When manufacturing fibre reinforced plastics engineers are still confr
onted with a lack of experience concerning efficient recycling methods
for prepreg cutting waste. Normally, the prepregs are cured and subse
quently milled to use them as a filler material for polymers. However,
this method is expensive and it is difficult to find applications for
the milled FRP. An alternative method to recycle CFRP prepregs will b
e presented in this paper. Cutting the uncured prepreg waste was done
by means of a saw mill which was cooled down to low temperatures. Work
ing temperatures of -30 degrees C are sufficient to harden the uncured
resin and to achieve cuttable prepregs. Furthermore, post-curing duri
ng the cutting process is avoided with this technique. The result is a
'cotton'-like matted structure with random fibre orientation and fibr
e length distribution, Subsequent curing was done by means of a press
and an autoclave, respectively. It will be shown by means of tension a
nd bending tests that low-temperature cutting of uncured prepregs is a
way to partly conserve the high valuation of FRP during recycling. Fu
rthermore, it offers possibilities for various applications. (C) 1998
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.