Source (All Images) | Aeromech

Aeromech (Brisbane, Australia) has announced the opening of the Aeromech Training Centre in Brisbane to deliver advanced composites training for aerospace manufacturing and repair across Australia first, with subsequent expansion to New Zealand, the broader Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. Alongside this launch, the company highlights its flagship “Advanced Composites Aerospace Manufacturing and Repair” training program offering comprehensive training across the full life cycle of composite manufacturing and sustainment.

“This is more than a training center — it’s a strategic capability enabler,” says Joe Bryant, founder and managing director at Aeromech. “Whether you’re starting out or building on years of experience, our programs equip professionals with the technical knowledge and hands-on skills needed to meet modern aerospace requirements.”

The goal, he says, is to address the aerospace and defense skills shortage and build a robust, sovereign workforce — all with minimal disruption to operations through the Training Centre’s portable, turnkey delivery mode. “We bring the same quality training to your location — whether you’re in Brisbane, Darwin, Auckland or anywhere across the region,” says Bryant. “It’s flexible, efficient and always industry-grade.”

Aeromech’s training course was developed by experienced engineers and technicians with extensive defense and commercial aerospace backgrounds. It is designed for current and aspiring manufacturing and repair technicians, engineers and managers. Exceeding the standards of the EASA- and FAA-approved SAE AIR4938 – Composite and Bonded Structure Technical Specialist Training, the program includes:

• Occupational health and safety
• Understanding and handling of composite materials
• Understanding tooling and structural design
• Layup, bonding, curing and composites fabrication techniques
• Inspection, nondestructive testing and damage assessment
• Structural repair, quality assurance and compliance
• Surface prep and painting
• Supply chain, quality and the management of composites end to end in a manufacturing and operational environment
• Real-world scenarios from rotary and fixed-wing platforms in civilian aviation and defense.

The course combines in-depth theoretical knowledge with practical, hands-on experience, delivered by practicing aerospace industry professionals. All materials and equipment are provided and course content is tailored from entry-level through to advanced users and specialized applications, depending on a participant’s expertise and skill level. Accredited and non-accredited options available.

The “Advanced Composites Aerospace Manufacturing and Repair Training” course is now open for enrollment at the Aeromech Training Centre in Brisbane, with portable training delivery available across Australia, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. To learn more or to register, visit www.aeromech.com.au or contact@aeromech.com.au.

Aeromech’s roots in aerospace

Aeromech was founded by Joe Bryant, a recognized expert in aerospace composites and a former senior leader at Airbus Australia. Bryant led and managed Airbus Australia’s Advanced Composites Manufacturing Facility and was also responsible for the NH90 Final Assembly and Delivery Line, overseeing the local production and delivery of advanced multi-role military helicopters.

His first-hand experience with high-performance aerospace manufacturing and complex aircraft integration underpins Aeromech’s training philosophy: real-world relevance, industry credibility and future readiness.

The Training Centre is also supported by Joseph Saporito, former CEO of Airbus Australia and executive vice president of supply chain at Airbus Helicopters, further strengthening Aeromech’s strategic alignment with global aerospace standards.

Joe Bryant and Joseph Saporito.

“This is exactly the kind of practical, targeted training the region needs,” says Saporito. “Aeromech is preparing the next generation of aerospace professionals with the knowledge and hands-on ability to deliver on real operational demands.”

The opening of the Aeromech Training Centre follows the success of the company’s Advanced Composite Workshops for high school students, which have introduced hundreds of students across Australia to aerospace manufacturing. These workshops are bridging the gap between education and industry, sparking early interest and creating clear career pathways into aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing.

Juan Carlos Southwood, FIDAMC’s Felix Dominguez and Airborne’s Marcus Kremers. Source | Airborne

On Oct. 29, Airborne (The Hague, the Netherlands) and the Foundation for Research, Development, and Application of Composite Materials (FIDAMC, Madrid, Spain), a prominent research institution in composite materials, announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a partnership for joint R&D activities. This partnership aims to innovate and enhance manufacturing processes for composite materials, particularly for future aircraft programs in commercial and defense sectors.

The collaboration will address the industry challenge of automating the production of small- to medium-sized composite parts, an area currently lacking suitable automation technologies for high-rate production. Joint efforts will focus on developing and implementing scalable, efficient and cost-effective automation solutions to increase productivity and reduce material waste in composites manufacturing.

Key areas of collaboration include:

Automated ply placement (APP). APP is a novel manufacturing method for high-rate production of composite parts, either in prepreg, thermoplastic or dry fiber. It creates tailored blanks or parts by efficiently cutting the material into the required ply shapes, picking and placing them into the laminate at high accuracy.

The collaboration topics involve testing and modeling material properties; developing strategies for managing tackiness; forming laminates into 3D structures; assessing debulking and consolidation needs; and developing demonstrators showcasing APP capabilities.

The partnership will also explore optimized cutting strategies; new gripper technologies; integrate sensor technologies; and explore multi-material laminate concepts and novel laminate strategies.

Additionally, teams will assess innovative materials such as multilayer noncrimp fabrics (NCF), recycled fibers, nonwoven materials, and metallic laminates, and evaluate the role of consumables in process optimization.

Kit by light (KBL). KBL is an augmented reality (AR) solution for improving the productivity of ply cutting and kitting processes, and at the same time reduce material waste. It supports the operator during ply offloading and kitting operations, and uses distinctive and patented software to create sequenced kits in one step. It also provides the capability for automated nesting on the shopfloor by the operators directly.

Efforts will focus on demonstrating system functionality; gathering feedback for algorithm refinement; improving ergonomic aspects; and integrating KBL into digital factory ecosystems for enhanced efficiency and traceability.

A joint development roadmap will be established and regularly updated in coordination with aircraft manufacturers and composites production companies to align with industry needs. Both parties will also engage in joint marketing efforts to showcase the developed technologies. FIDAMC will have the ability to use the equipment and technologies with other partners, including production companies, aircraft manufacturers and material companies, for further testing and development of automation solutions.

Under the terms of the MOU, Airborne will provide expertise in automation and digitalization of composites manufacturing processes and share relevant technologies, including APP and KBL. FIDAMC will contribute research capabilities and facilities for material and technology development and testing, facilitate collaboration with universities and research centers, and disseminate research findings. FIDAMC will also lead efforts in training, material and process research, pre-qualification of materials and manufacturing techniques, and developing demonstrators to validate new composite applications, using its capabilities in molding, press equipment, structural testing, nondestructive inspection (NDI) and digital connectivity.

Dubbed NGSA (next-generation single-aisle), it will make extensive use of new and emerging materials and manufacturing processes, including composites, metallic alloys and additive manufacturing. Airbus has told its suppliers that anything at TRL 6 by 2030 will be considered. The goal: construction of a supply chain to support assembly, eventually, of 100 aircraft/month. Compare this to the 58 A320s Airbus produces each month now.

Boeing, meanwhile, has been an observer of this process, but quietly doing its own materials and process assessment for an NGSA to replace the 737. On Sept. 30, however, The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing has publicly acknowledged it is pursuing an NGSA. Then, Reuters chimed in with this report saying, in effect, that an NGSA “is some time off.” Which it is if you think 2030 is some time off. But to the aerospace industry, 2030 is tomorrow.

Whenever NGSA comes to fruition, 200 shipsets per month of high-performance, highly qualified aerostructures is not trivial. It’s also unprecedented. In short, the aerospace supply chain is about to be asked to do something that it’s never done. Which is why Boeing and Airbus are talking about the challenge now — to give the supply chain time to mature and ramp up. This is easier said than done, but a fantastic challenge.

Automated ply placement (APP). Source (All Images) | Airborne

At Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, and in the presence of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Airbus Helicopters has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to adopt Airborne’s (The Hague, Netherlands) digital automation technologies for its factory in Le Bourget, France. The goal is to optimize manufacturing efficiency and output of composite rotor hubs and helicopter blades through implementation of both Airborne’s main software and automation systems, automated ply placement (APP) and Kit by Light (KBL), respectively.

The focus will be on new automation and software to boost productivity and efficiency. Airbus’ Le Bourget factory makes all composite helicopter blades and hub structures for all Airbus helicopter models, both military and civil. “It's a high-mix production environment, ramping up to meet increasing demand, and Airborne’s industrialization technologies are an excellent fit,” says Marcus Kremers, CTO of Airborne. 

APP is already used by Airbus Commercial for the A350 program. It automates the layup process from cutter to laminate and can be used for prepreg and dry fiber, both of which are processed in Le Bourget (read “Modular, robotic cells enable high-rate RTM using any material format”). In this project, new features regarding part size, layup and quality inspection are planned to be added.

Kit by Light (KBL).

KBL is already in use at Airbus Helicopters’ sister plant in Donauwörth, Germany, where it supports operators in the cutting room with software that significantly accelerates kitting. Building on that experience, plans are to implement the system in the Le Bourget factory to reduce material waste and increase output.

Source | Airbus “Ramping up A320 Family production”

Airbus (Toulouse, France) has opened its second final assembly line (FAL) for the A320 Family aircraft in Tianjin, China. This milestone follows an earlier agreement signed in April 2023 by Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury and the Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Co. Ltd. and Aviation Industry Corp. of China Ltd. Preparations to assemble the first aircraft are underway and full operation of the facility is targeted for early 2026.

“We welcome the addition of Tianjin’s second line to our global production system, as it provides us with the necessary flexibility and capacity to deliver on our plan to assemble 75 A320 Family aircraft per month in 2027,” says Faury. “Over the past 40 years of our presence here in the country, we have come a long way in establishing trustful partnerships with the China civil aviation community, and we look forward to writing the next chapters of our future together.”

The FAL line will enable Airbus to significantly increase production close to its customers in China and beyond. It complements the global Airbus production network of 10 FALs — four in Hamburg (Germany), two in Toulouse (France), two in Mobile, Alabama in the U.S. and two in Tianjin (China). The advanced second line features Airbus’ latest technologies and processes to produce aircraft worldwide at the same company’s highest standards. In addition, the facility takes advantage of electricity from renewable sources, reclaimed water and geothermal energy to support the company’s sustainability roadmap, reducing Airbus’ environmental footprint.

Inaugurated in 2008, the Airbus Tianjin FAL was the first Airbus production line for commercial aircraft outside Europe. It has assembled and delivered more than 780 A320 Family aircraft since then, making the facility a symbol of successful Sino-European cooperation. 

Source | AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings

AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings (Amsterdam, Netherlands) is launching its  AS7489-certified training program, created to advance the adoption of the globally recognized standard in aerospace coatings application and raise professional standards.

Developed as part of AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings’ Aerofleet Training+ offering, the program is fully compliant with SAE International’s AS7489 standard, a globally recognized framework for the training and qualification of Aerospace Organic Coatings Applicators.

While certifications have long existed for mechanical, structural and safety disciplines, there was no universal benchmark for coatings. AkzoNobel’s program directly addresses this gap by improving access to professional training for the global aerospace industry.

