Toyota Industries Corporation

05/15/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/14/2024 20:06

Toyota Industries Corporation Wins Japan-First Gold Award, Top Award of the German Innovation Award, for CFRP Recycling Technology and Recycling System

Toyota Industries Corporation Wins Japan-First Gold Award, Top Award of the German Innovation Award, for CFRP Recycling Technology and Recycling System

Toyota Industries Corporation became the first Japanese company to win the Gold Award (Materials & Surfaces category), the top award of the German Innovation Award 2024, for its carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) recycling technology and the comprehensive CFRP recycling system that Toyota Industries aims to build.
This award is given annually to innovative products and projects since 2018 by the German Design Council, established by the German Bundestag. Toyota Industries was nominated based on a recommendation from the Council. This year, 520 products and projects were nominated from around the world, and out of a total of 18 categories, the Gold Award*1 was presented to 17 particularly outstanding entries.

The following two points were highly evaluated in receiving this award:

1. As the demand for CFRP is increasing as a material that contributes to weight reduction in automobiles, aircraft, and wind power generation blades, technology that enables the spinning of recycled carbon fiber from used CFRP into high-quality yarns will contribute to solving the concerning problem of recycling CFRP.
2. The comprehensive CFRP recycling system, which consists of a series of processes and technologies from yarn recycling to weaving, molding, and quality inspection tools, will contribute to the further spread of CFRP.

This is the second time that Toyota Industries' CFRP recycling technology and recycling system have received an internationally prestigious award, following the JEC INNOVATION AWARDS 2023 in Paris, France. We aim to further refine the CFRP recycling technology and build an openly accessible comprehensive CFRP recycling system in which many companies and partners in various industries can participate.

*1: In principle, one product or project from each category wins a Gold Award

Conceptual diagram of the comprehensive CFRP recycling system

◇Reference
・German Innovation Award official website
https://www.german-innovation-award.de/en/