Manufacturing new ceramic fibers for high-temperature applications

Industrial ovens, gas turbines and rockets for space use ceramic materials to withstand particularly high temperatures inside them. Currently, monolithic ceramics are used in the components. In the future, oxide ceramic fibers promise greater advantages. They are more damage-tolerant and no longer brittle. The German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) now want to bring the technically and economically promising new high-performance ceramics to market and set up production in Europe. To this end, the innBW institute is cooperating with the French industrial group Saint-Gobain. On January 11, 2022, the two partners concluded an agreement on cooperation and joint development.

Oxide ceramic fibers are an essential component of fiber-reinforced ceramic materials (CMC: Ceramic Matrix Composites), which are increasingly important for a wide range of high-temperature applications. Potential applications include components in industrial furnaces, charge carriers for temperature treatment, and, in the high-tech sector, components in stationary gas turbines with high efficiency, aircraft gas turbines with lower fuel consumption, or space applications. A significant increase in the industrial use of these CMCs is forecasted for the coming years, and with it a growing demand for ceramic fibers.

Saint-Gobain is a stock exchange-listed French industrial group. The companies united under its umbrella employ around 167,000 people with annual sales of over 38 billion euros. Among other things, Saint-Gobain is a manufacturer of innovative ceramic materials and products. The DITF, in turn, has been conducting continuous research and development in the field of ceramic fibers since 1990. The expertise of the two partners therefore ideally complements each other.

About the DITF

The German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) are the largest textile research center in Europe with more than 300 scientific and technical staff. They are the only textile research institution worldwide to cover the entire production and value chain of textiles on an area of more than 25,000 square meters. Since 1921, the DITF have been working on all important textile topics. The DITF are among the world's leading research institutions in this field.

www.ditf.de