AkzoNobel’s AS7489 training is structured across five progressive levels, in accordance with the AS7489 technical standard and approved for delivery by SAE International. The courses go from theoretical fundamentals (Level 1) to advanced, practical assessments (Levels 2, 3 and 4) that test hands-on skills and understanding, to Level 5 which provides in-depth specialization for expert applicators.

AkzoNobel’s training center in Troy, Michigan, has been approved and AkzoNobel’s first cohort of Technical Service Representatives have been certified to deliver AS7489-certified training to customers. The company plans to establish and certify additional training centers and Technical Service teams to support the future rollout of AS7489 training across Europe.

“For years, we’ve helped applicators understand and use our coatings effectively, and we will continue to do so, but the introduction of the AS7489 program takes our customer training to a step further,” says Michael Green, business services manager at AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings. “We’re enabling professionals to achieve globally recognized credentials that raise the bar for skill, safety and quality across the industry, and we’re supporting our customers in the MRO and aftermarket. With visible, tangible proof of staff competence and professionalism, our customers will be able to demonstrate both compliance and a high level of service quality, helping them to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.”

Supporting the rollout of the new program is AkzoNobel’s bespoke online training and certification platform, which gives applicators, assessors and employers full visibility of training progress and qualification status.

Through the online training platform, participants can submit their work, track their learning journey and store digital records of their certifications. Independent assessors will use the system to review and grade submissions, ensuring objective evaluation against the AS7489 standard. Employers will be able to monitor employee progress, identify development needs and, when recruiting, verify the credentials of candidates.

Source | Aura Aero

Aircraft manufacturer Aura Aero (Toulouse, France) has cut the ribbon on an 11,000 square-foot facility at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park in Daytona, Florida, which will serve as its U.S. headquarters and first production site. The campus will host the North American Delivery and Customer Support Center for the company’s Integral aircraft program and lay the groundwork for the its hybrid-electric ERA aircraft.

Integral wood-composite trainer

The initial production line will build the Integral family of two-seater, aerobatic-capable training aircraft, which features a hybrid wood and carbon fiber-reinforced composite construction. Since 2017, Air Menuiserie (Saint-Vincent-Du-Boulay, France) has been a key partner in the development and construction of the Integral aircraft, and is applying its decades of wood-carbon composites expertise to the model’s performance and safety. Integral will be offered first with a Lycoming piston engine and subsequently in a 100% electric version.

The U.S. is a major market for Integral, being the largest training market in the world, with nearly 600 FAA-approved flight schools, more than 75,000 pilots and a growing demand for modern, cost-effective training aircraft with aerobatic capabilities.

Recently certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and with FAA certification underway, the Integral family offers an advanced, efficient solution for both traditional and electric flight training, making it a strong contender in the U.S. market.

Electric Regional Aircraft (ERA) in 2028

In 2028, Aura Aero plans to open a 500,000 square-foot assembly line for its 19-seater ERA aircraft and intends to be the world’s first hybrid-electric regional aircraft manufacturer, operating assembly lines in France and the U.S. The aircraft was conceived to use a metal fuselage and carbon fiber composite wing.

The United States has emerged as also one of the strongest markets for ERA, now accounting for more than one-third of the orders worldwide. The company expects U.S. volumes to approach half of its global total as additional commitments are finalized. Current orders and letters of intent (LOI) exceed 650 ERA aircraft, totaling more than $10.5 billion.

Florida’s site follows a partnership signed 2 years ago with Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University. Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency, played a key role in supporting the project, which is expected to create more than 1,000 high-skilled jobs in the region.

The Emirates Lounge, which continues to be part of ACS UK’s product portfolio. Source | Emirates for ACS UK

On Nov. 3, AVIC Cabin Systems Ltd. (ACS, London, U.K.) announced that its order book is open and that it is offering its full range of products, from social spaces and galleys to front row monuments, feature panels and stowages (read “AVIC... announces global sales organization”).

Source | ACS UK

ACS UK is a full-service manufacturing company, excelling in the manufacture of complex composite exterior and interior components, moldings, sandwich, flat panels and laminates, for a multitude of industries such as aerospace, rail, marine and automotive, and their varied and specific applications.

With a full order book in June 2022, ACS UK took a strategic decision at that time to reduce its offerings to new business in order to focus upon the delivery of the programs acquired from AIM Altitude Ltd. With these products successfully delivered and customer confidence fully maintained, ACS UK is now open and ready for new business.

“We have been quietly but busily working in the background to safeguard future product offerings, and several key programs are already underway,” says Nigel McSorely, CEO of ACS UK. “Our ethos and focus on customer satisfaction and the delivery of high-quality equipment using highly skilled people continues. We have seen exceptional on-time delivery performance of products to Airbus and Boeing over the past few years. We are very proud of this achievement.”

ACS UK has been working on large orders of front row monuments, galleys and social zones for pre-existing customers. Now that many of these have been delivered, ACS UK is able to offer vital and additional capacity to the market.

“The advantage ACS UK has is that we are new but not new,” McSorely says. “We have the facilities and capacity of a new company, with the experience and expertise of an industry stalwart. ACS UK has a great depth of knowledge and skill but also the ability to grow and take on significant new contracts.”

ACS UK has been achieving this success from its new engineering facility in Bournemouth, U.K., and through its design base in New Zealand, and manufacturing bases in Cambridge, U.K. and China.

Front row monuments, feature panels and bespoke social areas are particular specialties of ACS UK. The company is well known for its innovative design, meticulous engineering and specialist manufacturing processes, bringing vital differentiation to its airline customers.

Sources (clockwise) | IFP, Secara, Zeisburg Carbon and EDAG Engineering

The German Federation of Reinforced Plastics (AVK, Frankfurt, Germany) announces the 2025 winners of the Innovation Award for fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs), awarded to companies, institutes and their partners for outstanding composites innovations in three categories:

• Products and Applications
• Processes and Procedures
• Research and Science.

A jury of experts comprising engineers, scientists and trade journalists has evaluated the submissions in these three categories based on criteria such as degree of innovation, degree of implementation and sustainability.

The awards for 2025 are as follows.

AVK Innovation Awards group photo. 

Products and Applications Category

1st Place — Zeisberg Carbon GmbH
► 3D-Formwork

Source | Zeisburg Carbon GmbH

Believed to be Germany’s largest 3D printer for fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites, this system, built by Zeisberg Carbon, produces laminating tools measuring up to 6,000 × 2,000 × 3,000 millimeters, as well as finished components, prototypes and — as a new approach to the Industry 4.0 concept in the construction industry — molds for the production of concrete components. 

This 3D-Formwork is printed automatically, layer by layer, from recycled plastic, enabling a high degree of innovation in prefabricated component factories or for in situ concrete construction. Architectural freedom can be reimagined because 3D-Formwork creates individual façade elements for serially manufactured buildings, such as bridges. Thus, infrastructure can be built aesthetically but also quickly. 

2nd Place — INVENT GmbH with partners Nord-Micro, KOHPA GmbH ► Carbon Heating System (CHS) for aircraft cabins

Source | INVENT, KOHPA Technology

INVENT has developed an innovative CHS for aircraft where the heating function is integrated directly into fiber-reinforced composite pipes using conductive carbon fiber. All development steps, including endurance testing (>3,300 hours) and DO-160 qualification by laboratory partner Nord-Micro, have been completed.

The system uses the existing cabin air distribution system to replace conventional metal heaters or bleed air heating, saving weight, fuel and emissions. Passengers benefit from clean air without oil contamination. CHS is reported to be a milestone for electric cabin systems and sustainable aircraft architecture. INVENT is now ready as a series manufacturer with partner Nord-Micro.

3rd Place — 3D|CORE GmbH & Co. KG
► 3D|CORE FR Sealing

Source | 3D|CORE GmbH & Co. KG

This polymer-mineral foam offers an efficient, cost-effective and weight-saving solution for fire protection in lightweight structures, particularly in the transport industry. Fire protection for sandwich constructions used in trains, ships and vehicles has traditionally required manual application of additional glass fiber layers and use of additional quantities of fire-modified resins. This significantly increased manufacturing cost and component weight.

3D|CORE GmbH & Co. KG is launching 3D|CORE FR Sealing, an innovative fire protection foam that is easily applied by spraying or rolling. The system provides effective fire protection without adding unnecessary weight. The foam has been extensively tested and meets the stringent requirements of the IMO FTP Code 2010 maritime standards and the European standard for rail vehicles EN 45545-2, achieving the requirements of the highest hazard level HL3. The two-component system consists of a medium-viscosity foam and an activator that controls the processing time. Chemical reactions and delamination are avoided by precisely matching the polymer components to the resin system of the component. 

Processes and Procedures Category

1st Place — Secara
► Chemical recycling process for reinforced engineering polymers

Source | Secara

Secara has developed a process that enables technical plastics — such as polyamides, polycarbonates and polyesters such as PBT — to be recycled efficiently and with minimal loss of value. With a global annual production of around 15 million tonnes, these key materials have previously been mostly incinerated due to a lack of recycling options.

Secara’s scalable process also enables the recycling of old, glass fiber-reinforced and mixed plastic waste. Pilot plants are already demonstrating how Secara’s process depolymerizes plastics into high-purity monomers that are chemically identical to fossil raw materials and can be seamlessly integrated into existing value chains. The process already saves up to 70% in CO_₂ emissions, but using renewable energies, it is possible to produce completely decarbonized monomers. Secara is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund as part of the EXIST program.

2nd Place — Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research (IPF) with partner Elbflorace Formula Student Team TU Dresden

► Design and manufacturing of spatial CFRP structural frame based on flat TFP preforms

Source | IPF and Elbflorace

A complex, high-load 3D carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite wishbone bracket for a Formula Student racing vehicle was produced using tailored fiber placement (TFP). The TFP process allows the reinforcement fibers to be deposited variably axially, enabling spatial optimization of fiber positioning and alignment. This means that an optimized fiber placement pattern can be created for each segment and manufactured using a TFP system.

A topology-optimized, additively manufactured titanium wishbone bracket served as a reference. Topology optimization and segmentation for a CFRP wishbone bracket were first carried out based on the corresponding installation space and specifications. After consolidating the preforms in a multipart silicone mold, a CFRP wishbone bracket with a mass of only 183 grams was produced. This is ≈40% lighter than the titanium component and can still safely transmit loads of up to 5 kilonewtons.

3rd Place — Amiblu Germany GmbH
► Recycling of GFRP grinding dust waste

Source | Amiblu

At its Trollenhagen site, Amiblu Germany manufactures around 300 kilometers of glass fiber-reinforced (GFRP) pipes per year in nominal diameters ranging from DN 200 to DN 2450 using a centrifugal casting process. This process produces grinding dust as a waste product. With the help of an in-house developed technology, it is now possible to return more than 90% of approximately 220 tonnes of grinding dust per year to the production process, saving raw materials and reducing waste disposal costs. Recycling the dust into new products is a significant step toward sustainable GFRP pipe production.

