en.Wedoany.com Reported - Safran Group's open innovation program, "Safran Explore," returns in 2026 with a focus on smart materials. Targeting innovative startups, spin-offs, and SMEs, the program aims to identify, support, and co-develop disruptive technologies that can accelerate Safran's R&D roadmap over the next five to ten years. Applications are structured around five challenges defined by Safran experts: Future Material Systems, Materials & Process Intelligence, Materials & Processes for Electrical Applications, Circularity & Recycling, and Inspection, Control & Maintenance.

This edition is not just a technology call; it can also be viewed as a map of future material needs in aerospace, defense, and space. For the composites community, its value lies in how these five challenges converge. They outline a broader equation: composites must maintain structural efficiency and lightweight contributions while gaining enhanced capabilities, higher functionality, greater predictability, improved circularity, better detectability, and easier industrialization in demanding environments.

This interpretation is particularly relevant when considering Safran's business areas. The group ranks third globally (excluding aircraft manufacturers), with operations spanning propulsion systems, aircraft equipment, interiors, defense, and space. These areas generate different but increasingly converging material constraints. In propulsion, the pursuit of performance and efficiency pushes materials into higher temperatures, more oxidizing, or chemically aggressive environments, where ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) may open new options alongside metallic solutions. In commercial aviation, production rate increases, future aircraft architectures, and industrialization challenges highlight that composites must not only perform well but also be producible, controllable, and repeatable. Electrification and hybridization introduce additional constraints covering electrical insulation, thermal management, high-voltage resistance, functional integration, and weight reduction. In space and New Space, reusability, cost pressures, higher cadence, and extreme environments reinforce the need for lightweight, robust, and qualifiable materials. These pressures are further compounded by regulatory and environmental constraints, ranging from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) substitution to material traceability and recycling.

This is where smart materials come into play. The theme is not just about adding "intelligence" to materials; it reflects a broader demand spectrum where performance, lightweighting, resistance to harsh environments, manufacturability, durability, inspectability, and end-of-life considerations must be addressed together.

The first challenge, "Future Material Systems," lays the foundation for this smart materials edition. It aims to explore solutions that drive materials and material systems toward higher performance, enhanced functionality, and better sustainability while meeting the stringent requirements of aerospace and related industrial applications. This challenge revolves around four areas: multifunctional bulk materials, surface solutions and functional material systems, advanced processes and additive manufacturing, and sustainable material and process alternatives. Multifunctional bulk materials refer to materials whose volume combines multiple functions, such as mechanical properties, thermal resistance, electrical behavior, or performance in harsh environments. In the composites field, this could point to dissipative carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), thermoplastic composites for thermal management, piezoresistive composites integrating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene, or silicon carbide/silicon carbide (SiC/SiC) CMCs combining mechanical performance with high-temperature resistance. Smart materials for surface solutions open another area, including anti-corrosion coatings with sensing capabilities, self-healing coatings, anti-icing surfaces, friction control, chemical resistance, environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), and thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Advanced processes involve the ability to manufacture, assemble, and machine these material systems. For hard, brittle, and abrasive materials like ceramics and CMCs, exploring non-contact or low-force machining solutions is equally important; techniques that reduce tool wear, microcracking, fiber pullout, or delamination are critical for industrialization. Sustainable alternatives target materials and processes free of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS/PFA), and any substitute must maintain the required aerospace performance levels. This challenge implies an evolution in material specifications: composites must remain structurally efficient while also becoming functional platforms capable of protecting, sensing, resisting, supporting industrialization, and addressing regulatory constraints.

The second challenge, "Materials & Process Intelligence," aims to leverage artificial intelligence to screen, design, and test future material solutions. The goal is not only to accelerate development but also to build a more continuous chain between design, prediction, architecture, virtual testing, experimentation, and capitalization of industrial data. Its first area, "AI-driven Material Design," focuses on exploring new combinations of physicochemical properties, targeting areas such as hybrid metal-ceramic, metal-organic systems, and mixed chemical gradients in ceramics and metal alloys. The second area, "AI-driven Material Architecture," is directly relevant to composites, involving the use of AI to design composite architectures in a broad sense, including metal, ceramic, and organic composites, and specifically targeting organic composite architectures where the design space encompasses short/long fiber hybrids, weaves, fabrics, preforms, and local reinforcement strategies. "Virtual Performance Testing" completes this chain, targeting simulation and modeling tools capable of numerically testing the performance of newly identified material systems before extensive physical testing campaigns. Finally, "Lab 4.0 Data Management & Structuring" provides the data layer, involving laboratory connectivity solutions capable of collecting and coupling numerical and experimental data, as well as fully utilizing unstructured and historical data from legacy materials. This challenge can be interpreted as building a more continuous digital chain for composites: designing architectures, predicting performance, validating through testing, and using historical data to guide the development of new material systems.

