Nature-inspired engineering for modern applications

Thomas Rettenwander, while working on his doctoral thesis at Austria’s Montanuniversität Leoben, studied dragonfly wings in detail. Not for their beauty, but for their engineering. Dragonfly wings are a masterclass in structural minimalism: heavy fibres only where forces concentrate, a gossamer membrane everywhere else.

Fibionic: Industrializing Biomimicry

Rettenwander spent years turning that biological blueprint into an industrializable technology. His startup, Fibionic, has recently raised €3 million in seed funding to advance this goal. The idea is to optimize the use of fibrous materials in various sectors, reducing weight and increasing the strength of components.

Applications in cycling and beyond

One of the first identified fields of application is professional cycling, with the production of lighter and more performing saddles. However, the potential of this technology also extends to aerospace and other sectors where weight reduction and structural optimization are crucial.