The plant has been in series operation since summer 2024. The process not only significantly reduces waste, but also saves around 4% of the calcium carbonate raw material.

Science and Research Category

1st Place — EDAG Engineering GmbH with partners INVENT GmbH, Fraunhofer IWU and Applus + Rescoll

► Durable, thermally detachable fiber composite structures

Source | EDAG pitch at RECREATE event

The EU-funded RECREATE project has developed a modular system that enables the circular use of CFRP structures. Its core components are thermally detachable adhesive bonds that enable components to be separated without damage by applying specific temperatures without compromising strength during operation. Combined with standardized profiles and connecting elements, this creates a modular system that enables repair, reuse, remanufacturing and single-type recycling. Through the practical implementation of design for circularity, this solution addresses key strategies of the circular economy while creating a basis for new business models for applications from modular vehicle frames to industrial secondary uses.

2nd Place — Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT)
► Tape-REx recycling process for thermoplastic UD tapes

Source | Fraunhofer IPT

Fraunhofer IPT has developed a recycling technology that enables components made of unidirectional (UD) thermoplastic composite tape to be unwound at the end of their life cycle. What makes this technology unique is that the recovered recyclate is then also available as UD tape, retaining the fiber length and orientation as well as the matrix. 

These properties represent an enormous improvement over conventional recycled products in which the fibers are generally recovered as disordered short or long fibers. The retained-length recycled UD tapes can be processed in conventional manufacturing processes such as automated tape laying/fiber placement (ATL/AFP) and hot pressing in the same way as newly produced virgin material tapes.

3rd Place — Faserinstitut Bremen E.V. (FIBRE) with partner Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI)
► Highly integrated hybrid rCF organosheets and thermoforming for contoured aerostructures

In the HIOS project, a segment of a spoiler was used as a demonstrator (left) for recycled carbon fiber (rCF) organosheets. The micrograph at right shows a thickness increase from 2 to 6 millimeters. Source | STFI

In the LuFo VI-2 project — Highly Integrated Organic Sheets (HIOS) FKZ: 20E2116A; 20E2116 — FIBRE and its project partner STFI developed a resource-efficient process chain from semi-finished products to components with a closed-box structure, local reinforcements and variable thickness where a spoiler segment served as an example.

STFI developed a quasi-continuous interval hot pressing process for manufacturing organosheets with variable local thickness based on nonwovens made from recycled carbon fibers (rCF). Local reinforcements were integrated during the manufacturing process. FIBRE developed a complementary thermoforming process, including tools, that allows the closed-box structures to be manufactured in a resource-efficient manner. To this end, thermoforming and joining of the components were integrated into a single process step.

Source | FIBRE 

Source | BlueShift

Blueshift (Spencer, Mass., U.S.) introduces AeroZero flame and thermal barriers (FTBs), a portfolio of ultra-thin, lightweight and flexible flame and thermal material solutions that can withstand exposure up to 1200°C for 30 minutes. The company’s family of thermal protection systems (TPS) can be “can be applied to various surfaces, including carbon fiber composites,” according to the company. AeroZero FTB in particular is especially applicable for composite applications in the aerospace and defense industries, including eVTOLS.

With the continuing global adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and aerospace electrification, Blueshift’s latest addition to its AeroZero family is ideal for a wide range of applications and industries that may experience extreme temperature fluctuations — from EVs and aerospace markets to marine and rail.

For example, within the field of EVs, FTBs are primarily used as a safety barrier material aimed at preventing the transfer of extreme heat or fire that can result in mechanical damage of battery cells and exposure to high temperatures or discharge events. Blueshift’s AeroZero FTBs can withstand exposure up to 1200°C for 30 minutes while maintaining a cold-side temperature below 300°C. This means they may either be used as safety features in preventing uncontrolled fire, for example, due to an aircraft engine fire, or protecting surfaces from direct exposure to flame such as during a rocket takeoff or helping to mitigate the risk of a battery thermal runaway event.

Outperforming traditional mica, silica or polyurethane foams, AeroZero FTBs are up to 80% lighter, with a thickness range of 0.32-1.77 mm — significantly thinner than conventional barriers (3-10 mm). Alongside this, their ease-of-use and flexibility is a key factor in their application; with their “peel-and-stick” pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) backing that simplifies installation on irregular surfaces, labor time and cost can be reduced.

“Traditional thermal insulators have often been based on polymeric foams or ceramic blankets that can suffer from drawbacks due to their added weight, thickness, toxic off-gassing, lack of flexibility and processing issues,” says Tim Burbey, Blueshift president. “Available across multiple ranges, we look to incorporate as many vehicles and industries as possible, so everyone can overcome their unique thermal challenges.”

The AeroZero FTBs family includes, AZ-FTB 100 for up to 500°C applications; AZ-FTB 101 for up to 800°C; and AZ-FTB 300 for maximum protection up to 1200°C. These advanced FTBs are ideal for protection in EV battery modules, and aerospace components that see indirect and direct exposure to flames.

Source | CMH-17 

The Composite Materials Handbook-17 (CMH-17) provides standardized methods and guidance for the characterization, testing and use of composite materials, particularly in aerospace applications. Its six published volumes establish a consistent approach for how to generate, analyze and qualify composite material data.

CMH-17 is not a regulatory standard but seeks to provide a common technical framework for industry, government and certification authorities. It defines procedures for:

• Conducting mechanical and physical property tests on composite materials.
• Developing and documenting statistically based design allowables.
• Accounting for variability, environmental conditions and processing effects.
• Managing data quality assurance and database management for composites

The handbook is maintained by the CMH-17 Coordination Group, a consortium of experts from government agencies, industry and academia. The handbook is an important resource, providing a technical foundation for the qualification and certification of composite materials, enabling consistent, traceable and statistically valid design practices across the aerospace community.

From Mil Handbook-17 to AAM and eVTOLS

CMH-17 started decades ago as Mil Handbook-17, explains Royal Lovingfoss, director of Advanced Materials & Processes at the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP), a program of the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University (Wichita, Kan., U.S.). “Since then, it has evolved, leaving the military side and taking on FAA sponsorship in 2006, with the CMH-17 Handbook annotation adopted in 2012.”

Starting in 2012, NIAR has operated as the Secretariat, says Lovingfoss, “which means we help to coordinate how the actual CMH-17 Handbook is put forth, as well as coordinate when the virtual and in-person working groups and general meetings occur.”

Source | CMH-17

He notes there are many different working groups operating under the CMH-17 banner, such as Testing, Statistics and Guidelines, as well as the Materials and Process Working Group.

“Our newest, the Additive Manufacturing Working Group, was added in 2018. All of these post information into the handbook, and as the Secretariat, we at NIAR ensure that material is indeed appropriate and meets all of the formatting requirements. We also help coordinate communications between the different working groups.”

“There are also special task groups such as Bonding Process, Sandwich topics and statistics topics like Statistics Process Control. These task groups are temporary and they solve discrete interdisiplinary problems or document specific situations.”

CMH-17 also includes members from different levels of industry, notes Lovingfoss, “from Tier suppliers and smaller sub-tiers, like Fiber Dynamics, up to large OEMs, like Airbus and Boeing, and everyone in between, including materials and equipment suppliers. For example, Toray, Hexcel, Syensqo and Teijin are all large companies that participate, but we also have small mom and pop shops that may have a vested interest in a particular material or aircraft type.” The latter can be in general aviation, spacecraft and/or commercial aviation, which also encompasses eVTOLS, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM). “Several companies producing these newer types of aircraft are becoming more involved in CMH-17, such as Joby and Archer,” he adds. “We also have engine companies that participate, including GE Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney.”

Lovingfoss points out that CMH-17 is worldwide, with members from almost every major country that works with composites and advanced manufactured materials. “A lot of the companies that participate in CMH-17 are based in Europe and Asia, such as Toray and Teijin,” he explains. “But there are many others. So, there’s no issue with foreign organizations working with us or submitting data on just input, whether that’s on materials, processes, damage tolerance, guidelines or CMC [ceramic matrix composites]. We want engagement from all different types of groups in the global industry.”

Volume 7 – Additive Manufacturing

The new Volume 7, set to be released by the end of 2026, will be dedicated to nonmetallic additive manufacturing (AM) materials that can be made publicly available. It will focus on fused filament fabrication (FFF) — also known as fused deposition modeling (FDM) — and laser powder bed fusion processes, which includes selective laser sintering (SLS), but content on other technologies will be added in subsequent releases.

“This volume will enable companies and organizations to design with these materials and understand the type of material and process controls they need to have in place for aviation-grade parts,” says Lovingfoss. “This type of data isn’t out in the industry right now. Many groups have done their own development work, but that data is typically held as proprietary. CMH-17 Volume 7 will offer a single accessible repository, so that you don’t have to piecemeal data from 10 or 20 different reports, which will support wider use of these materials in certified components.”

CMH-17 Volume 7 will include material property data on (top left, clockwise) unreinforced Ultem 9085, microfiber-reinforced Antero 840CN03, chopped fiber-reinforced HexPEKK-100 and continuous fiber materials from Markforged. Source | Stratasys, Hexcel, Markforged

Materials being reviewed by the Data Review Working Group include filaments made from neat polymer and also with chopped/milled fiber. For example, Stratasys’ (Eden Prairie, Minn., U.S.) Ultem 9085 neat PEI will be included as well as its Antero 800 unreinforced PEKK and 840CN03 microfiber PEKK materials. Hexcel’s (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) HexPEKK-100 reinforced with finely chopped/milled carbon fiber for SLS will also be included. Markforged (Waltham, Mass., U.S.) has also submitted a data set for continuous fiber-reinforced filament.

Volume 7 will also contain a lot of discussion about key topics, says Lovingfoss. “There will be introductory discussions about different AM processes and also about testing and statistical analysis for AM materials, specifically looking at sources of variation. The Guidelines Working Group and Material and Processes Working Group will also add to a more generic baseline of information for people that want to explore using polymer AM in their next aviation product, including information to understand the steps involved in certification.”

Revisions in Volumes 3, 5, 2 and 6

Volume 3 is going into revision H and is available for purchase now from the CMH-17 Publisher, SAE International. This will include significant updates on bond processing, design and analysis, certification steps for bond processes, bolted joint design and analysis, durability and damage tolerance and supportability of bonded and bolt repairs, as well as integrated crashworthiness and some structural engineering technology discussions. It also includes new chapters for spacecraft and engine applications.

Source | CMH-17

Volume 5 revision B, scheduled for release in early 2026, will focus on CMC. Revision B includes the first CMH-17 published CMC data set on oxide fiber-reinforced oxide matrix — also known as Ox/Ox composites or OCMC. This revision will also include fiber material property testing, design considerations, creep testing of CMC and new content based on selected environmental barrier coatings (EBC).

