Steel lamellas are usually enclosed in concrete in order to increase its tensile strength. For years now, researchers have worked towards discovering how this steel reinforcement could be replaced with carbon. Carbon fibres have several advantages over steel as they are five times lighter and ten times stronger.

But the positive properties of carbon only come into play if it is preloaded. Researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) have now succeeded in achieving this in collaboration with Silidur AG, a concrete slab manufacturer from the Greater Zurich Area. The two partners jointly developed high-tech concrete slabs that are not only light and thin but also stable and resistant to rust. What’s more, they can be manufactured on an industrial scale and cut to size as required.

According to the ZHAW, the innovative concrete slabs are offering architects completely new design possibilities. They have already been used to renovate a cycling bridge in Winterthur, which now holds the title as the lightest concrete bridge in the world.

The ZHAW researchers have now been honoured for their invention at the International Composites Congress in Stuttgart, where they won the AVK Innovation Award in the Products and Applications category. The award is handed out annually by the Federation of Reinforced Plastics (AVK) in Germany.