Bamboo-Based Composites: A green innovation emerges from Blackfabric – Cobratex collaboration

Blackfabric once again bets on innovation and sustainability, and for this reason, they have joined forces with Cobratex to develop a whole range of bidirectional fabric made with bamboo tapes, providing an ecological and innovative solution in the composites sector.

Bamboo properties

The use of bamboo fibers as reinforcement in composite materials has increased in recent years to meet the growing demand for bio-based, biodegradable, sustainable, and recyclable materials. Bamboo fibers offer numerous attractive properties, such as comptetitive costs of manufacturing, lightweight, high specific strength, rapid growth rate, and ecological nature. Therefore, bidirectional fabrics made with Cobratex unique bamboo tapes are a promising alternative to many prevalent products in automotive, household, transportation, and sports markets.

Sustainable solution: CO2 Storage

The major advantage of such bio-based reinforcements is that is offers an immediate environmental impact. CO2 is stored inside the composite. Actually, a Life Cycle Assessment, made by Expleo, has shown that these bamboo reinforcements stored about as much CO2 as what is sent out into the atmosphere during the production of equivalent glass fibre reinforcements.

Weaving process of Bamboo tapes

The collaboration

Blackfabric is proud to announce its collaboration with Cobratex, providing support in the production processes of weaving bidirectional fabrics, as well as supporting in the impregnation process to achieve thermoplastic prepregs, hence providing recyclable semi-products to the market. Located in Carbonne, south of Toulouse, Cobratex specializes exclusively in bamboo-related products, focussed on composite reinforcements, thermoset and thermoplastic prepregs, it can also offer bamboo reinforced panels (sandwich and monolithic) as well as final parts and products.

Bidirectional fabric made with bamboo tapes

A real solution for the world of tomorrow

Spectacular finished products have been obtained in the sports sector such as surfboards and diving fins, as well as in the aerospace industry, with various transportation accessories or furniture, in addition to the urban furniture and construction sectors. Products made with bamboo fabrics achieve a surprising finish, where the fabric bonding can be appreciated, and the natural and sustainable appearance of the piece is a very interesting attraction for consumers. This collaboration fills us with pride, as it involves 100% European and local manufacturing, guaranteeing quality, traceability, and transparency in production processes, as well as providing a competitive and differential advantage through customized solutions for each project, adapting to the needs of the end customer.

Final products produced by Cobratex using Bamboo fabrics

Challenge accepted

Cobratex’ innovative bamboo tape has a rectangular cross-section, which has a composite morphology, very different to standard yarns and rovings. It therefore doesn’t react in the same way making weaving quite tricky and challenging. However, thanks to the adaptability of the machinery and the extensive experience of Blackfabric, the right production process has been designed to weave fabrics up to 200 cm wide in industrial productions. In addition, different patterns like twill, satin, basket, Chevron or Herringbone can be chosen in order to achieve the best balance between aesthetics and mechanical properties.