Even though there is quite a bit of carbon/carbon CMC and silicon carbide (SiC) CMC testing going on in the industry, notes Lovingfoss, “most of that is not publicly available. If there is such data that is publicly available, then we would encourage companies to reach out to us.”

Volume 2 revision J, planned for release in summer 2026, will include new datasets and updated definitions. “The gist of this revision is adding more materials to this volume on Polymer Matrix Composite Materials Properties,” says Lovingfoss. “Most of this data is based on prepreg laminates, including woven and unidirectional reinforcements, but these may be produced using hand layup, automated fiber placement [AFP] or press consolidation. There is also some data on thermoplastic composite laminates made from semi-preg, which is also known as organosheet, and is in a sheet form instead of on a roll.”

The last release will be Volume 6 on Structural Sandwich Composites, he continues, “where we are reviewing composites made with core materials. There was some debate about which volume this belongs in, but it was decided that the Sandwich Structures Working Group would review this data at a minimum. The first data sets being vetted are for Nomex honeycomb core, but we will also include data on metal hexagonal honeycomb and corrugated core, as well as foam core to match the information in Volume 6. Data for all of the CMH-17 volumes must meet pedigree requirements to be considered.”

Teresa Vohsen, part of the CMH-17 Secretariat Team at NIAR, adds that for nonmetallic honeycomb, the working group is including hexagonal core (hex core) and also flex core — which has cells shaped to make the honeycomb more easily formed into compound curves. “This revision for Volume 6 will be a large overhaul, with information added about structural design as well, so it will probably double in size,” she notes.

Capturing knowledge, growing composites applications

“There are a lot of exciting things happening in CMH-17 — a lot of growth and change, as well as a fast publication cadence,” says Vohsen. “We've got two books coming out this year, two books next year and at least one in 2027. We’re filling a really important gap in the aerospace industry. A large chunk of engineers are retiring or preparing for retirement, which means there’s a lot of knowledge that is going to be missing when they leave. CMH-17 helps capture that knowledge.”

Vohsen explains that as a young engineer, she used CMH-17 to help ask more educated questions. “This role in industry is important, and as knowledge transfer needs continue to grow, I think people need to understand how CMH-17 is able to help companies and their engineers by giving them the opportunity to know these best practices that took 20-30 years to develop, and also that we’re updating that content and growing into the latest materials that will be used to support the future of aviation.”

Getting involved 

CMH-17 is a growing organization that is free to join. There is an upcoming virtual Coordination Meeting and information can be found on the CMH-17 website. The organization, which includes subject matter experts from certifying agencies, government, academia and industry, works together and collaborates to continue growth of the team-driven handbook content and to foster a thriving network of industry experts.  

Rendering of HyTEM morphing composite wing design being tested on DLR’s PROTEUS unmanned vehicle. Source | DLR, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Lightweight Systems (Braunschweig, Germany) is preparing to flight test a morphing composite wing based on a novel trailing edge design developed in the Hyperelastic Trailing Edge Morphing (HyTEM) project.

The HyTEM concept enables gap-free and step-free movement of the wing edge, enabling the wing to change its shape without creating visible transitions – a major advantage for aerodynamics. It was developed as part of the interdisciplinary research project "Morphing Technologies & Artificial Intelligence Research Group" (morphAIR), which aims to demonstrate a novel wing concept designed to improve aircraft efficiency and control.

“Using 10 strategically placed actuators distributed across each wing half-span, we can achieve unprecedented shape adaptation and control of a fully composite wing structure,” says Martin Radestock, project manager at DLR. “Imagine a trailing edge that can be precisely controlled to optimize lift, drag and roll rates, all while the wing remains fully closed. Additionally, the adaptability of the design can enhance aircraft safety, as the control surface functionalities can be distributed across the entire wing to mitigate actuator malfunctions.” The video below demonstrates a sinusoidal deflection of a trailing edge segment, spanning 0.5 meters, with five distinct control positions.

Ground and flight tests

Both the conventional reference wing and the HyTEM morphing wing are made entirely of lightweight fiber-reinforced composites. DLR completed ground testing and initial flight tests on the reference wing earlier in 2025. “These flights provided valuable data for comparison and validated our baseline setup,” notes Radestock. Building on that momentum, the first morphing wing has now been fabricated, successfully integrated into the avionics of the unmanned test vehicle PROTEUS and all functionality tests have been completed, confirming the system’s integrity and the interaction of the morphing mechanisms with the flight control system.

Although morphing technologies have been studied in extensive ground and wind tunnel tests at the subsystem level over the last decade, important top-level measurements such as fuel consumption and changes in flight characteristics are missing and can only be determined through flight tests. In addition, the combination of artificial intelligence (AI)-based control with morphing technologies offers great potential for improvements in flight control and performance.

PROTEUS has now been equipped with both the conventional and morphing wing and the upcoming flight test campaign will test the HyTEM concept in real flight conditions at the DLR Test Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Nationales Erprobungszentrum für Unbemannte Luftfahrtsysteme) in Cochstedt, Germany.

“We look forward to sharing the results,” says Radestock, “and to pushing the boundaries of what wings can do.”

Source | (top left, clockwise) Cummins, AMSL Aero Pty Ltd, Hexagon Purus, AZL Aachen

Pressure vessels have been a strong market for composites, driven historically by steady growth in compressed natural gas (CNG) for clean energy, including Type 3 (metal liner) and Type 4 (plastic liner) tanks in CNG vehicles and Type 4 mobile pipelines for industrial transport. Composite pressure vessels are also used onboard space vehicles to store cryogenic fuel for rocket propulsion and gases for other systems.

All of these systems typically use carbon fiber and traditionally relied on epoxy resins, but new designs are being developed with a thermoplastic polymer matrix.

The use of Type 4 tanks to store pressurized hydrogen (H₂) grew dramatically during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as this zero-emission fuel for industry and transport was added to the mix of technologies needed to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. (See CW’s 2024 market summary.)

However, beginning Q1 2025, the Trump administration reversed U.S. climate and clean energy policy, prioritizing fossil fuels. The H₂ market has been further weakened by tariff-induced global economic uncertainty while European governments have diverted billions away from climate aid commitments to defense. AI is also a factor, drawing away billions in investment capital but also rapidly ramping its demand for immediate access to huge amounts of power, setting back the transition to clean energy.

Even though the H₂ economy has been dealt a severe blow, efforts are still ongoing, especially in Europe and Asia, where strategic and financial incentives exist for countries who have abundant clean power for producing H₂, for those who don’t have oil and gas and also for those still prioritizing saving the planet. Meanwhile, composite Type 4 tanks continue to be used for CNG and renewable natural gas (RNG), which is a carbon-negative fuel, as well as to enable the rapid rise in New Space, where more tanks will be needed for the projected growth in launch vehicles and extraterrestrial operations.

Tanks for space

Rocket launches are projected to increase from a record 258 in 2024 to as many as 2,000/year by 2030. This increase is driven by satellite deployment and replacement, cislunar operations (between the Earth and the Moon), Mars exploration and space tourism as well as in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing. Type 4 and composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), which have traditionally used an aluminum liner, may be used to store fuel for propulsion but also gases for life support and other systems.

SSLC develops composite Type 5 tanks as primary structure for space launch vehicles. Source | SSLC

Proven since the 1980s, Type 5 composite pressure vessels without a liner are gaining traction. A notable example is the use of such Type 5 cryogenic propulsion tanks onboard Intuitive Machine’s (IM, Houston, Texas, U.S.) Nova-C lunar lander. All-composite Pressurmaxx liquid methane and liquid oxygen tanks made by Scorpius Space Launch Co. (SSLC, Torrance, Calif., U.S.) were used on the successful IM-1 and IM-2 lunar missions (read “Type V pressure vessel enables lunar lander”). SSLC has built 150-200 tanks over 15 years. A 2025 CW Talks podcast interviews Markus Rufer from SSLC, discussing the company’s aims to integrate tanks into the spacecraft structure, reducing parts and weight.

Dawn Aerospace works with Com&Sens to develop composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) with embedded sensors toward qualified 30-liter tanks by 2025. Source | Dawn Aerospace

Meanwhile, space company Dawn Aerospace (ChristChurch, New Zealand), builder of the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane with a primary composite structure, is expanding its satellite propulsion system offerings by partnering with Com&Sens (Eke, Belgium) to work on smart COPVs through a development contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems’ (ARTES) Core Competitiveness program. Dawn designs and manufactures 30-liter tanks with an aluminum liner overwrapped in carbon fiber and epoxy. Com&Sens is collaborating with semi-automated sensor embedding during filament winding to digitize production and testing parameters using embedded strain and temperature FBG optical fiber sensors. “Using smart technology during the development allows us to bring a better product to market, faster,” says Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. These tanks will be capable of supporting large satellite systems and geosynchronous orbit (GEO) missions (read “Dawn Aerospace … develops smart COPVs”).

Note, Com&Sens has provided hands-on training workshops on using fiber optic sensing for digital manufacturing of composite pressure vessels. See “Com&Sens presents workshop on fiber optic sensing for COPVs.”

Rocket manufacturing company Reaction Dynamics (RDX, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada) is working to advance its 18-meter Aurora orbital launch vehicle which features a booster stage with several carbon fiber composite tanks designed in-house to store liquid oxidizer. The company was awarded $1.5 million from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) with $1 million directed to optimizing the mass of large composite propellant tanks. Critical for improving Aurora’s launch capabilities, this project builds on RDX’s expertise in composite pressure vessels as it moves toward a full-scale demonstration. The company says that its goal is to maximize Aurora’s payload capacity, with a spaceflight demo planned for 2025.

One notable player in Type 5 tanks for spacecraft was awarded funding in January 2025 to advance Type 4 tanks for H₂ storage in vehicles on Earth. Infinite Composites Inc. (Tulsa, Okla., U.S.) announced a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.) to advance 700-bar storage tanks with the following innovations:

• Development of integral gas barrier materials to replace permeation barrier layers.
• Application of novel, high-aspect ratio 2D nanofiller-based barrier coatings.
• Use of additive manufacturing techniques to aid tank production.

Continued sales in CNG/RNG

Truck powered by Cummins X15N natural gas engine. Source | Cummins

Reports from Hexagon Agility (Costa Mesa, Calif., U.S.) and its parent company Hexagon Composites (Ålesund, Norway) have shown continued sales in RNG/CNG fuel systems using Type 4 pressure vessels. A new wave of orders in late 2024 totaling $4.3 million was driven by sales of Cummins’ (Columbus, Ind., U.S.) X15N natural gas engine, designed specifically for the North American heavy-duty commercial truck market. At the end of April 2025, Daimler Truck North America joined Kenworth and Peterbilt as the leading Class 8 truck OEMs to offer X15N engine options. Additional orders based on the X15N engine were announced for 60 trucks in July 2025 and for 100 heavy-duty trucks to be operated by Trayecto, said to be the largest trucking company in Mexico, in August 2025.

