As it turns out, there is quite a bit going on, both here in the US and in Europe. There have been a couple of articles in publications like Composites World and a few announcements by major players in this industry recently that I have seen since I last wrote about natural fibers being used as the reinforcement fiber in composites.
Shannon Welsh Measuring Flax in Bloom in Willamette Valley
There has been a fairly recent resurgence in the growing of fibrous plants like flax and hemp for use as textiles both on the West Coast of the US and in Europe. This pic is from the Pacific Northwest Fibershed, founded by Shannon Welsh, who is also a co-founder of Fiberevolution. Fibershed got its start in Northern California in 2010 to bring back both flax and hemp to the textile industry, primarily for fabrics. As it turns out, however, the Willamette Valley in Oregon has the perfect climate for growing flax. And, there is more land area that is available for this in Oregon and Northern California than there is in the best flax growing regions of Europe – mostly in France.
And I need to be transparent here - the fact that this pic is from a flax field in the Willamette Valley and even near Corvallis, OR, is not lost on e. I did, after all, grow up right there, and my first two Mechanical Engineering degrees are from Oregon State in Corvallis. Pics of fields like this feel like home to me.
In any case, what that means to the composites industry is that there is a renewed availability of high quality flax and hemp fiber available for use for natural fiber reinforced composites. Fortunately, the companies and research establishments that have been working toward a sustainable model for their fiber composite materials have taken note of this and are doing things about it. And, this is happening both in Western Europe, and in the U.S.
A very recent article in Composites World (“DITF, RBX Création develops hemp-based pulp for filament-spun cellulose fibers,” published 9/18/2024) describes a joint effort between the German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) and a small company in Jonzac, France, RBX Creations, that resulted in a hemp-based pulp that can be wet spun into a fiber for use in composites. RBX uses locally grown hemp and processes it into a pulp that can be dissolved in an ionic liquid according to the article in Composites World. Then from this wet slurry bath, researchers from DITF were able to wet spin fibers that have high strength and also are very consistent. It is this consistency in properties that has held back traditional natural fibers from being able to break into the mainstream for composites.
The DITF researchers were able to use some fiber spinning technology that they had developed a couple of years ago whereby the cellulosic fibers from the hemp fiber slurry are put into a precipitation bath that uses a solvent that is completely recoverable and reusable. Fiber is wet spun out of this bath using traditional textile fiber processes creating a consistent product that can be directly used in the textile industry. Since it is the textile industry that the composites industry has relied on very heavily to produce fabrics and tapes for use in standard composite manufacturing processes, this development in Europe looks to be the start of a new push in Europe to start using sustainable raw materials for composite part production. RBX Création is marketing their products under the brand name Iroony. They have already introduced both knitted and woven fabrics
The process created by these two organizations working together was presented at the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) competition during the conference held September 8-10 this year in Uzbekistan. RBX and DITF won the ITMF International Cooperation Award 2024 for their work.
In another development, Hexcel has completed the transition to exclusive use of their Hexcel Nature Range line of flax fiber / plant-based resin prepregs for their entire winter sports product line. Hexcel has been providing raw materials to a broad range of winter sports equipment manufacturers like Elan, Fischer, Kästle, Stöckli, Technica Group, and Völkl. They had built some test skis for a couple of these manufacturers when they first came out with their Nature Range line of pre-pregs and met with not only success but enthusiasm from the professional that tested the skis on all different snow conditions. The natural fiber / plant-based resin skis made from Hexcel Nature Range are lighter weight for the same stiffness, but they are not as stiff as carbon fiber skis. This makes them light enough that a good skier can very easily make very rapid turns, and they are stiff enough that they will bite well into the snow. And they also have somewhat of a vibration dampening effect so the skis don’t chatter the way carbon fiber skis do. At least from the reports I’ve read about these products, they have been met with enthusiasm both in Europe and here in the U.S. That is probably why Hexcel completed their transition to all Nature Range for their winter sports products. It was, as they say, a natural fit. (Sorry)
Finally, I also saw an article, again in Composites World, about an international aerospace manufacturer – FACC AG in Austria – that is working on repurposing end of life thermoplastics. They have joined with 13 other European partners on a project they call COMPASS, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe program. The project is led by an Austrian company, Profactor GmbH with a goal of enabling the repurposing of all types of thermoplastics into qualified aerospace parts, thereby reducing the requirement to use extracted raw materials – meaning petroleum. The idea here is to reuse these materials and hopefully by 2040 to achieve carbon neutral manufacturing of thermoplastic aerospace parts.
The goal of this work, from what I understand is to enable the complete reuse of all of the thermoplastic parts in both commercial and military aviation without the need to make new plastics from petroleum precursors. And, rather than just making more soda bottles with the thermoplastics, they want to be able to reprocess these materials into new overhead bins, seat frames, etc. for new aircraft. This is a laudable goal, and from what is written about this endeavor, it appears that they may be able to achieve carbon neutrality by their stated goal date.
That’s about it for this week. I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them. As usual I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as well as on LinkedIn. And if anyone wants to provide comments to this, I welcome them with open arms. Comments, criticisms, etc. are all quite welcome. I really do want to engage in a conversation with all of you about composites because we can learn so much from each other as long as we share our own perspectives.
I also wanted to let everyone know that I have finished the first draft of my second book. This one is about what I have been writing in these newsletters for the last 6 months or so – sustainability of composites and a path to the future that does not include using fossil fuels for either the raw materials or the process energy to make composites. Stay tuned to this space and I will let everyone know about my progress as I try to find a publisher. Hopefully that will not take too long. McFarland has responded and is interested, so we will see if maybe another publisher takes me up on this. It would be nice to see this one get some traction.
Finally, I still need to plug my first book, so here’s the plug. The book pretty much covers the watershed in composites, starting with a brief history of composites, then introducing the Periodic Table and why Carbon is such an important and interesting element. The book was published and made available last August, and is available both on Amazon and from McFarland Books – my publisher. However, the best place to get one is to go to my website and buy one. I will send you a signed copy for the same price you would get charged on Amazon, except that I charge $8 shipping. Anyway, here’s the link to get your signed copy: https://www.nedpatton.com/product-page/the-string-and-glue-of-our-world-signed-copy. And as usual, here’s a picture of the book.
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