Federations and Sports activities Tools Suppliers Uniting to Reuse Carbon Fiber Elements

Sailing Energy – World Sailing

Kimberly Hoodin

May 2, 2022

The Carbon Fiber Circular Demonstration Project, run by the World Sailing Trust, is working with sports equipment manufacturers and others to support a program based on the reuse of carbon fiber components within the sports sector.

The Carbon Fiber Circular Demonstration Project was launched on Earth Day, April 22ndndwith a focus on the reuse of carbon fiber components from the sports equipment industry, the project is run by the World Sailing Trust working with an alliance of international sports federations, supported by the International Olympic Committee, sports equipment manufacturers, Lineat Composites, the University of Bristol, and the National Composites Center in the UK.

Fibers from broken or end-of-life carbon fiber components from sports equipment are reclaimed through a HiPerDif (high performance discontinuous fiber) process, developed at the University of Bristol, that realigns the fibers into unidirectional prepreg tapes. The tapes will be supplied back to manufacturers within the alliance, such as Wilson Sporting Goods, SCOTT Sports, and OneWay, who will reuse the material in new sporting equipment. Early results from the demonstration show that in some cases the new carbon fiber tape produces better results than the original virgin fiber.