Unfortunately, the freight industry has been experiencing a sustained downturn since mid-2022. As described by an American Trucking Association (ATA) economist in a series of reports by WEX, trucking companies are facing impacts from tariffs, inflation and an uncertain consumer market. Tariffs are driving up prices in materials and slowing manufacturing, which has cut demand and freight volume. Meanwhile, costs for fuel, operations and maintenance are increasing. However, movements toward cleaner energy, like with the X15N engine, are seen as a positive dynamic.

Hexagon Agility Titan Mobile Pipeline module. Source | Hexagon Agility

This dynamic has also helped Hexagon Agility sell CFRP tank-based Mobile Pipeline units. A U.S. oilfield services company is using Titan 450 modules to transition its fleet of well completion equipment from diesel fuel to natural gas while Watani, the country of Jordan’s National Advanced Natural Gas Company, will use ADR X-Store 45-foot modules for flexibility and efficiency to supply both industrial zones and remote communities alike.

Also in 2025, Hexagon Composites fully acquired the alternative fuels subsidiary of Worthington Enterprises known as Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES). Now renamed SES Composites, the business manufactures composite cylinders and systems in Słupsk, Poland, and operates a valve assembly facility in Burscheid, Germany. “This acquisition brings complimentary capabilities to our portfolio and can realize further synergies across our production and supply chain,” says Phillip Schramm, CEO of Hexagon Composites. “As recognized by European OEMs, natural gas, whether renewable or conventional, will remain a key part of the European energy transition for the foreseeable future, and this acquisition strengthens our position as a trusted partner to OEMs in the commercial transportation sector.”

Source | Hexagon Digital Wave

Another key subsidiary of Hexagon Composites is Hexagon Digital Wave (Centennial, Colo., U.S.), which uses proprietary modal acoustic emission (MAE) technology to perform in situ requalification of metal and composite pressure vessels and virtual pipeline trailers. In 2025, it announced a long-term agreement (LTA) to provide exclusive requalification services to a U.S. oil services company’s fleet of virtual pipeline trailers with composite cylinders. Such requalification is required every 5 years for pipeline trailers.

Green H₂ markets: China will lead, U.S. will lag

Source | Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Europe is still pushing forward, albeit at a slower pace. Citing economic and political pressures, many projects have slowed or delayed while others have been canceled. However, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership announced 26 new projects in 2025 to accelerate the development and deployment of H₂ technologies across Europe. Meanwhile, China is set to dominate the global market for green hydrogen. According to S&P Global (New York, N.Y., U.S.), Chinese electrolyzer development has surged in 2025, with manufacturers signing contracts with green hydrogen projects in Europe, the Middle East, Brazil and the U.S.

The U.S., however, will now lag behind. The Trump administration has delayed loans for clean H₂ projects and canceled grants for industrial producers seeking to reduce their emissions. Due to this and canceled tax credits, estimates for U.S. electrolyzer installations have been cut by more than 60%.

India prepares to launch its first H₂-powered train. Source | X post by @AshwiniVaishnaw, minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Bharat, India

Meanwhile, the Indian government aligns with China in seeing clean energy as a growth strategy, with goals to install 500 gigawatts of non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030, become an energy-independent nation by 2047 and attain net zero by 2070. As part of this, it has established a National Green Hydrogen Mission that aims to make India a “global hub” for using, producing and exporting green H₂. The country launched its first green H₂ hub in January 2025 and is preparing to launch its first H₂-powered train, manufactured by Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.

China is also launching H₂-powered rail. In September 2024, CRRC Corp. Ltd. (Beijing, China) announced two product launches, the Cinova H₂, a new energy intelligent intercity train, and the autonomous rail rapid transit (ART) 2.0. Images and video released of the new train show standard roof-mounted units for housing H₂ storage tanks. Cinova H_₂ offers advancements in speed, passenger capacity and range, offering a transportation option that can be used on non-electrified railways worldwide. The ART 2.0, which will reportedly also use H₂, is designed for medium-to-low passenger volumes, blending the benefits of trams and road-based vehicles to meet urban transport needs.

Type 4 tanks for H₂ vehicles

As reported by Hydrogen Insight, 4,102 H₂ fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) were registered worldwide in H1 2025, a 27.2% decline year on year. Even China, which is currently the largest market for FCEVs, saw 2,040 units sold, an 18.4% decline versus 2024. In a separate report, the news outlet notes vehicle OEM Stellantis has exited the FCEV market.

 

A Honda associate at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio, sub-assembles the hydrogen tanks for the all-new 2025 CR-V e:FCEV. Source | Honda  

Even so, certain vehicle OEMs remain committed to H₂ models. In 2024, Honda (Tokyo, Japan) started production of its 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV at its Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio, U.S. The compact CUV will use two Type 4 H₂ storage tanks. In February 2025, the company released specifications for the Honda Next Generation Fuel Cell Module, which slashes production cost by 50%, increases durability by >200% while reducing size thanks to a three times increase in volumetric power density for more flexible layouts in the CR-V and potentially other vehicles.

Also in 2024, BMW Group (Munich, Germany) and Toyota Motor Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) announced they would launch a series production FCEV in 2028. The model will use composite pressure vessels for H₂ storage. In a September 2025 report by Hydrogen Insight, BMW announced that it is on track to start series production of its next-generation fuel cells for passenger cars in its Steyr, Austria, facility with construction for H₂-based drivetrains due to start in May 2026.

In September 2025, Dongfeng Motor Corp. (Wuhan, Hubei), one of the largest Chinese stated-owned automobile manufacturers, said it would build a facility to convert existing vehicles to run on H₂ in the city of Ruzhou in central China. The first vehicle modification line will convert 1,000 trucks and 450 other vehicles to run on H₂ in the first 3 years.

Key H₂ tank manufacturers

Hexagon Purus’ fully automated, Industry 4.0 line for H₂ pressure vessels advances efficiency and versatility in a small footprint for next-gen, sustainable composites production.

Hexagon Purus (Oslo, Norway) remains the leading manufacturer of Type 4 tanks for H₂ storage. CW toured its factory in Kassel, Germany, and reported on its fully automated, Industry 4.0 production line which advances efficiency and versatility in a small footprint for next-gen, sustainable composites production. In December 2024, it announced supply of Type 4 H₂ storage cylinders to New Flyer (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) for the fifth year in a row, including the zero-emission transit bus Xcelsior Charge FC, with cylinders delivered throughout 2025.

Source | Hexagon Purus

Notable announcements in 2025 include a multiyear agreement in March with Stadler (Bussnang, Switzerland), a manufacturer of rail applications, for H₂ fuel storage systems for H₂ rail applications in California. In April, the company received its first order from MCV, a bus manufacturer in the Middle East and Africa, for next-gen H₂ fuel storage systems to be delivered in 2025 for use onboard MCV’s fuel-cell electric buses while CIMC-Hexagon (Shijiazhuang, China), a joint venture company between CIMC Enric Holdings Ltd. (Shenzhen, China) and Hexagon Purus, delivered its first Type 4 high-pressure H₂ cylinders for use in Hexagon Purus’ distribution modules in Europe.

In its report for Q2 2025, revenues are down 63% versus Q2 2024, and yet, order backlog is up 33% versus Q1 2025, totaling 1,056 million Krone, not far off from its 1,242 million Krone backlog in Q1 2024. The company continues to focus on H₂ transit bus and infrastructure applications and has also seen growth in Type 4 tanks for space vehicles as well as industrial gas transport.

In April 2024, Type 4 tank manufacturer NPROXX (Heerlen, Netherlands) completed its move to a larger 10,000-square-meter facility in Alsdorf, Germany, to handle larger orders, streamline operations and potentially accommodate up to five times current production, to 30,000 tanks/year.

Voith HySTech Type 4 hydrogen tank made with towpreg. Source | Voith LinkedIn

Also in April 2024, Voith Group established a separate subsidiary, Voith HySTech GmbH (Garching, Germany), focused on Type 4 tanks made using towpreg, and announced a strategic cooperation with the Chinese Weifu High Technology Group (Wuxi) for research, development, production and application of H₂ storage systems.

Thermoplastic composite pipe and tanks for H₂

Continuous thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) manufactured in lengths up to 1.2 kilometers by Hive Composites improves H₂ distribution performance versus steel pipe. Source | Hive Composites

One notable trend in the development of H₂ storage and transport is the use of thermoplastic composites (TPC) versus the traditional epoxy-based thermoset matrices. In April 2025, CW wrote about Hive Composites’ (Loughborough, U.K.) development of TPC pipes for H₂ distribution which reduce operational and decommissioning emissions by 60-70% versus steel pipes. A multilayer barrier system prevents H₂ permeation while 1.2-kilometer continuous pipe lengths speed installation rates by 40 times, yet the pipes still offer a 30+ year service life, maintaining structural integrity even after rapid decompression events.

Key projects in TPC tank development for H₂ storage include:

• COCOLIH2T aiming for two TPC demonstrators and TRL 4 by 2025;
• OVERLEAF for a TPC LH₂ tank with 40% storage efficiency, 60% less weight and 25% boost in storage capacity (see webinars and 3D printing achievements);
• LeiWaCo (2022-2025) for economic series production of TPC LH₂ tanks;
• THOR, completed in 2022, for industrialized production of Type 4.5 TPC tanks;
• Efforts at the National Composites Centre in the U.K. and the Netherlands LH₂ composite tank consortium.

Source | TU Dresden-ILK, BRYSON project, APUS Zero Emission

Another key project is BRYSON (2020-2023). In late 2024, CW wrote about this project’s achievements, including automated TPC tube production and investigation into permeability, noting that EVOH provides 25 times better barrier properties versus PA6. In addition to potentially enabling H₂ storage that fits into EV battery compartments, this concept could also be applied to narrow tanks housed in aircraft wings.

CW also updated readers on the Netherlands liquid hydrogen (LH₂) composite tank consortium, which aims to validate a fully composite long-life tank for civil aviation by 2025 and won the Best Poster Award at the 7^th International Conference and Exhibition on Thermoplastic Composites (ITHEC, Oct. 9-10, Bremen, Germany). The consortium is working with Cetex TC1225 UD tape prepreg comprising carbon fiber and LMPAEK polymer (supplied by Victrex, Clevelys, U.K.). Key topics include tape quality monitoring, continuous ultrasonic welding and induction welding, fiber steering, composite baffles and sensors. (Read “Development of a composite liquid hydrogen tanks for commercial aircraft.”)

AZL CAD design and CAE analysis examples for Type 4 H₂ pressure vessels, including an example of a winding scheme and relative weight results for different pressure vessel designs. Source | AZL Aachen GmbH

In July 2025, AZL Aachen GmbH (Aachen, Germany) also launched a project to rethink pressure vessel design and production in alignment with TPC materials and manufacturing. “Thermoplastic Pressure Vessel Production – Benchmarking of Design-for-Manufacturing Strategies to Optimize Material Efficiency and Cost” will analyze current technologies, develop new design concepts for H₂ and CNG storage tanks and benchmark resulting configurations in terms of weight, cost, recyclability and production KPIs. AZL also announced successful completion of its 12-month R&D project entitled “Trends & Design Factors for Hydrogen Pressure Vessels.”

