FUTURED. ZAL Magazin 2025

ZAL GMBH
BUILT
TO LAST,
EASY TO
RECYCLE
minimizing manual labor. Thanks to semi-automation,
the production process becomes faster
and more cost-effective. And there’s more: the
printing material is over 50 percent biobased,
further lowering the environmental impact. Key
applications could include more customized
cabin designs with smaller production runs.
48
Watch the
manufacturing
process now.
Overhead Storage Compartments (OHSCs)
face tough demands in passenger service.
Travelers often forcefully shove their heavy
carry-on luggage into the compartment,
slamming the door shut with a swift push.
To withstand these and other challenges like
turbulences, OHSCs need to be stable, durable,
and securely anchored to the cabin wall. This is
achieved through a combination of honeycomb
panels, reinforcements, adhesives and brackets.
However, at the end of the cabin’s lifecycle, this
complex mix of materials makes disposal much
more difficult. But what if cabin components
could not only be light and strong, but also easy
to recycle?
THREE MANUFACTURING STEPS, ONE
SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION
RAFINESS goes beyond simple optimizations: it
addresses the entire lifecycle of a cabin component
– from production to end-of-life. This approach
could lay the foundation for a new generation
of aircraft cabins, where sustainability
and efficiency go hand in hand. And the best
part? It only takes three straightforward steps to
make this vision a reality.
RAFINESS –
Only Three
Manufacturing Steps
PRINTED BRACKETS AND REINFORCEMENTS
The RAFINESS project (Robot-guided additive
manufacturing of integrated, sustainable and
electrically conductive interfaces for cabin sandwich
structures*) takes a fresh look at overhead
bins, simplifying every step from manufacturing
to disposal. This is made possible by robotguided
additive manufacturing, where reinforcements
and brackets are printed directly in a single
step. This innovation reduces the number of
materials used – from seven to just two – while
1. Preparation of honeycomb panels by
an automated milling robot.
2. Application of potting and brackets
in one step.
3. Post-processing the brackets by
a milling robot.
Result: final RAFINESS demonstrator in
the ZAL Additive Manufacturing Lab.
CONTACT
Preety Bhargava
preety.bhargava@zal.aero
*The RAFINESS project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the Austrian
Research Promotion Agency (FFG). Technology partners: WEBER Additive, Aibuild. Project partners: carboncleanup, FACC, Fraunhofer
UMSICHT, Fraunhofer IFAM, SFS, TCKT, Wood K Plus.