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The final day of the iTechStyle Summit was marked by presentations on new materials, in particular the introduction of basalt as a possible fibre for making innovative composites. Kostia Sytniuk, co-founder of UBT, presented his research into producing the world’s thinnest continuous fibre basalt.
The dissertation focused on listing the main advantages of this 100% organic mineral, including resistance to erosion, water, UV radiation, light weight, sustainability, bulletproof and fireproof. With regard to the latter, Kostia specified that the temperature resistance is higher than that of carbon fibres, requiring 800ºC.
‘CBF (Continuous Basalt Fibre) has unique properties such as being transparent to radar, having excellent impact resistance, high chemical resistance and excellent sound absorption capacity,’ he said.
The products resulting from the research were also presented in different thicknesses. As for the actual application, Kostia shared that it has already been applied in the defence area because of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
In the presentation slides, the speaker gave examples of coated missiles and drones, but emphasised that the applications are endless and can go beyond the military. ‘It’s a more expensive alternative to glass fibre, but cheaper than carbon fibre,’ he added. The next step and application will be in the development of tanks for liquid hydrogen, due to its high chemical resistance.