#Composites

2023-03-09

Toyota Industries Corporation wins JEC Composites Innovation Awards for CFRP recycling technology and recycling system

Planned Toyota Industries booth at JEC World 2023 © 2023 Toyota

On March 2, 2023, Toyota Industries Corporation (President: Akira Onishi; "Toyota Industries") won an award at the JEC Composites Innovation Awards (Circularity & Recycling category) for its carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) recycling technology and the comprehensive CFRP recycling system that Toyota Industries aims to build.

— Participating for the First Time in JEC World 2023, One of the World’s Leading International Composites Events —

The JEC Group of France, which promotes the development of the composite material industry and technology, has been hosting the awards every year since 1998. The awards recognize the world's most innovative composite material products and technologies, and it was the first time that Toyota Industries received this award.

Toyota Industries was recognized for its recycling technology that enables spinning carbon fiber from used CFRP and recycling them into high-quality yarns, thereby significantly reducing CO2 emissions and waste throughout the CFRP life cycle. The comprehensive CFRP recycling system is also made possible by combining crucial technologies: specifically, the manufacturing technology for producing recycled CFRP products through weaving, molding and processing from recycled yarns and the advanced computer-aided engineering (CAE) and inspection technology for product design, performance evaluation and quality assurance. The completion of this system is expected to promote the use of CFRP in a broad range of industries and companies and contribute to its widespread use.

Toyota Industries will exhibit the recycling technology and comprehensive CFRP recycling system at JEC World 2023, one of the world's leading international composites events, to be held in Paris, France, from April 25- 27, 2023. Participating in the exhibition held in Europe, which leads the world in the field of CFRP, will give Toyota Industries the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and identify issues.

Conceptual diagram of the comprehensive CFRP recycling system © 2023 Toyota

Based on such insights, we aim to further refine the CFRP recycling technology and build an openly accessible CFRP recycling system in which many companies and partners in various industries can participate.

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