ARIADNE

The ARIADNE project is investigating a novel palladium-free and environmentally friendly surface preparation process for textile metallisation with tunable properties to produce conductive fibre materials for embedding in composite materials. By electrically stimulating these conductive pathways, they can be heated to induce a phase change in the surrounding material to allow bonding or debonding under external pressing or pulling conditions. A new process of plasma cleaning and activation avoids the use of expensive materials such as Pd and aims to achieve high adhesion of the metallised layer to the core filament thread, which can be organic or inorganic in nature. 

The new metallisation process allows the production of adapted heating elements that can be integrated into lightweight materials to enable bonding and debonding of parts. This process improves the eco-design of advanced lightweight materials. From lightweight reformable thermoplastic composites to high-end advanced materials, this technology addresses many economic opportunities.

The embedding of electrically-triggered filaments not only enables more sustainable product manufacturing by simplifying production steps, but also allows materials to be disassembled at the end of their life. Through characterisation (thermal, electrical and mechanical), the performance of these embedded materials in composites will be evaluated under different structures.