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 production waste can be recycled directly back into the aircraft construction process.

The research project will last 32 months, during which it will establish the scientific and practical basis for possible future application. The initiative for this study comes from the research community, but Pilatus, as an industrial partner, can provide the materials, the production environment and the expertise to test the idea under realistic conditions, thus acting as a crucial bridge between the research laboratory and a possible future application in aircraft production.

“The project began as a result of intensive interdisciplinary discussions between all partners,” says Dr. Jan Kraner of Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. “This joint process was fundamental to moving from the idea to its implementation.”

The project received significant support from Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. This agency selects and promotes projects in which commercial organizations join forces with research partners to develop new processes or products, focusing on direct benefits for industry.

“The fact that Innosuisse chose to allocate a substantial financial contribution to the pilot study by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Inspire AG and Pilatus, reflects its ecological, economic and technological relevance,” says Urs Thomann, Director of Technologies, Processes and Sustainability at Pilatus. “At the same time, close cooperation with our research partners creates ideal conditions to explore the potential of high-value waste materials even better, and to quickly put new solutions into practice.”

The project focuses on an innovative approach: first, sticky pre-impregnated waste is heated in a controlled manner, causing it to lose its adhesive qualities, allowing for further machine processing. They are then cut into small pieces and transformed into new components using a special pressing process, before being hardened.

The image above shows the handling of carbon fiber composite materials, a common process in the aerospace industry for aircraft manufacturing

This approach is new to aviation, as there is currently no established industrial method for directly transforming unused pre-impregnated waste into new components.

This project is relevant to Pilatus for several reasons, according to the company. “First, recycling this material offers an opportunity to significantly reduce waste from our own production operations. Second, it may be possible to replace certain aluminum parts with carbon parts, generating savings of up to 36 tons of aluminum per year,” comments Urs Thomann.

Using less material not only means less environmental impact during production, but also potentially lighter aircraft, and every kilogram saved is beneficial in terms of reducing the carbon footprint.

At the same time, the project addresses a clear market trend: recent research indicates that reducing the ecological footprint is now an increasingly important consideration in aircraft purchasing decisions, and will likely become a decisive criterion for a growing number of customers in the next five to ten years.

The collaboration with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Innosuisse has already revealed the inherent potential of recycling high-value materials. For Pilatus, the project is a concrete step towards optimizing the use of materials, reducing waste, and actively shaping innovation. It is also a good example of the general need to "think outside the box," where waste materials, which tend to have negative connotations, need to be viewed more in terms of valuable resources.

This not only has a positive ecological impact, but also transforms them into an economic factor related to profit. Together with its research partners, Pilatus emphasizes that it is therefore helping to create an important stepping stone on the path to a true circular economy in aircraft production and to a more sustainable use of valuable resources. In the coming years, we will see if the project delivers a successful solution and outcome.

Vivaero