The environmental crisis awareness is growing all over the world in all industries, Marström is one of them. We are constantly testing new materials but to reduce our carbon footprint we have started testing the possibility to integrate natural fibers in our production.
We have tested Flax fiber, which is produced out of a species of linen with long cellulose fibers. After harvesting the plant, fibers are extracted and woven into a cloth which is then impregnated with resin. These fibers molecular structures looks a lot like the ones In carbon fibers with the big difference of them being naturally produced.
In our production this cloth behaves in the same way as our standard carbon cloths. It was easy to cut and laminate and it hardens at the same temperature as our carbon.
Studies shows that strength wise Flax reinforced composites have mechanical properties comparable with glass fiber-composites. And emitting down to 80% less carbon in production of the fiber compared to glass-fiber and even more compared to carbon fiber. We have just started our testing of this material but we hope that in the future we’ll be able to offer our customers products with natural fibers.