Sigmatex, UK’s developer and manufacturer of carbon fibre textiles for composite material applications, has developed a new carbon fibre composite material within its sigmaRF product range. Primarily aimed at the automotive industry, the product is an innovative and sustainable composite material based on reclaimed carbon fibre and thermoplastic matrix.

SigmaRF enables the complete manufacture of a non-crimp fabric by reformatting surplus virgin carbon fibre. This significantly reduces the amount of fabric which is currently sent to landfill from both Sigmatex and its customers. SigmaRF is suitable for many applications which currently use carbon fibre textiles, particularly for automotive, sports, leisure, and energy applications.

The polypropylene material is a uniform blend of carbon and thermoplastic fibres and is typically made up of 55 per cent thermoplastic and 45 per cent carbon. 85 per cent of the fibres are aligned, which provides far superior mechanical properties when compared to other recycled materials. Sigmatex has also developed a polyamide version of the material which is also now available.

The new material was recently promoted at the Advanced Engineering Show, UK’s largest meeting place for advanced engineering professionals in Birmingham, on November 2 and 3, 2016. (GK)