What happens to CF parts that are no longer in use? In my case, I recently had a CF frame replaced under warranty...so this begs the question: what happens to the frame (and all other CF parts in the same situation)? Can they be recycled into lower grade or higher grade CF parts??
Just curious

They are probably repainted and sold as new......I hope not anyway.

Recycling

An important usage concern involves the material's entire lifecycle, as carbon fiber reinforced plastics have an almost infinite lifetime. Some companies [2] are succeeding in recycling this carbon fiber. The recycling strategy centers on milling, compounding or shredding the reclaimed carbon fiber, and finding use for this end product in various industrial applications (including carbon fiber applications less stringent than those required by, say, the aerospace industry). It is also commonly used in electronics, such as laptops, to lower the weight load and to improve durability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_fiber_reinforced_plastic#Recycling

What happens to CF parts that are no longer in use? In my case, I recently had a CF frame replaced under warranty...so this begs the question: what happens to the frame (and all other CF parts in the same situation)? Can they be recycled into lower grade or higher grade CF parts??
Just curious

CF parts are either loose fiber (short or long) or some sort of weave in an epoxy matrix. Epoxy is a crosslinked polymer, and therefore cannot be melted and remolded. Besides, you couldn't economically get the long fibers or weave back even if it was in a thermoplastic. If you grind a CF composite, you have chunks of polymer and fibers of the same length as the size of the chunks. If you grind to a powder size, then it is just filler with none of the major benefits of fibers or weaves. To get the maximum value for recycled CF structures, you would probably blend them with coal or oil as fuel.