The ROAD TRHYP project, started in January 2023, has successfully designed a TPC Type 5 cylinder with gravimetric capacity higher than 7%. Supported by the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, the project will conclude in June 2026.

Conformable tanks

Multicell integral H₂ storage tank being developed in the Czech Republic. Source | CompoTech

BRYSON is one approach to developing conformable tanks with flexibility for fit into tight vehicle spaces, but CW has reported on others over the past year, including:

• The Czech project “Composite integral fuel tank for pressurised hydrogen” composite multicell integral tank being developed in the Czech Republic for aviation
  including winding specialist CompoTech PLUS; 
• Polar Technology’s (Eynsham, Oxfordshire, U.K.) “Hydrogen in a Box” development;
• Noble Gas Systems (Wixom, Mich., U.S.), which has received an Approval in Principle (AiP) certificate for its dry fiber conformable H₂ storage vessel from DNV (Bærum, Norway) and raised $4.2 million in Series B funding.

Aviation industry’s drive for tanks

Another blow to the developing H₂ economy this year was Airbus’ announcement that it will push back its original 2035 entry-into-service objectives for the H₂-powered ZEROe passenger aircraft by up to 10 years. Although it remains committed to bringing a commercially viable, fully electric H₂-powered aircraft to market, Airbus explained, development of the necessary infrastructure and ecosystem are not yet on pace to support full-scale operations of such aircraft.

And yet, the 2025 Paris Air Show featured multiple announcements regarding H₂ developments, including:

• Airbus, MTU Aero Engines to advance H₂ fuel cell technology.
  A memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MTU Aero Engines (Munich, Germany) will progress H₂ fuel cell propulsion to decarbonize aviation.
• GKN Aerospace supports Airbus-led ICEFlight program.
  GKN Aerospace (Redditch, U.K.) has joined the collaborative Innovative Cryogenic Electric Flight (ICEFlight) project. Led by Airbus, the consortium will collectively explore the use of liquid hydrogen (LH₂) as a fuel source as well as a cold source for the electrical system cooling.

Fabrum’s onboard LH₂ storage uses a metal shell for ground-based vehicles and all-composite construction for aviation. Source | Fabrum

CW also reported on the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) first international workshop on the challenges and future processes for certifying aircraft powered by H₂, with the aim of developing a certification approach that has the support of the entire community. More recently, AMSL Aero (Sydney, Australia) has received funding from the Australian federal government to develop and demonstrate LH₂-powered aircraft for regional and remote Australia using its Vertiia eVTOL aircraft, which comprises an electric motor with a battery, a H₂ fuel cell and a composite tank, developed with Fabrum (Christchurch, New Zealand).

Meanwhile, ZeroAvia (Everett, Wash., U.S.) continues to progress toward certification of its ZA600 H₂-electric powertrain. Although it has tested cryogenic tanks for LH₂, it hasn’t confirmed these will use composites. However, in my 2022 interview with Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia, he did see the future for composites in this application:

“We see the most promising approach is using composite tanks and we are working with a couple of partners on that already. We want to see H₂ aircraft flying as far as jet fuel aircraft, possibly in 10-20 years, and I think cryogenic tanks using lightweight composites will be key to that.”  

In March 2025, the company announced its selection by AFWERX for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to conduct a feasibility study focused on integrating H₂ propulsion into Cessna Caravan aircraft alongside advanced aircraft automation technology. “This feasibility study will provide greater insight into how H₂ fuel cell propulsion can reduce detectability and costs of air operations, enhance capability of autonomous air vehicles and de-risk fuel supply in forward operating environments,” says Miftakhov. The company believes H₂ fuel cells are a promising technology to improve the range, duration and turnaround time for a variety of electric unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

Cavorite X7 eVTOL. Source | Horizon Aircraft, ZeroAvia

This was followed in July 2025 with ZeroAvia’s announcement that it would work with New Horizon Aircraft Ltd. (Toronto, Canada) to develop regional H₂ eVTOL air travel, exploring ZeroAvia’s ZA600 H₂-electric powertrain for Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X7 eVTOL (CW has reported extensively on the ZA600, see “ZeroAvia advances to certify ZA600 in 2025...” and “ZeroAvia receives FAA G-1...”). The partnership will also accelerate research into the necessary infrastructure and certification guidelines for a zero-emission pathway for Horizon Aircraft. “More and more eVTOL companies are looking to H₂-electric propulsion as the breakthrough that can extend range potential and durability of electric propulsion systems,” explains Miftakhov.

In August 2025, ZeroAvia announced it had progressed from milestone G-1 to P-1 toward FAA certification of the ZA600 and is also advancing toward certifying the company’s first fully H₂-electric powertrain with the UK Civil Aviation Authority. ZeroAvia launched a component offering in May 2024 to serve potential applications including battery, hybrid and fuel cell electric fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft and UAVs. ZeroAvia’s complete ZA600 H₂-electric powertrain is designed for up to 20-seat commercial aircraft.

Cryo-compressed H₂

Cryogas tank provides high-density storage of cryo-compressed hydrogen (CcH₂) using an inner tank wrapped with carbon fiber/epoxy towpreg. Source | Cryomotive

A promising alternative to LH₂ that already uses a composite inner tank is cryo-compressed H₂ (CcH₂). In July 2024, Cryomotive (Pfeffenhausen, Germany) announced that its CcH₂ storage system for heavy trucks was beginning on-road demonstrations. The Cryogas system features a 400-bar Type 3 inner tank — aluminum liner wrapped with carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy resin via towpreg, which Cryomotive says provides higher repeatability and faster winding speeds for more cost-effective mass production.

A single tank system stores 38 kilograms of CcH₂ and has successfully passed hydraulic burst and cycle testing. Cryomotive offers two frame-mounted tanks to store 76 kilograms, or 3-4 vessels, in a rack storing up to 150 kilograms of CcH₂. A system cost of €500/kilogram is possible at a production volume of 1,000 tanks/year.

Verne’s frame mounted CcH₂ system for heavy-duty trucks (top) and collaboration with ZeroAvia to explore CcH₂ systems for aircraft. Source | Verne

Meanwhile, Verne (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) successfully demonstrated its first CcH₂ truck in southern California in late 2024. Verne reports its composite CcH₂ technology provides 33% greater storage density versus LH₂ and 87% greater density than traditional 700-bar compressed H₂ gas. Additionally, CcH₂ reportedly offers lower densification costs and less H₂ boil-off losses relative to LH₂. The company also signed an MOU with ZeroAvia to jointly evaluate the opportunities for using CcH₂ onboard H₂-powered aircraft

However, with the sharp decline in clean transportation funding in the U.S., Verne has now pivoted to using its technology to offer H₂ and clean CNG solutions to help companies with reliable access to decentralized power for industry and applications like data centers for AI.

New tank manufacturers and products

Companies that have reported new developments in composite tanks over the past year include:

• B&T Composites
• Gas Vessel Production
• Konvegas
• Pressura
• Quantum Fuel Systems.

Source | Graphmatech

New materials announced for composite pressure vessels include Tenax IMS65 E23 36K 1630tex, the first 36K carbon fiber by Teijin Carbon (Wuppertal, Germany). This high-tensile, intermediate modulus (IM) fiber reportedly enables high-speed filament winding and improved spreadability for producing prepreg tape. Meanwhile, startup Graphmatech (Uppsala, Sweden) secured a €2.5 million EU grant to develop a pilot facility in Uppsala for its polymer-graphene H₂ storage lining technology, aiming to reduce potential leakage by 83%.

Type 5 pressure vessel for H₂ at BTU. Source | Mikrosam

New processes include winding, dome reinforcements and recycling. Engineering Technology Corp. (ETC, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.) has showcased its latest systems featuring high-speed filament winding, automation and integrated robotics as well as towpreg and slit tape winding. Mikrosam (Prilep, Macedonia) delivered a system to BTU in Germany enabling increased precision in automated composite layup of Type 5 H₂ pressure vessels, while Magnum Venus Products (MVP, Knoxville, Tenn., U.S.) has highlighted developments in four-axis filament winding for wet winding and prepreg applications and Roth Composite Machinery GmbH (Steffenberg, Germany) has developed an innovative automation concept for reliable fiber changing, as well as its winding software µRoWin for increased efficiency.

Cevotec (Munich, Germany) commissioned its Samba Pro PV system at the National Composites Center Japan (NCC Japan, Nagoya) for developing lightweight, sustainable composite tanks with increased storage volume. The systems based on fiber patch placement (FPP) technology will aid with production of dome reinforcements for H₂ pressure vessels, enabling reduced weight, cost and environmental footprint of composite tanks. Cevotec’s dome reinforcement solution won the 2024 CAMX Combined Strength Award and was further showcased at CAMX 2025.

Meanwhile, Cygnet Texkimp (Northwich, U.K.) partnered with H₂ powertrain solutions developer Viritech (Nuneaton, Warwickshire, U.K.) to recover high-value, continuous carbon fiber from pressure vessels as part of a strategy to improve circularity in the manufacture of filament-wound parts.

Source | CIKONI

There are also an array of developments in software and sensors. Composites engineering firm CIKONI (Stuttgart, Germany) has worked for more than a decade on projects to optimize composite pressure vessel designs, including work with Cevotec using dome reinforcements to optimize layup and achieve a 15% reduction in carbon fiber use while maintaining equivalent mechanical properties, enabling reduced wall thickness for 17% more usable storage capacity. CW reported on its advances in “Using multidisciplinary simulation, real-time process monitoring to improve composite pressure vessels.”

CW has also reported on Taniq (Rotterdam, Netherlands), which has been globally supplying robotic filament winding equipment since 2007, and released its TaniqWind Pro software in 2022. See its JEC 2025 highlights: “Spin-off shares expertise in filament winding software, robotics.”

Finally, Touch Sensity (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France) has developed a technology solution for structural health monitoring (SHM) of composite H₂ pressure vessels (Type 3 and 4), enabling real-time monitoring of damages, bending detection and localization to ensure safety, durability and predictive maintenance. Its SensityTech detects and locates real-time variations in material properties, providing fast and reliable information on tank integrity as well as remaining lifetime for potential reuse in new vehicles.

Source of aircraft fuel efficiency. Source (All Images) | Counterpoint Market Intelligence

Counterpoint Market Intelligence (Chesterford, U.K.), an aerospace market research consultancy, recently released a white paper entitled “The Crucial Role of Composites in Next-Generation Aircraft Design.” This in-depth report explores how advanced composite materials are transforming the aerospace industry by enabling long and thin wings, lighter airframes and significant fuel savings. Counterpoint has written the article in collaboration with Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn., U.S.).

