Newsletter

The bio inspired Helicoid technology enables improved performance of advanced composites, leading to lighter structures, while achieving excellent cost efficiency and sustainability. The deployment of Helicoid technology can be realized with no change in raw materials (fiber and resin), and no change in the manufacturing process. Therefore, the benefits are achieved with no supply chain disruption.
The first use case was a collaboration between Helicoid Industries Inc., TPI Composites, Inc. and SAERTEX GmbH (Saerbeck, Germany) focusing on improving the mechanical performance of Electric Vehicle (EV) battery pack underbody protection plates made of innovative E-glass Helicoid multiaxial non-crimp fabrics infused with a thermoset resin.
The second use case demonstrated that Helicoid fiber architecture delivers excellent performance improvements with one of the fastest growing categories of composite materials: fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. These materials are equally strong and stiff as thermoset composites, but provide improved energy absorption, fatigue resistance, and recyclability. They are also much faster to process. These characteristics make the Helicoid technology ideally suitable for mass production. In a collaboration with Mitsui Chemicals Europe GmbH, with the support of Airborne, it was demonstrated that TAFNEX Carbon/PP laminates, utilizing the Helicoid fiber architecture technology achieves >90% higher multi-strike resistance compared to conventional laminate designs. This, along with the healing enabled by Helicoid fiber architectures & thermoplastic matrix systems, paves the way for improved cost efficiency and sustainability by achieving ‘more with less’.
Helicoid Industries Inc. was awarded the Outstanding Technical Paper Award Winner at the annual CAMX Conference, held in Anaheim in October 2022. The paper, authored by Dr. Lorenzo Mencattelli, Helicoid Industries Managing Director of Technology and Operations, highlights the third use case, and described how natural fiber composites can now be used successfully, where historically they have struggled to find market share in high-volume, high-performance applications for their relatively low performance/cost ratio.