US 2026/0295903 A1Published application

Methods for preparing fiber-containing particles with recycled reinforcing fibers

AssigneeVartega Inc.

InventorsKylie Marie Van Aken, Sean Paul Kline, Andrew Timothy Maxey, Sean Louis Hankins, Angelique Whalen Kenison, Jordan Gray Harris

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Abstract

Recycled carbon fibers in non-continuous form are processed by rotational tumbling in a mixture with binder material to prepare fiber-containing agglomerates. Preliminary processing options include alignment of recycled non-continuous fibers in recycled fiber feed, non-continuous fiber length reduction following alignment, and fiber size classification to remove oversize non-continuous fibers prior to tumbling. Subsequent processing can include size classification of agglomerates and reprocessing of oversize agglomerates.

Claims38

Dependent claims

A method of making a bulk product comprising fiber-containing particles with reinforcing fibers held in a particle structure by a binder, the method comprising:

production processing, comprising:
(i) preparing agglomerates, comprising tumbling a process mixture comprising non-continuous reinforcing fibers and a binder material to form agglomerates including at least a portion of the non-continuous reinforcing fibers and at least a portion of the binder material, and wherein the agglomerates have a particle structure comprising:
a particle length dimension, being a maximum separation distance in a longitudinal direction between first and second longitudinal ends of the agglomerate;
a maximum particle width dimension transverse to the longitudinal direction at a longitudinal location between the first and second longitudinal ends;
and
an aspect ratio equal to the particle length dimension divided by the maximum particle width dimension;
and
(ii) subjecting the agglomerates to size classification to prepare a plurality of agglomerate fractions, the plurality of agglomerate fractions including at least a first agglomerate fraction having a first weight average particle length dimension and a second agglomerate fraction having a second weight average particle length dimension, wherein the first weight average particle length dimension is smaller than the second weight average particle length dimension;
and
(iii) processing at least a portion of the agglomerates of the first agglomerate fraction to provide fiber-containing particles with the particle structure for inclusion in a bulk product;
and
reprocessing the non-continuous fibers and the binder material of at least a portion of the second agglomerate fraction, the reprocessing comprising:
(a) subjecting at least a portion, of the agglomerates of the second agglomerate fraction to length reduction processing to reduce the length of at least a portion of the non-continuous reinforcing fibers of the second agglomerate fraction to prepare reprocessed non-continuous reinforcing fibers;
and
(b) subjecting to a reprocessing occurrence of the production processing at least a portion of the reprocessed non-continuous reinforcing fibers from the second agglomerate fraction and at least a portion of the binder material from the second agglomerate fraction in the process mixture of the reprocessing occurrence of the production processing.

12 more elements

The method of any one of paragraphs 1-34, wherein the preparing agglomerates comprises:

during the tumbling, forming the agglomerates as particles with a particle structure, wherein the particle structure comprises:
a particle length dimension, being a maximum separation distance in a longitudinal direction between first and second longitudinal ends of the particle;
a maximum particle width dimension transverse to the longitudinal direction at a longitudinal location between the first and second longitudinal ends;
and
an aspect ratio equal to the particle length dimension divided by the maximum particle width dimension;
and
recovering a batch of agglomerates comprising at least a portion of the agglomerates as particles of the batch;
and
wherein the method further comprises processing at least a portion of the batch of agglomerates to prepare a batch of bulk product with a plurality of fiber-containing particles having the particle structure.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.