Within the TOSCA project, NOMA is developing a method for reusing production scraps from vitrimer-based composites and expanding their potential contribution to material circularity.
The key scientific challenge is to enable repeated reprocessing while preserving the quality and performance of the resulting composites. This approach aims to move beyond a single reuse cycle towards multiple successive cycles, extending the useful life of materials and reducing production waste.
To date, reprocessing off-specification prepreg materials has yielded high-quality composites with promising performance characteristics. These results demonstrate the potential to recover value from materials that would otherwise be discarded. However, further reprocessing of scraps derived from previously reprocessed prepregs presents a more complex challenge.
The next stage of development will therefore focus on assessing the feasibility and limitations of multicycle reprocessing to identifying suitable processing conditions and evaluating whether the resulting composites retain properties appropriate for their intended applications.
