No abstract

Shredding is a major process step in mechanical recycling, as the plastic scrap needs to be cut into small pieces for further processing. It will be melted and finally injection‐molded to form new plastic parts. Also for fiber‐reinforced thermoplastics, the mechanical recycling process is an ecofriendly process because all resources are reused. One challenge during the shredding of fiber‐reinforced plastics is the fiber dust formation. The fiber dust disturbs the following production processes, and the fiber fragments can be alveolar and thus potentially toxic. Therefore, it is a major aim of this research to optimize the cutting process by investigating the effect of different shredding parameters on the alveolar fiber dust formation. Three different continuous fiber‐reinforced thermoplastic organo sheets (PP with glass fibers, PA6 with glass fibers, PA66 with carbon fibers) are shredded while the parameters of throughput, rotational speed, screen size and feedstock size are varied. The results show no clear effect of the throughput either on the amount of fine particles nor on the number of short fibers after removal of the plastic matrix for all materials. Reducing the screen size in the cutting mill leads to a large increase in the amount of fine particles and on the number of short fiber fragments. Additionally, the rotational speed has a large impact on the amount of fine particles. With increasing rotational speed, the number of fine particles rises, whereas there is no major effect on the fiber length distribution. The investigations relating the rotational speed are valid for all materials, throughput, screen sizes and feedstock sizes. Decreasing the feedstock size leads to an increasing amount of fine particles with no change in fiber length distribution for the glass fiber‐reinforced organo sheets. For the carbon fiber‐reinforced materials, it does not lead to any change in the amount of fiber dust but to an increase in shorter fibers. Thus this parameter seems to be material dependent. Images taken by a scanning electron microscope show alveolar fiber dust fragments in the ground material of all samples.

Carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRP) have excellent specific strength and rigidity, which has made them a popular material for lightweight construction. The growing demand for fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) leads to the problem of the sustainable handling of FRP at the end of their life cycle. The aim of the research project was to gain knowledge about the shredding of FRP concerning the optimal machine and process design of the shredding process and the possible formation of harmful, inhalable dust fractions and WHO fibers. Toxicity should be investigated at the cellular level. The investigated shredding parameters influence the amount and length of fiber dust produced, both when shredding with a cutting mill and when shredding with a single-shaft shredder. In all investigations, an increasing rotational speed leads to an increase in the fiber dust mass or the fiber concentration. The proportion of short, respirable fibers increases, but raising the speed does not lead to a further, significant shortening of the fibers. A reduction in feedstock size leads to a slightly reduced mass of fiber dust in the ground material. A reduction in the screen size also leads to an increase in fiber dust mass and concentration. There was no recognizable cytotoxicity in the relevant concentration range up to 500 µg/cm 2 and no significant induction of cell migration. This indicates minor flammable effects of the dust formed after inhalation.