In Germany, Fuse GmbH has won the JEC Composites Innovation Award for a hemp-based material it co-developed and is using to produce snowboards. The “hemp tape” is processed into reinforcement textiles using Karl Mayer Technische Textilien GmbH’s COP MAX 5 multiaxial warp knitting machine and then impregnated with biobased resin.
A follow-on project dubbed HempSki will look to apply the material to produce alpine skis.
“Industrial fiber means on the one hand that this fiber can be produced very effectively, i.e. automated in large industrial processes, and on the other hand that the quality of the fibers is always the same in order to guarantee the same properties in the product. A natural product cannot offer this, but there are various ways and means of still being able to deliver consistent quality,” Lovis Kneisel, CEO of Fuse, told Knitting Industry.