Fieldlab CIM – Owens Corning

The goal is finding reuse for residual flows of the Glass Fiber fleece production lines at Owens Corning. TPAC is involved for vibration and damping knowledge and calculations. Save Plastics joins for processing the recycled flow into a new product.

Summary

Owens Corning produces a.o. glass fiber products like fleece for surface improvement of drywall, tapestry, ceiling plates and wallpaper. For this range of products they often change thickness and width, some edges are cut off. This flow is therefore not constant in composition and amount.

Many products have been considered for this rest flow and several have been studied in more detail. The best option for this project, due to production processes and application, are dike piles and panels that can handle higher loads, as suggested by Save Plastics. The goal is to get the piles 6 m into the ground, like wooden piles, instead of the 4 m depth with current recycled material. They are already popular for the smaller dikes. Adding the OC fiber rest flow can hopefully increase this significantly.

Figure 1: Save Plastics composite pile wall

Relevant questions are therefore:

• What is the influence of glass fibers to the current production process and which adjustments are needed?
• What are the consequences for stiffness and strength, related to fiber percentage, fiber orientation and impregnation?
• Which properties are most dominant for vibrating or hammering these piles and is material damping relevant? If so, how can we quantify and test it?
• Which pile length would be theoretically possible by adding glass fibers?

This feasibility study will be summarized with mechanical test results, theoretical formulas, FE calculations and validated by hammering on standard and reinforced piles.

Project partners

Owens Corning, Save Plastics

Duration

10 months, started in June 2023

Funding

Financed by Fieldlab

For more information go to:

• https://circulairemaakindustrie.nl/projecten/fieldlab-circulaire-innovaties-in-de-maakindustrie-cim/
• https://www.saxion.nl/onderzoek/labs/fieldlab-cim