According to ICAO forecasts, air travel is predicted to grow about 4% annually through 2050. Innovations, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or alternative propulsion technology, can assist in getting the industry to net zero. However high costs associate with supply chain development and technology’s long timeline may present a challenge for the industry. Therefore, reducing the amount of fuel consumed in the first place using existing technologies is a critical step.

So, what are the key advantages of composite use? Historically, aircraft manufacturers have improved fuel efficiency (in terms of fuel per passenger-mile) through four major levers: improved engine technology, higher density of seats and passengers, aerodynamic improvements and reducing structural weight. The use of composites is a key enabler in three of them. Although engine technology has been a key driver of efficiency in the past, Counterpoint believes that structural weight and aerodynamics will play a pivotal role in future designs as pushing the boundaries with engine technology becomes more difficult.

Composites can assist aircraft designers in reducing fuel burn through two primary mechanisms: lowering the weight of the aircraft and optimizing the wing design. This white paper discusses how the distinctive properties of composites enable aerodynamic designs that are not feasible with metallic materials. More than just being lightweight, these aerodynamic efficiencies drive large reductions in drag and resulting fuel consumption.

These advanced materials are already in widespread use in modern aircraft designs, but the untapped opportunity for composite materials remains large. In the chart at right, each stacked represents the empty weight of one aircraft, and the number of bars represents the number of aircraft produced each month based on manufacturer forecasts. Boeing and Airbus’ current single-aisle aircraft have the highest production rates in the industry. Current generation designs use relatively little composite materials, and next-generation designs have the opportunity to use significantly more composite materials.

The full white paper expands on each of these points, providing examples and data quantify the effects of composites in aircraft design.

The white paper can be downloaded here.

CFRP outer tank cap, part of composite dewar construction for cyrogenic liquid hydrogen storage. Source | © DLR. Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute for Lightweight Systems (Braunschweig), together with INVENT GmbH (Braunschweig, Germany), has developed a 1.9-meter-diameter carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) cylindrical tank component for storing liquid hydrogen (LH₂) for zero-emission propulsion. DLR reports using LH₂ as an energy carrier for short-haul aircraft will become a reality by 2040. For this to succeed, lightweight tanks are needed that can be produced safely, easily and efficiently.

Source | © DLR. Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The 1.9-meter CFRP structure is the shorter of two segments comprising an outer tank for a dewar construction with vacuum between the inner and outer tanks, standard in cryogenic storage. It was reportedly made using materials and processes already approved for aviation, including DLR’s autoclave infusion process.

It was presented for the first time at the Hydrogen Technology World Expo 2025 (Oct. 20-22, Hamburg, Germany).

DLR Institute for Lightweight Systems develops and tests new system technologies based on lightweight materials, structures and functional integration for resource-efficient and climate-friendly structures in aerospace, transport and the energy and security sectors. As part of its work in the German-funded LUFO UpLift project, this first full-scale test structure was produced using DLR’s autoclave infusion process — considered an innovative approach for producing large-scale CFRP tanks.

Source | © DLR. Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The LH₂ tank must withstand cryogenic temperatures of -253°C, a pressure between 2 and 10 bar and must also provide lightweight yet robust leak-tight storage to meet the requirements of commercial aircraft. Aircraft with 100 seats and a 1,000-nautical mile range are the first target for such composite tank developments. The UpLift ground test facility enables testing of full-scale composite tank components and under realistic operational conditions for this segment of future short-haul aircraft.

This development, titled “Lightweight liquid hydrogen tanks for sustainable aviation,” is one of six finalists for the Lower Saxony Innovation Award 2025 in the Key Technologies category. Possible applications are said to include cryogenic space tanks — particularly in the upper stage for the Ariane launch vehicle — and as LH₂ or ammonia storage tanks in the maritime sector. The experience gained in the manufacture of large, thin-walled, low-pressure vessels could also be beneficial toward further advancing high-rate production of future aircraft fuselages and other large components such as pressure bulkheads or rudder shells.

Source | Embraer 

In a bold step toward India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision, Embraer Defense & Security (Jacksonville, Fla., U.S.) and Mahindra Group (New Delhi, India), have signed a landmark strategic cooperation agreement (SCA) to advance the C-390 Millennium for the Indian Air Force’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) program. This agreement was inked alongside the inauguration of Embraer’s national office in Aerocity, New Delhi.

The agreement builds upon the memorandum of understanding signed in February 2024 at the Embassy of Brazil in New Delhi, deepening the scope of cooperation to include joint marketing, industrialization and developing India as a hub for the C-390 Millennium. Since the signing, the aircraft has further increased its operator base globally.

Embraer and Mahindra Group will work closely with stakeholders in the country and engage with India’s military and aerospace ecosystem to identify opportunities for local manufacturing, assembly facilities, supply chain and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities. The long-term ambition is to position India as a manufacturing and support hub for the C-390 Millennium aircraft, serving both domestic and regional requirements.

“The agreement is a significant milestone in our relationship with Mahindra Group,” notes Bosco da Costa Junior, president and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security. “This partnership is more than an aerospace deal — it reflects our commitment to ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and the growing friendship between Brazil and India.”

The C-390 Millennium, a modern military transport aircraft, can carry more payload (26 tons) compared to other medium-sized military transport aircraft and is said to fly faster (470 knots) and farther. It is able to perform a wide range of missions including cargo and troop transport, airdrops, medical evacuation, search and rescue, firefighting and humanitarian operations. It can operate from temporary or unpaved runways. The aircraft can also be configured for air-to-air refueling, both as a tanker and as a receiver.

The current fleet, in operation, has demonstrated a mission completion rate of more than 99%. It has already been selected by air forces in Brazil, Portugal, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, South Korea, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia, Lithuania and an undisclosed customer.

Source | Getty Images

On Sept. 26, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, Washington, D.C., U.S.) said that it will allow limited delegation to Boeing (Arlington, Va., U.S.) for issuing airworthiness certificates — which confirms an aircraft is safe to operate — for some 737 Max and 787 airplanes starting Sept. 29, 2025. 

Safety drives everything the FAA does, and it is confident that this step forward can be performed safely. This decision follows a thorough review of Boeing’s ongoing production quality and will enable the FAA’s inspectors to focus additional surveillance in the production process. The FAA will continue to maintain direct and rigorous oversight of Boeing's production processes. Boeing and the FAA will issue airworthiness certificates on alternating weeks.   

The FAA’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program allows authorized organizations to perform certification functions on behalf of the FAA, such as issuing airworthiness and production certifications for aircraft. In May, the FAA renewed Boeing’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) for 3 years effective June 1, 2025.  

Resuming limited delegation to the Boeing ODA will enable FAA inspectors to provide additional surveillance in the production process. For example, there will be more FAA inspectors observing critical assembly stages, examining trends, ensuring Boeing mechanics are performing work to approved type design and engineering requirements, and assessing all activities for Boeing’s continuous improvement of its Safety Management System (SMS). Inspectors will also observe Boeing’s safety culture, ensuring that Boeing employees can report safety issues without fear of retribution.   

The FAA stopped allowing Boeing to issue airworthiness certificates for 737 Max airplanes in 2019 during its return to service following the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, and for Boeing 787 airplanes in 2022 because of production quality issues. 

Source | Fabrum

A team of New Zealand and Australian companies developing and deploying liquid hydrogen (LH₂) technologies to enable Australasia’s first hydrogen (H₂)-electric flights has made a significant step forward in the transition to zero-emission aviation. They successfully filled composite tanks with LH₂ produced and stored on-site for the first time at an international airport in preparation for pre-flight testing. This team includes:

• Fabrum (Christchurch, New Zealand), developer of zero-emission transition technologies, including composite LH₂ tanks.
• AMSL Aero (Sydney, Australia), developer of the Vertiia H₂-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
• Stralis Aircraft (Brisbane, Australia), developer of high-performance, low-operating-cost H₂-electric propulsion systems.

Fabrum designed and manufactured the advanced composite LH₂ tanks for the aircraft companies AMSL Aero and Stralis Aircraft. The refueling was successfully completed at Fabrum’s dedicated LH₂ test facility at Christchurch Airport, developed in partnership with the airport at its renewable energy precinct.

The companies are demonstrating that LH₂ fuel is a credible alternative for the aviation industry. The testing event highlighted several LH₂ technologies — including Fabrum’s triple-skin onboard tanks, featuring what is reported to be “groundbreaking” composites manufacturing techniques and the culmination of more than 20 years of R&D in cryogenics and composites. Fabrum’s LH₂ tank technology provides enhanced thermal insulation and fast refueling compared to conventional double-skin tank designs — delivering up to 70% faster refueling times and an 80% reduction in boil-off losses.

AMSL Aero will install these tanks on its Vertiia aircraft for long-range flights, enabling it to achieve optimal range, payload and speed. In addition, Stralis Aircraft’s lightweight H₂-electric propulsion system will be powered by LH₂ from Fabrum’s cryogenic tanks, which are mounted on the wings of Stralis’ fixed-wing test aircraft. Stralis expects its H₂-electric propulsion system will enable travel up to 10 times further than battery-electric alternatives and save 20-50% on operational costs compared to fossil fuel. Its first H₂ test flight is expected to take off in Australasia within 6 months.

“Our lightweight composite tanks, together with our H₂ liquefier and refueling systems, are critical enablers for H₂-powered flight,” explains Christopher Boyle, managing director of Fabrum. “By bringing all the elements together for the first time on-site at an international airport — producing, storing and dispensing LH₂ into composite aviation tanks as a fuel — we’re proving that LH₂ technologies for aircraft are now available, and that H₂-electric flight will soon be a reality in Australasia.”

Since its inception, Vertiia was designed to be powered by H₂ for long-range, cargo and passenger operations. “It must be as light as possible to achieve its 1,000-kilometer range, 500-kilogram payload and 300 kilometer/hour cruising speed,” Dr. Adriano Di Pietro, CEO of AMSL Aero, explains. “LH₂ is the lightest zero-emission method of storing energy for long-distance flight; no other technology currently comes close. We often get asked, ‘You are flying Vertiia and are developing an end-to-end H₂ system, but what else needs to happen to make Vertiia fly on LH₂?’ With Fabrum we have demonstrated the key steps in that process: from producing LH₂, to filling our ground transport container, then filling the tanks that we will install to our aircraft before our first LH₂ flights next year. This is a major milestone.”

"It’s fantastic to see more of Fabrum’s H₂ technologies unveiled and tested,” adds Bob Criner, CEO of Stralis Aircraft. “We are working with Fabrum to develop onboard tanks for our fixed-wing test aircraft to supply H₂ to our H₂-electric propulsion system. We’re excited to see Fabrum’s H₂ fuel dispensing systems for these onboard tanks proven out in testing. This is a vital step toward our first LH₂ test flights.”

