoclave Prepreg Processing: Causes and Reduction Strategies, Lee Hamill; Tim Centea; Gaurav Nilakantan; Steven Nutt; SAMPE TECH 2014, Seattle, WA, USA, June 2-5, 2014
- Minimizing Surface Porosity in Vacuum Bag Only Prepreg Processing, Lee Hamill; Tim Centea; Gaurav Nilakantan; Steven Nutt; Doug Decker; SME Composites Manufacturing 2014, Covington, KY, USA, April 8-10, 2014
Relevant Other Publications
- Compression Molding: New Materials and Markets, Composites World - Blog Entry by Ginger Gardiner, February 2017 (URL)
- A Peek into the Future “Salvaging the Scrap Heap”, Composites Manufacturing Magazine, September - October 2015 (URL)
- Reuse and Upcycling of Aerospace Prepreg Scrap and Waste, Gaurav Nilakantan; Steven Nutt; Reinforced Plastics, Volume 59, Issue 1, January - February 2015, pp. 44-51. (URL)
- Cited in the Most Downloaded Reinforced Plastics Articles - Upcycling Composite Prepreg Materials, One Step At A Time, Composites Manufacturing Interviews, November 26, 2014 (URL)
- Check Out the Competition: Visit the Awards Pavilion at CAMX, Composites World and CAMX e-Newsletter, August 26, 2014 (URL)
Entry Title - Sustainable Upcycling of Waste and Scrap Prepreg for Commercial End-Products