Study on Interfacial Adhesion between Recycled Short Fiber Pellets and Inserted Parts in CFRTP Hybrid Injection Molding

Abstract

Since carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP) have features such as high cycle productivity and recyclability, they have been extensively studied recently as a next generation lightweight material. From the viewpoint of high cycle productivity of CFRTP, a molding technology combining press molding and injection molding of CFRTP called “hybrid injection molding” is attracting attention. On the other hand, we proposed a method for recycling CFRTP prepreg waste by kneading with a twin-screw extruder and pelletizing based on the recyclability of CFRTP in a recent paper. Therefore, in this study, the interfacial adhesion between insert-material, which is a laminate of CFRTP prepreg, and injection-material, which is fabricated by recycling the end material of the CFRTP prepreg used at the time of manufacturing the insert-material, was investigated. As a result, it was confirmed that excellent interfacial adhesion is exhibited when using insert-material and injection-material that have similar material characteristics for hybrid injection molding.