From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Natural fibre are from vegetal or animal origin. The most used are cotton, flax and hemp, also sisal, jute, kenaf or coco.

Hemp fibre were mainly used for boat-rope and -aerofoil because of they high suppleness and resistance within an aggressive environment. Hemp fibre are for example currently used as seal within the heating and sanitary industry.

After the 2° worldwar, the build-up of synthetic fibre will significantly decrease the use of natural fibre. Now with the increase of oil prices, the environment considerations and recycling necessity, we can see the revival of this branch within the textile, building, plastic and automotive industry. This interest in reinforced by the development perspective on the agro-industrial market and local productions, allowing economic development and independence versus imported materials.

France remain the first European hemp natural fibre producer with 50000 Ton/year (EU 100000 Ton), and the largest range of industrial seeds worldwide. China and Russia are also important producers but the statistics in that field are not available.

With the largest knowledge on the matter, the NOVA Institute (Germany) remain the reference - www.nova-institut.de (see Michael Karus - Managing Director).

On the industrial domain, the consortium DAIFA GROUP SAS have reach a leading position in Europe on the automotive plastics market - www.daifa.fr (see Boris Rutili - Managing Director). Concerned technologies are mainly injection and thermopress from thermoplast and thermoset reinforced with natural fibre.

The BIOMASS association group the main producers of biomass and natural fibre in Europe.

The use of natural fibre at industrial level allow cost and weight reduction of the parts, and improve the recycling and environment perspective, especially on the automotive market. Within the building industry, the interest is economical and technical allowing insulation properties highest than current materials.