Fibre-reinforced thermoset composites (FRTCs) are attractive materials for demanding sectors such as automotive or construction, due to their light weight and excellent mechanical properties. However, the lack of reprocessability and difficulty of repairing and recycling significantly increases the overall material cost and causes serious environmental concerns. ECOXY is developing innovative bio-based epoxy resins and fibre reinforcements to produce competitive FRTCs targeting advanced functionalities: reparability, reprocessability, recyclability (3R) and fire behaviour.
In this project, AIMPLAS is working on improving 3R resins to reach better fire behaviour, using different flame retardants and nanoparticles to obtain a synergistic effect. Pultrusion parameters are also taken into account to design a material suitable for this production process.
Initial tests with bio-based resins produced promising results, reaching flammability values V0 (UL94 vertical flammability test) as well as reductions of 70% in the MARHE value. Based on these results, functionalization of the selected flame retardant is being accomplished to further enhance the flame-retardant properties of the final material.
