I had the chance to visit a composites conference in Paris a little while ago. It's always interesting to see where the science of carbon fiber is headed. The aerospace industry, for instance, has finally come around to using carbon fibre in a significant way for structural purposes (beyond military applications). We actually saw a pretty impressive presentation from the people at Dassault on how they were using composites to enhance aircraft performance and accelerate design time.

If I had to cite the one thing that struck me the most at the show, it was the emergence of thermoplastics as a promising solution. Basically, this material replaces the resin that is currently used as the medium for carbon fiber with specialized plastics. While the thermosets we currently use in making our carbon fiber bikes basically set permanently once they are cured, thermoplastics offer the benefit of being moldable post-cure (after subsequent application of appropriate heat). Other than the benefit of limitless formability, thermoplastic parts can essentially be "welded" together, eliminating the need for adhesives or wraps, leading to a more eco-friendly production. Best of all, at the end of its life-cycle, a thermoplastic bicycle frame could conceivably be re-usable, post consumption, in another form all together. Very interesting possibilities, given that the performance of the material (stiffness, weight, absorption of high frequency vibration) would basically be the same. Stay tuned.