With the new range, the company says it is offering significantly improved performance compared to woven fabrics, at a lower cost. “Whilst we will still carry a range of woven fabrics where aesthetics are critical to an application, these new unidirectional tapes offer a step change in performance for cost, especially when used as part of a multi-layer or hybrid layup,” said Gareth Davies, Sales Manager at Composites Evolution.

“It’s rare that a company can offer improved performance and lower cost in one hit, and we’ve received very positive reactions from initial trials with customers.”

Benefits

Aligning the flax filaments in a tape means that there is no twist in the fibres (unlike most natural fibre yarns), giving the same stiffness for weight as glass fibre. In parallel, because the spinning and weaving steps are eliminated from the production process, the final product cost is lower than conventional woven fabrics, the company reports.

Biotex Flax tapes can replace layers of carbon fibre in a laminate to create micro-sandwich structures with equal bending stiffness to all-carbon laminates, but with reduced cost, reduced weight, increased shock absorption and improved environmental impact.

Applications

The tapes have also been used to produce hybrid flax/carbon spread tow fabrics, which are said to offer superior properties due to the high degree of fibre alignment and low crimp, alongside highly attractive aesthetics. These materials are particularly suited to sporting goods.

Biotex Flax tapes are suitable for resin infusion, resin transfer moulding and prepregging processes, using a wide range of thermoset resin systems. In addition, Composites Evolution also includes prepregged tapes as part of its Ecopreg PFA range of materials, giving a 100% bio-derived structural material.

www.compositesevolution.com