A waste(d) opportunity

I recently noticed the 'What do you think?' section at the back of Reinforced Plastics and thought I would mention something which has been bothering me for some time. I have been involved in aerospace and composite manufacturing for 17 years and one theme in that time has been the willingness of manufacturers of composite parts to dispose of a relatively high proportion of prepreg material. We either pay specialist waste companies to dispose of the offcuts from automated ply cutters (and hand cutting) or pay internally to cure the material and then dispose of it.  

This represents a real opportunity, if we can find a sensible and economically viable use for this material. I have had discussions with representatives of a number of prepreg manufacturers only to be met with a shrug of the shoulders. Based on these discussions and a few conversations with others in the industry, our company is performing fairly well in that we regularly use about 80% of each roll. This still represents a huge waste of an expensive material which is also costly to dispose of responsibly. If there are any like minded people out there, let's see what we can do about it. Any success in this field would add to our green credentials (if we have any) and save money.

Pete Rayner
CHC Composites, Canada