Use of recycled carbon fibre as a heating element

The paper describes the development of a heating element material using recycled carbon fibre. The recycled carbon fibre was first characterised in terms of length and then manufactured into a non-woven sheet using a wet paper-making procedure. A heating fabric was subsequently created by sandwiching the non-woven sheet between adhesive Teflon sheets. Factors affecting the fabric heating performance and its usability such as binder content, durability, electrical conductivity and mechanical strength were investigated. The fabric electrical conductivity was around 2.8 x 10³ S m^-1 and was capable to withstand up to 3000 double folds under durability test. The robust and flexible fabric is potentially ideal for usage in various heating garment applications as well as for food packaging and delivery systems.