JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 42
SPORTS & LEISURE
natural fibre
A different approach to natural fibre composites
ChriStian FiSCher Phd,
CEO, Co-founder
Julien rion Phd,
Technical Director, Co-Founder
SoPhie de riJk, mSC,
Manager Industries
Bcomp
N
Since its founding in 2011, Bcomp has been focusing on understanding the
specificity of natural fibres and their composites, and developing solutions that
bring striking benefits to the end product - in addition to the lower ecological
footprint. One of the company's main focuses has been to demonstrate that
flax composites offer a credible alternative to synthetic fibre composites, even
outperforming carbon fibre composite solutions in specific cases. The sports
industry, just like the motor sports sector, has much to gain from adopting
natural fibre composites.
atural fibre composites have
gained significant attention over
the last couple of years. However,
despite their outstanding specific mechanical properties, these novel materials
struggle to establish themselves at a large
scale in the composites industry (Figure
1). This is partly due to their short
history, with uncertainties regarding the
long-term behaviour of natural fibre composites. Moreover, natural fibre preform
suppliers have been very much focusing
on mimicking their glass fibre preform
counterparts, at significantly higher
price-performance ratios.
Well-known concepts
The powerRibs technology is based on
the leaf-veins concept, i.e. stiffening a surface with minimum weight. Instead of the
nervures, so called ribs made of flax fibres
are used to reinforce thin-walled structures, resulting in a "pseudo mini-sandwich" since no core material is involved.
These ribs are easily combined with any
type of base fabric, such as natural fibre
(NF), glass fibre (GF) or carbon fibre
(CF) preforms. Figure 2 shows a close-up
picture of a composite made of a biaxial
flax fabric (base layer) and powerRibs
on the surface, while the dry powerRibs
fabric is displayed in Figure 3.
Fig.2: A full flax fibre composite construction:
The powerRibs grid on a flax biaxial fabric
composite, with an epoxy matrix
Fig.3: The dry powerRibs fabric
Fig.1: Stiffness per weight
ratio (giving the lightweighting
power) over embodied energy
(giving the eco-footprint) of flax
fibre composites, compared to
classic materials types.
42
jec composites magazine / N°114 July 2017
Natural fibres in space
With their high stiffness, low density and
limited length, flax fibres are ideal for use in
the powerRibs technology. As the fibres are
limited in length, they need to be spun into
a continuous yarn for further textile processing.
Although this looks as a disadvantage at
first sight, it was actually turned into an
advantage. Thanks to the resulting twist, the
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017
Cover
Edito
Opinion: Composite music
Contents
NEWS
In brief
Raw materials
Agenda
BUSINESS
Thermoset resin - Part B
Glass fibre
Construction
MANUFACTURING
Control
Out-of-autoclave
Recycling
Feature Sports & Leisure - Composites: the key to performance?
Software
CFRP
Simulation
Golf
Biocomposites
Natural fibre
SOLUTIONS
Infrastructure
Roofing and siding
In the world
TECHNOLOGY
Software
A novel physics node for Nakamura crystallization kinetics
Index
Advertisers
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 60
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Cover
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 2
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Edito
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Opinion: Composite music
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 5
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Contents
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 7
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - In brief
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 9
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 10
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Raw materials
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD1
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD2
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 12
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD3
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD4
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 13
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Agenda
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Thermoset resin - Part B
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 16
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 17
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 18
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Glass fibre
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 20
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Construction
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 22
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 23
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Control
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 25
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 26
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 27
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Out-of-autoclave
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 29
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Recycling
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 31
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 32
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Software
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 34
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - CFRP
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 36
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Simulation
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Golf
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 39
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Biocomposites
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 41
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Natural fibre
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 43
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 44
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD5
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - AD6
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - SOLUTIONS
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 46
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 47
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Infrastructure
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Roofing and siding
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - In the world
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Software
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 52
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 53
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - A novel physics node for Nakamura crystallization kinetics
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 55
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 56
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 57
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - Advertisers
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