FEDER - LINEO - NEPFLAX PROJECT
Kohesio
LINEO
The innovative NEPFLAX project presented by the companies LINEO and ECOTECHNILIN and UNICAEN, is part of the current context of the boom in Linen on the Composite market. Traditionally used in the textile industry, Linen has found new opportunities in the composite market thanks to properties that make it possible to compete with fiberglass and carbon. The fluctuating price of oil and global warming are factors in favor of plant-based, biodegradable and renewable fibers. Linen for the composite materials market is commonly called Technical Linen to distinguish it from linen for the textile industry market. Technical linen is developing thanks to its mechanical and environmental properties which have several comparative advantages (low density, high specific rigidity, high vibration absorption capacity, thermal and acoustic insulation, biodegradability).  Technical linen currently constitutes a real source of innovation in the design, sports & leisure, automobile, aeronautics and academic research sectors. Associated with resins, the technical linen fabric is at the origin of “high performance” composite products: window frames, sports and leisure equipment, automobiles, eco-construction. The LINEO company was created in 2006 with the aim of developing industrial and commercial activities in the long linen fiber sector for the composite market. Relying on a strong R&D policy, LINEO is at the origin of new developments in the world of composites. LINEO designs and manufactures reinforcements from long flax fibers mainly for the automotive, aeronautics, and sports and leisure sectors. LINEO relies on two technologies that it has patented: FlaxTape technology, impregnation technology. ECOTECHNILIN is the French leader in the supply of non-woven products based on natural short fibers. It has been a major player in the flax market for composite materials for over 20 years. Its main activity concerns materials based on non-woven natural fibers (linen, hemp, kenaf, jute, fiberglass). Its production capacity reaches 7000 tonnes per year. In business for more than 20 years, ECOTECHNILIN achieved a turnover of €5.9 million in 2012-2013 which continued to grow and doubled in 3 years with €11.2 million in 2015-2016. This turnover reached €15 million in 2016-2017, 90% of which was exported. UNICAEN has worked in collaboration with the company Linéo since 2007, first in the form of services, then in the form of a partnership (CIFRE, Z.E.Cherif, 2013). UNICAEN obtained the 2010 JEC Award in the biosourced materials category in 2010, as a partner of LINEO, Huntsmann, and Décathlon. His action consisted of carrying out an experiment/numerical calculation dialogue with the aim of increasing the quantity of flax in a tennis racket, the added value of flax being to provide cushioning to the racket for the well-being of the player. The CIMAP PM2E team has therefore specialized in flax fiber and linen-based composites. The know-how acquired extends to all stages of the development of biosourced composites, and at all scales. An independent thesis from the Linéo company will be defended in July 2017 which relates specifically to the analysis of FlaxTape with a width of 40cm. Specific methodologies have been developed to analyze this product; we are mainly interested in the influence of the morphological factors of the reinforcement on the final properties of the associated composites. short fibers.
Smarter Europe / Research and innovation / Research and innovation infrastructure, processes, technology transfer and cooperation in enterprises focusing on the low carbon economy and on resilience to climate change