The third challenge, "Materials & Processes for Electrical Applications," extends beyond structural composites but sends an important signal. It addresses material and process solutions for electrical systems in extreme environments, including high-temperature and high-voltage materials, PFAS/PFA alternatives, magnetic materials, and multi-material additive manufacturing. The driving force is the progressive electrification and hybridization of aerospace architectures. More electric actuators, power electronics, high-voltage cables, hybrid or electric propulsion subsystems, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and drone applications, along with associated thermal management, introduce new material constraints. The scope includes polyaryletherketone (PAEK) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) thermoplastic systems, materials for applications exceeding 1 kV, partial discharge-resistant materials, ceramic or sol-gel coatings, flexible thermally conductive encapsulation materials, winding insulation for temperatures above 220°C, PFAS-free materials for capacitors operating above 175-200°C, PFA-free cable alternatives (such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), and silicones), rare-earth-free magnets, and additive manufacturing combining conductors, insulators, and ferromagnetic materials. For the composites community, the connection appears primarily at the interface: lightweight structures carrying electrical functions, thermally conductive polymer composites, multilayer insulation systems, printed electronics on composite substrates, or structural components integrating sensing, shielding, or power distribution.

In the fourth challenge, "Circularity & Recycling," Safran is seeking solutions that can close the loop on critical or strategic materials while maintaining performance levels compatible with aerospace applications. Carbon fiber recycling is a core issue, targeting dry fibers, uncured prepregs, and cured composites, with the aim of preserving the highest possible performance levels for structural applications. The key is moving from material recovery to performance-oriented valorization, preserving fiber length, cleanliness, orientation, and reuse potential. "Hybrid & Composite Recycling" extends the issue to organic resins, ceramic components, and multi-material architectures, aiming to develop low-impact recycling solutions capable of recovering organic resins with minimal degradation compared to virgin resin, while disassembling multi-material systems without incineration or acid digestion. "Material Traceability & Risk Management" emphasizes that circularity depends on the quality of information about recycled materials. Software solutions are being sought to track materials, products, and circular loops, while predicting health, safety, and environment (HSE), toxicology, PFAS, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), or raw material end-of-life risks. For the composites industry, the opportunity lies in solutions capable of transforming production waste or end-of-life materials into technically usable resources within the demanding aerospace value chain.

The fifth challenge, "Inspection, Control & Maintenance," links material performance to manufacturing and lifecycle control. The first area, "Process Monitoring & Control," targets in-line monitoring during manufacturing, aiming to detect deviations as they occur and, where possible, correct them during production. In automated processes such as automated fiber placement (AFP) or automated tape laying (ATL), it also points to detecting gaps, overlaps, contamination, or variations in fiber tension. The direction is clear: shifting from post-process inspection to data-driven manufacturing control. The second area, "Dimensional & Material Health Monitoring," extends the topic to dimensional control and material health monitoring of parts and tooling, including internal instrumentation capable of withstanding extremely high service temperatures (above 1100-1200°C). The third area, "Advanced Inspection of Composites," directly targets the industry, focusing on inspection solutions for thick-walled and multi-material organic matrix composites (OMCs), as well as high-speed inspection methods for CMCs. Finally, "Portable & On-Wing Inspection" brings inspection into maintenance, aiming to bring inspection capabilities to the aircraft, on partially disassembled equipment, or directly under the wing. For composite parts, this could involve portable ultrasound, thermography, shearography, endoscopy, fiber optics, compact X-ray (if field-compatible), robotic, or AI-assisted non-destructive testing (NDT) interpretation. Key requirements are not only accuracy but also speed, robustness, low preparation, and usability in real maintenance environments.

Overall, Safran's five smart materials challenges outline a composites roadmap shaped by multiple converging expectations. Aerospace composites will continue to be evaluated on structural performance, weight reduction, and reliability. However, the next layer of requirements appears broader: functional surfaces and interfaces, high-temperature ceramic composite systems, accelerated design through virtual testing, data-supported qualification, higher-value carbon fiber waste recycling, long-term material traceability, and inspection methods that track parts from manufacturing through service. Thus, Safran Explore Smart Materials 2026 can be interpreted as a practical requirements map for next-generation aerospace composite systems: not only lighter, but also more functional, more predictable, more circular, more detectable, and more closely connected to the data needed for design, qualification, manufacturing, and maintenance.

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