CompPair Technologies (Renens, Switzerland) joins the ArianeGroup consortium to define the 2025-2050 technology and demonstrators roadmaps for the European Space Agency (ESA) reusable space vehicles with its self-healing composite, HealTech. This work is part of the New European Space Transportation Solutions (NESTS) framework and specifically for the Post Themis Reusability ITT. 

The result of 12 years of research at EPFL (Switzerland), ComPair’s HealTech prepreg is said to reduce maintenance costs and manufacturing defects (healing matrix cracks and delamination, recuperating 100% of initial properties after healing), and extend the lifetime of composites. According to the company, HealTech is an ideal fit with the reusable launch system trend, offering the possibility to reduce composite repair time from hours to one minute, enabling faster launcher turnover and cost reduction with a long lasting, fast and cheap repair maintaining the fibers’ integrity. Those benefits can directly impact the production and use phases of composite parts, from outstanding machinability to ultra-efficient maintenance, enabling costs efficiency at different levels.

With this work, CompPair and ArianeGroup contribute to NESTS’ aim to reduce environmental impact of the space industry with reusable vehicles; the CompPair healing process can emit 129 times less CO₂ than standard composite repair and reduce material consumption.

CompPair’s vision is to bring full circularity to the composites industry, and collaborating with ArianeGroup is said to be the start of a new era for CompPair after joining the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre Switzerland in 2020.