EconCore appoints aerospace honeycomb expert as CTO

EconCore, world leader in thermoplastic honeycomb core technology, has appointed Olivier Rozant as Chief Technical Officer from January 2021. Dr Rozant gained extensive experience at DuPont exploring the potential uses of Nomex® and Kevlar® aerospace honeycombs, for which he secured a DuPont Sustainable Growth Excellence Award. 

This appointment brings Dr Rozant full circle as his PhD investigated how direct complex shape thermoforming of PEI flat based sandwich preforms using selected textiles reinforcements could be applied in aircraft interiors. 

This enabled the production of aircraft secondary double-curved wall panels in less than a minute which reduced cost per part by 75%, for which this was nominated for an EPFL materials award.

Olivier’s early career also involved working with Michelin on Airless™ tyre, a clever composite-based elastic wheel. He partnered then with Pilatus Aircraft Ltd on thermoplastic sandwiches, with Airbus on light-weight honeycombs, with FAA / EASA / CMH-17 groups on sandwich disbond and also with F1 Teams on novel sandwich concepts. 

Last year Olivier delivered a keynote presentation on the “Past, present and future of Nomex® based and Kevlar® based honeycomb cores in aircraft applications” at the Composite-Sandwich Conference, organised jointly between the Fraunhofer IMWS in Halle and EconCore/ThermHex.   

Olivier is interested in how disruptive technologies can green the world and knows that this is best achieved working with customers, working with those who are closest to end use. 

Dr Jochen Pflug, CEO of EconCore said: “Olivier’s experience in DuPont working with Nomex and Kevlar is the perfect fit for our high-performance thermoplastic honeycomb development. His skills and experience will take us to the commercial introduction of our technology in aerospace markets.

“I have known him for many years and always been impressed with his technical knowledge and skill, but also how he gets the best out of the teams he is working in. He is a huge addition to our team.”

Olivier added: “I have never been the type of scientist who was happy to work isolated in a lab. My best work has come about from combining small team capabilities, finding synergies with partners and spending time with those who are using the various applications – our customers. 

“EconCore is enabling me to use these skills to move towards more sustainable solutions in honeycomb technology, bringing in disruptive solutions which will help to make air and ground travel more environmentally friendly, reduce waste and shape the future potential of honeycomb cores in sandwich structures.”

Dr Rozant completed his PhD by EPFL (Lausanne). He also worked on unidirectional continuous fibres at Newcastle University as part of the Erasmus programme.