On 08^th of June 2020 the third user committee meeting was held as online meeting organized by the STFI. Current results were presented by the partners and discussed with the user committee.

The main results were:

• At Centexbel:
  • Treatment of textiles (woven and nonwoven fabrics) by using flame retardant finishing (flam-fixe^TM, Veramtex S.a.) for flax woven fabrics or applying silane based adhesives (using padding method) at basalt woven and nonwoven fabrics,
  • Modification of bio based epoxy resin using Ammoniumpolyphosphat (APP) or Aluminium trihydrate (ATH).
     
• At STFI:
  • Developing different nonwovens fabrics based on basalt, basalt-rCF blends and rCF,
  • First trails on web bonding: needle punching combined with stitch bonding using 100% basalt sewing thread,
  • Further processing of treated nonwovens to composites using hand lay-up method and epoxy system,
  • Processing composites based on reference materials using hand lay-up method and epoxy resin.
     
• At IVW:
  • Determination of permeability and compaction of textiles (woven and nonwoven fabrics; difficulties with nonwovens due to their grammage variation),
  • Processing bio based epoxy system via RTM process; due to the flame retardant additives, that filtered out, other impregnation methods (hand lay-up method or vacuum infusion) will be tried out,
  • Processing benzoxazine using RTM-Process wasn’t possible due to the rapid cooling during the injection step,
  • Applying benzoxazine as powder on woven fabrics (at IVW) and basalt rovings (at M&A Dieterle GmbH).

Further steps are:

• Further tests at STFI on Maliwatt using 100% basalt thread
• Processing trials using modified bio-based epoxy or benzoxazine systems
• Testing of flame retardant properties (textile fabrics and composites)
• Demonstrator

Thanks to all participants for the constructive discussion and cooperation!