AITEX was present at the 17th ETP’s Annual European Textile Conference and General Assembly and iTechStyle Summit from CITEVE that took place on 10 to 12 May in Porto, Portugal. The event brought together industry leaders, experts, and academia to explore the latest trends, strategies, opportunities, and challenges in the textile sector.

Participating in the Performance Materials sessions were featured discussions on smart textile and advancements in high-performance materials for future products.  Erik Macias presented one of our projects that AITEX is the main coordinator:  r-LightBioCom. Develop of new raw bio-based materials for lighter and sustainable high-performance composites, enabling circular value chain for them.

The project proposes a new paradigm shift: in the way we manufacture and recycle high-performance composites and the change from a linear to a circular value chain.

The main objective it´s to reduce the environmental impact of new lightweight high-performance composites, not only during their manufacture, but also during their lifetime and at the end of their useful life, due to the inherent recyclability properties that the new composites will exhibit, obtained through improved mechanical properties, weight reduction and new functionalities.

They will be validated through 3 use cases in the application sectors of: automotive, construction and aeronautics.

r-lightbiocom project

New lightweight High Performance Composite (HPC) materials and efficient sustainable processing technologies have enormous environmental and performance benefits in all application sectors. However, the current application of HPC is limited to large sectors due to its limitations in terms of long processing times, high prices and low recyclability.

The project proposes a new paradigm in the way of developing and recycling high-performance lightweight composites, helping their recyclability through a new production design. In addition, the project will contribute to the recircularity of materials, helping to achieve European objectives in environmental terms and reducing the generation of waste and the use of unsustainable fossil resources.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. European Union cannot be held responsible for them.