PILATUS Swiss aeronautical manufacturer Pilatus will conduct a 32-month study to find ways to reuse leftover carbon composites from aircraft manufacturing Carbon fiber reinforced plastics, also referred to as carbon fiber composites, are an indispensable part of aircraft manufacturing. Being particularly lightweight and stable, they are ideally suited for the aviation industry. However, there is an unavoidable negative effect associated with their use in the production of aircraft components: the action of cutting the pre-impregnated material, i.e., the carbon fiber web pre-impregnated with synthetic resin, produces large amounts of waste. Within the Pilatus Group alone, more than six tons of this high-quality material have to be discarded each year, unused. Given this, together with researchers from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Inspire AG, a strategic partner of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, Pilatus is investigating whether this productio...
