Aircraft interior structures face a difficult combination of requirements: they need to be lightweight and mechanically robust while meeting stringent fire, smoke and toxicity requirements. At the same time, conventional thermoset composites remain difficult to recycle once they have been manufactured.

SCMM is exploring a different route using LIST-developed vitrimer resins in lightweight sandwich structures for aircraft cabin interiors. Vitrimers offer thermoset-like performance while introducing dynamic chemical bonds that can open new possibilities for reprocessing and recycling. The resin is combined with glass-fibre reinforcement to create composite skins for a lightweight sandwich panel.

Safety remains central to the development. The material system is compliant with the demanding mechanical and fire, smoke and toxicity requirements associated with aircraft cabin applications. At the same time, work continues on prepreg scale-up, sandwich manufacturing, mechanical testing and the recovery and reuse of fibres. 

Developed with industrial input from Airbus and Euro-Composites, the technology targets aircraft cabin interior applications, with a sandwich panel representative of an A320 underbin partition wall, used as the project demonstrator. Its potential impact is clear: bringing greater circularity to lightweight aerospace composites without treating safety and performance as secondary requirements.