Ways of making prepreg 'greener'?

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Having recently worked for a company that used prepreg carbon,
(first job using prepreg) I am sold, in my mind, on how mess free it is. What I absolutely hated though was how much plastic backing was getting thrown away.

While I appreciate carbon fiber and the environment aren’t going to be best friends, is there a way of making some less environmentally damaging prepreg?

My thinking was something along the lines of DIY prepreg resin spread onto the fabric, then rolled in what could be a reusable teflon peel ply sheet? Obviously placed in the freezer afterwards.

Or, what about dry stabilized fabric used with resin films? I would have thought the resin films have their own backing plastic though?

Then bag the part in a reusable silicon bag.

#2

There’s a company that makes reusable tubular silicon bags for vacuum (actually I don’t remember the name), maybe it could be also useful for keeping the pre preg into the freezer.

#3

I’veworked in companies where the plastic is collected seperately and recycled. It’s easy to recycle those plastics, composites themselves, not so much…

#4

I can’t imagine that sort of plastic gets recycled in this country. If it could be (if I could find such a company), then that would be great.