UK firm ELG Carbon Fibre is looking to expand its footprint to North America with a US plant to recycle carbon fibre.
ELG, which currently operates one recycling plant in western central England, also has plans to open a plant in Germany, expected to be operational by 2018, said ELG managing director Frazer Barnes at the Society of Plastics Engineers' Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition 7 September in Novi. The US plant is set to be established by 2019, in a location yet to be determined.
ELG produces recycled carbon fibre materials that it says are capable of performing similarly to virgin CF at a lower cost and with a smaller carbon fibre footprint. In 2015 the company recovered more than 1,000 tonnes of carbon fibre from manufacturing waste and end-of-life components, Barnes said.
The company in July announced it had joined the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, a national organisation based in Knoxville, Tennessee, to help facilitate its engagement with carbon fibre end-users in the US.