CEAMS CASE STUDY: CYGNET TEXKIMP
Cygnet Texkimp collaborated with CEAMS to develop comprehensive quality assurance methods for recycled continuous carbon fibre tows from hydrogen vessels, opening doors in high value applications and promoting market update.
1. The Challenge
Cygnet Texkimp operates across the aerospace, automotive, medical, and military sectors - where the demand for carbon fibre continuously outpaces supply due to its widespread applications. A major challenge is the lack of effective recycling methods for carbon fibre waste due to complex processes, high costs, lack of infrastructure, and uncertainties around environmental impact. Due to the challenges, many within the industry are sceptical about the feasibility of recycling processes and whether the recycled carbon fibre can match the quality of virgin materials.
Retaining the high value quality of carbon fibre is complex due to the composite material structure and varied carbon fibre waste streams. Producing a recycled product that retains mechanical properties comparable to virgin fibres requires extensive R&D. Market awareness is also an issue – many manufacturers are not informed about the value of their waste and the possibility of high-quality recycled material.
Developing robust inspection and characterisation capabilities is critical for overcoming these challenges and providing industries with the confidence to use recycled carbon fibre tows in high-value applications.
2. The Solution
Cygnet Texkimp was connected with CEAMS and was partnered with the National Composites Centre (NCC), the Henry Royce Institute, and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to take advantage of vital expertise in materials testing, recycling process development, composite manufacturing and application, academic research and independent validation.
The team is developing an end-to-end capability for quality assurance and performance validation of recycled carbon fibre tows to ensure that recycled fibres meet industry standards. Cygnet Texkimp recycles waste composite tanks and recovers the carbon fibre as continuous tows. The solution integrates Cygnet Texkimp's composite recycling technology and fibre handling capabilities, with NCC’s inline inspection capability for the recycled tows and manufactures them into second life materials and components. Second life processing trials have already been conducted, with recycled materials used in tailored fibre placement, braiding, 3D printing and 3D weaving. Cygnet Texkimp, NCC and NPL are collaborating to develop new processes for material characterisation and rigorous testing, while researchers at Royce are investigating polymer recovery from the waste composites.
By combining expertise across this value chain, the project aims to demonstrate that recycled carbon fibre tows can meet the highest quality standards for strength, stiffness, durability, sustainability and cost-effectiveness. This will help to build essential market confidence and enable significant reuse of this high-value material.
3. The Impact
The collaboration between Cygnet Texkimp and CEAMS is advancing carbon fibre recycling technologies. Enabling reuse of recovered carbon fibre reduces costs and environmental impact for manufacturers, while lending credibility to business sustainability endeavours. The partnership bridged the gap between academic research and industrial applications – a prime example of a scalable, sustainable solution for the £12 billion UK composites industry.
Looking ahead, efforts will focus on further refining the recycling process and leveraging collaboration to drive further innovation and uptake. As Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) and industry partners validate potential ‘second life’ applications by testing the recycled carbon fibre tows for new use cases, market acceptance will grow. This will extend the impact of the project to end consumers, fostering a true circular economy for the critical material.