Advanced plastic materials are increasingly recognized as one of the key enabling technologies for addressing the challenges of competitiveness, sustainability and industrial autonomy across strategic sectors. This was one of the main conclusions of the first edition of HI!-PLASTICS, the International Seminar on Advanced Plastic Materials organized by AIMPLAS, Plastics Technology Centre, and sponsored by Plasmatreat and Pinfa, which brought together specialists from across the value chain to analyze the most recent developments in composite materials, fire resistance, advanced manufacturing, surface functionalization and new applications for high-demand industrial sectors.
Image Credit: AIMPLAS
Over the two days, it became clear how the evolution of advanced materials is enabling the development of increasingly lightweight, resistant, sustainable and intelligent solutions for fields as diverse as automotive, construction, energy, aeronautics, the naval sector, electronics and dual-use technologies.
More Sustainable, Industrializable and Competitive Composite Materials
The first block of the seminar was dedicated to advanced and structural composite materials, addressing the trends that are defining the next generation of composites.
The sessions highlighted the importance of collaboration across the industrial ecosystem in accelerating the adoption of these technologies, as well as the growing interest in thermoplastic composites over traditional thermoset solutions. Among the factors driving this transition are to use faster manufacturing processes, the weldability of materials and their potential for reuse and recyclability – aspects that facilitate greater industrialization and competitiveness in applications with increasing volume.
The opportunities offered by high-performance thermoplastic matrices for structural applications in increasingly demanding environments were also analyzed, along with the potential of self-reinforced polymers to combine lightweight design, mechanical performance and recyclability. These solutions open up new possibilities for sectors such as automotive, where weight reduction, energy efficiency and circularity are strategic factors.
Overall, the presentations agreed that the future development of composite materials requires not only increasing their performance, but also ensuring their industrial scalability, economic competitiveness and sustainability throughout their entire life cycle.
New Challenges in Fire Safety
Fire resistance was another major focus of the seminar. Discussions addressed both regulatory challenges and technological innovations aimed at improving the fire performance of advanced materials.
One of the sectors analyzed was electric mobility, where vehicle electrification and the integration of energy storage systems are driving increasingly stringent safety requirements. The sessions presented new strategies for improving fire protection in components manufactured from both thermoplastic and thermoset materials, as well as solutions aimed at future generations of electrified vehicles.
Construction also featured prominently, particularly in relation to fire protection for insulation materials. New solutions were presented based on reactive flame retardants incorporated directly into the structure of materials used in building construction, contributing to improved durability and sustainability. Regulatory developments affecting these additives and the growing importance of smoke emission control within the European fire reaction classification were also analyzed.
The electrical and electronic sector focused part of the discussion on the requirements set out by the European Construction Products Regulation (CPR), which requires evaluation not only of flame spread, but also of parameters such as smoke emission, the generation of flaming droplets and gas acidity. The various contributions showed how the formulation of cable compounds must strike a balance between safety, sustainability and regulatory compliance.
International regulatory trends and new generations of flame-retardant additives also provided a global overview of the evolution of fire safety in markets such as Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.
Advanced Manufacturing and Functional Materials for High-Value Applications
The first day concluded with a block focused on advanced manufacturing processes and the development of materials with increasingly sophisticated functionalities.
Speakers provided an overview of current technologies for the manufacture of thermoplastic composites, including the development of UD-tapes, organosheets, pultrusion processes and long-fiber-reinforced materials – solutions that combine high mechanical performance with greater productivity and processing flexibility.
The sessions also highlighted the importance of functional additives in simultaneously meeting requirements for safety, sustainability and regulation, particularly in sectors where fire protection is critical.
Examples were also given of advanced products based on high-performance fibers and composites applied to sectors such as naval, automotive, energy, civil engineering and aeronautics. In this area, the importance of integrating material development with manufacturing, characterization, certification and structural monitoring processes was emphasized in order to ensure their effective incorporation into industrial applications.
Hydrogen, Dual-Use Technologies and New Solutions for Demanding Environments
The second day opened with a block dedicated to energy and dual-use technologies, analyzing the role of advanced plastic materials and composites in some of the major current technological and industrial challenges.
The first part of the session focused on the hydrogen economy, addressing the opportunities offered by advanced materials for the development of tanks and components capable of storing and transporting hydrogen more efficiently and safely. The presentations highlighted how composites contribute to reducing weight, improving performance and lowering the carbon footprint of systems associated with this energy vector, widely regarded as a key enabler of decarbonization across numerous industrial sectors.
The session then focused on dual-use technologies – those with applications in both civil and security and defence fields. Experts showed how plastic materials can provide advanced solutions in areas such as ballistic protection, integrated sensing, weight reduction and the improvement of the durability of equipment and structures. The importance of the circular economy in these fields was also highlighted, through strategies aimed at extending product service life, reducing maintenance requirements, promoting reuse and advancing the recovery of critical raw materials to reinforce technological and industrial autonomy.
Among the applications presented were antifouling materials for maritime applications, shielding systems capable of reducing the electromagnetic signature of platforms and equipment, anti-icing solutions for aircraft, sensors for monitoring the health status and comfort of users or detecting contaminants in complex environments, as well as additive manufacturing technologies that allow components to be manufactured or repaired directly at the point of operation, reducing intervention times and logistical requirements.
The session concluded with examples of the application of advanced materials in the field of marine renewable energies, where resistance to extreme environmental conditions, durability and the reduction of maintenance costs are determining factors in improving the viability and competitiveness of technologies such as tidal energy.
Functional and Advanced Industrial Coatings
The seminar concluded with a block dedicated to functional coatings, a technological area of growing relevance for endowing materials with new performance characteristics and extending their service life in demanding applications.
The presentations showcased advances in energy-efficient heated coatings to prevent ice build-up on aeronautical components – solutions that increase operational safety while simultaneously reducing the energy demand associated with conventional systems.
Surface functionalization technologies using plasma were also presented, capable of cleaning, activating and modifying surfaces to improve adhesion between materials, optimize multi-material joining processes or incorporate specific properties such as repellency to certain external agents.
Another highlighted development was the production of self-healing coatings for applications subjected to severe environmental conditions, such as wind energy installations, contributing to extending the service life of components and reducing maintenance costs.
Finally, advanced solutions for tailoring the spectral response of surfaces through the use of functional pigments were addressed – a technology of interest for applications requiring control of the interaction of materials with different ranges of electromagnetic radiation.