The holiday season is upon us and many of us will travel to see family and friends or simply go on a holiday. The transport sector is the fastest growing contributor to Europe’s energy demand and CO2 emissions. This trend is expected to continue in coming decades and air travel, which is damaging the atmosphere, is expected to double its share of overall transport between 2000 and 2030. Innovative materials can contribute to lower emissions.
Textile structures have enormous potential in lightweight construction because of their low weight. Whilst the commercial aviation industry has recently started to use fibre-reinforced plastics, coated fabrics and laminates are finding more and more smart applications in paragliders, kites and hot air balloons.
The Berlin based company aeroix focuses on the development of innovative products in the field of applied aeronautical sciences and technical textiles. The inter-disciplinary team recently developed and successfully introduced an insulation system for hot air balloons called Aerofabrix. The material is a lightweight multilayer fabric and it has the lowest density currently available on the global market.
An air gap within the fabric is required to achieve the insulation properties. Flocked filaments create this air gap whilst being super light. Through this integrated flocked insulation material fuel consumption for ballooning can be reduced by more than 50% or alternatively, larger passengers groups can be transported.
The aeroíx team is currently experimenting with applications in architecture. Other applications could be in the field of protective clothing or outdoor equipment for extreme conditions. The material could also be used in light building structures. aeroix is also working with another Berlin based company called Zendome on lightweight, well insulated and mobile structures,building on Buckminster Fuller’s early groundbreaking structures..
Text by Dr. Sascha Peters, CEO haute innovation – translation by M.HAUS, © all rights reserved
Take your time and explore the two websites – www.aeroix.de and www.zendome.com .