Online Seminar

Growing environmental awareness and the advantageous properties of natural fibers have led to an increasing demand for new natural fiber-reinforced plastics (NFRP).

The low thermal stability of natural fibers makes them unsuitable for application as long-fiber reinforcement in engineering thermoplastics. The utilization of higher-quality engineering thermoplastics as matrices, however, has the advantage that the resulting NFRP achieve improved mechanical, thermal and chemical durability. It is therefore necessary to protect the fibers against thermal influences. Within the framework of the “DeFiCoat” project, the approach pursued was that of protecting the long fibers by means of a manual thermosetting coating, thereby making them more resistant to mechanical and thermal impact.

For automated, wet-chemical surface treatments of textile semi-finished products, a special coating facility has been acquired for the Fraunhofer WKI Application Center HOFZET. A presentation of this facility serves as an outlook for future application possibilities.