These H₂ advancements stem from strong industry collaboration aimed at accelerating zero-emission aviation. Fabrum, AMSL Aero and Stralis Aircraft are members of the Hydrogen Flight Alliance in Australia, which is advancing the development of H₂-electric flight. AMSL Aero was recently awarded a grant from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Program for a “Liquid Hydrogen Powered Aircraft for Regional and Remote Australia” project, with Fabrum among the collaborators. Stralis Aircraft and Fabrum have also received support from Ara Ake, New Zealand’s future energy center, to fast-track H₂ technology for Australasia’s LH₂-powered flight.

Source | GE Aerospace

GE Aerospace (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) and Beta Technologies (South Burlington, Vt., U.S.) have signed a strategic partnership and equity investment agreement, subject to regulatory approval, to accelerate the development of hybrid-electric aviation by combining Beta’s rapid innovation approach with GE Aerospace’s global scale and experience.

Under the new agreement, GE Aerospace and Beta plan to develop a hybrid-electric turbogenerator for advanced air mobility (AAM) applications, including long-range vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, future Beta aircraft and other potential applications. The collaboration brings Beta’s expertise in high-performance, permanent magnet electric generators together with GE Aerospace’s tested turbine, certification and safety expertise for large-scale manufacturing and electrical power systems expertise.

This hybrid solution will tap into existing infrastructure and capabilities, such as GE Aerospace’s CT7 and T700 engines, and is expected to bring significant enhancements in range, payload and speed performance compared to other aircraft in the same segment.

Additionally, GE Aerospace will make an equity investment of $300 million in Beta, subject to regulatory approval, aligned with its commitment to work with key industry players to advance technologies that will support the future of flight. In connection with this partnership, GE Aerospace will also have the right to designate a director to join Beta’s board.

GE Aerospace is advancing a suite of technologies for the future of flight, including integrated hybrid-electric propulsion systems and advanced engine architectures. Multiple milestones have been achieved over the last decade, including a 2016 ground test of an electric motor-driven propeller. In 2022, GE Aerospace completed the first test of a megawatt-class and multi-kilovolt hybrid-electric propulsion system in altitude conditions up to 45,000 feet that simulate single-aisle commercial flight.

Beta itself has built up electric flight distance and hours flown, generating valuable, real-world data. Beta’s aircraft are engineered for all-weather performance and have been tested to operate reliably in a wide range of environmental conditions across the U.S. and Europe. 

H225M helicopter. Source | GKN Aerospace

GKN Aerospace’s business in the Netherlands, GKN Fokker (Hoogeveen), has signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Airbus Helicopters (Marignane, France) during the visit of Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands to Airbus in Toulouse on Oct. 1, 2025.

The Royal visit highlighted the strategic importance of the long-standing relationship between Airbus, the Netherlands and the Dutch aerospace eco-system. The MOU follows the official purchase of 12 H225M helicopters by the Dutch Ministry of Defence and further strengthens the collaboration between GKN Aerospace and Airbus Helicopters. It will advance the development of critical systems like electrical wiring interconnection systems (EWIS) and advanced composites technology for the Airbus H225M Caracal helicopter, creating a steppingstone for broader European defense cooperation and autonomy.

This agreement builds on the MOU signed between Airbus Helicopters and GKN Fokker in 2023. That collaboration laid the foundation for industrial participation in areas including engineering, EWIS design and manufacturing and aerostructures.

Airbus Helicopters and GKN Fokker have a long-standing partnership, notably through joint work on the NH90 program as part of the NHIndustries consortium with Leonardo. 

Heule Precision Tools’ Comp V3 tool is engineered to perform multiple drilling or countersinking operations on uneven surfaces with precision, without marking the workpiece. According to the company, it improves productivity by eliminating the inconsistency associated with manual countersinking and saves significant cycle time. A specialzied, non-rotational contact foot prevents any marking of the workpiece during operation, making it well suited for critical finishes.

The Comp V3 offers fine adjustments to the chamfer depth of 0.0008" (0.02 mm) and a drill depth of up to 2 × D with through-coolant capabilities. It produces clean, precise countersinks in a variety of materials including aluminum, titanium and composites, making it well suited for critical aircraft components like seat rails, floorboards, structural components, aluminum wheels and high-value aluminum castings. It features double compensation technology for precision and finer adjustments; the contact ring compresses as the hole is drilled, and then the contact ring holder compresses after the predetermined countersink depth is reached. This technology enables a variant of part of ±3.75 mm with height increments of +0.02 mm, making it well suited for aerospace applications and others where critical finishes are required.

The Comp V3 tooling includes an adjustment ring, a contact ring holder, a contact ring and the solid carbide step drill. In the first step, the tool head makes contact with the workpiece. As the solid carbide step drill makes the hole, the contact ring moves up. The drill continues working until the preset countersink depth is reached. When the countersink reaches maximum depth, the contact ring holder and contact ring move up together as the drill stays stationary. The drill is then removed, leaving a finished part.

The Comp V3 is spring-loaded and designed to cut a specific countersink size. Once the specific size chamfer is produced, the face of the tool stops rotation while making contact with the part, and the cutter cannot travel further into the part. Using a highly efficient threaded system for quick changes between drill and countersink operations streamlines the workflow. Each Comp V3 tool is tailored to customer specifications to provide easy integration into existing systems.

Source | HondaJet Aircraft Co.

In February 2025, Honda Aircraft Co.’s (Greensboro, N.C., U.S.) began production of the first HondaJet Echelon (previously called the HondaJet 2600 concept) test unit with the start of assembly of the aircraft’s wing structure in Greensboro, North Carolina. The HondaJet Echelon, planned to achieve first flight in 2026, will feature a larger cabin with increased passenger capacity and range over previous HondaJet models, bringing the award-winning design features of the HondaJet to a new segment of the aviation market.

In June 2023, Honda Aircraft announced Spirit AeroSystem’s (Wichita, Kan., U.S.) expanded role in developing the aircraft’s build-to-print composite fuselage and a composite bonded frame. Honda Aircraft’s production department began introducing specialized assembly lines early in 2024, with tooling installation completed at the end of the year. With work on the first major sub-assembly of the Echelon underway, the program has entered its next development phase. The company is producing test articles to facilitate the maturation of the design in support of aircraft certification.

In January 2025, the Honda Aircraft Company Advanced Systems Integration Test Facility (ASITF) held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the HondaJet Echelon development simulator, which now serves several functions, including a vehicle for system development testing. The development simulator uses data from wind tunnel models of the HondaJet Echelon and real aircraft hardware to predict aircraft performance in operational conditions, enabling engineers to evaluate key aircraft systems prior to the test aircraft taking flight.

“We are excited to see the HondaJet Echelon program gaining momentum,” says Honda Aircraft Co. senior vice president and chief commercial officer Amod Kelkar. “We are proud of the achievements we have made in the last several months, and it is just the beginning. We have a series of additional targets to hit in the coming months, each of which will bring us closer to the actual first flight next year [2026]. Market interest in the HondaJet Echelon grows, with almost 500 letters of intent signed to date, and numbers increasing every month.”

The HondaJet Echelon is planned to become the “first” light jet with a range capable of nonstop transcontinental flight across the U.S., offering 40% better fuel efficiency than some midsize jets. The new aircraft will introduce product features previously unseen in the HondaJet line, while still building on the high performance and operational efficiency of the original HondaJet.

Source | PF

The aerospace industry is entering a transformative era, driven by the post-pandemic rebound of commercial aviation, rapid advancements in defense and space sectors, and the emergence of advanced air mobility (AAM). This diversification demands innovative materials and components, often requiring lightweight structures and advanced materials to meet performance, safety and sustainability goals. Surface finishes, such as thermal sprays and anti-corrosion coatings, protect critical components like airframes, engine parts and landing gear from corrosion, wear and extreme conditions — ranging from high-altitude temperatures to high-performance requirements — while extending their lifespan.

For suppliers and manufacturers in the finishing sector, this evolving landscape presents both opportunities and challenges. Components must meet stringent specifications set by OEMs like Airbus and Boeing, as well as industry standards for coating thickness, adhesion strength and resistance to environmental stressors. Additionally, certifications like the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP), managed by the Performance Review Institute (PRI), are often required. Achieving NADCAP accreditation through rigorous audits and continuous improvement is a critical differentiator for securing contracts with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs, signaling trust and a competitive edge in a quality-driven market.

Regulatory constraints further complicate the landscape, particularly regarding the use of potentially hazardous materials like hexavalent chromium in coatings and plating processes. And while, alternative technologies are constantly being explored, the road to qualification is a long one, requiring extensive testing and validation to meet aerospace standards.

To stay competitive, finishers must invest in research and development to create sustainable, high-performance coatings that comply with regulations while striving to meet industry standards. Automation and digital technologies, including precision coating systems and real-time quality monitoring, can improve consistency and efficiency in achieving NADCAP and OEM requirements. Collaboration across the supply chain is equally vital.

In addition, as OEMs like Airbus and Boeing prioritize sustainability, finishers must develop eco-friendly processes and partner with material suppliers and OEMs to explore chromium alternatives and other green technologies.

Surface finishing is not just a final manufacturing step; it is a key contributing factor for performance, safety and longevity in aerospace. As the industry expands across commercial, defense, space and AAM sectors, the demand for advanced coatings will continue to grow. 

In this issue of PF, we spotlight some of those finishing technologies critical to aerospace manufacturing.

Our On the Line interview and corresponding podcast features experts from PPG discussing the potential of electrocoat technologies for applying primers and topcoats to increasingly complex aircraft components, including those for next-generation aircraft and AAM prototypes. 

We also explore technologies used for shaping aerospace surfaces. From landing gear to next-generation aircraft components, an advanced surface treatment known as shot peening safeguards against extreme conditions and pushes aerospace materials to new limits. You’ll learn about the process in a contributed feature story by Angelo Magrone of Curtiss-Wright Surface Technologies.

In addition, we take a look at new methods for creating functionalized aircraft skins. Read about a surfacing technology know as riblets that is being used to reduce drag, fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and noise while boosting power output, speed and efficiency.

You'll also find insights into the role of surface finishing in the growing defense market, insights for improving the efficiency of media blasting operations, expert troubleshooting clinics and more. I hope you enjoy the issue.

Source (All Images) | Greene Tweed

As the aircraft industry continues to strive for increased efficiency and sustainability, every pound of weight removed reduces fuel consumption and corresponding emissions. Composites have made significant progress in replacing heavier metallic components in aircraft engines, but more is still possible. For example, Greene Tweed (Lansdale, Pa., U.S.) has demonstrated the potential for its Discontinuous Long Fiber (DLF) materials to cut weight in complex-shaped parts by an average of 35% versus aluminum in more than 500 aircraft part numbers. However, to enable its use at the front of turbofan engines, the high-velocity impact behavior of DLF needed to be characterized to understand the effect of different composite constituents, meso-structures and possible hybridization with continuous fiber materials. The ultimate goal was to develop a design methodology and solution for improved impact resistance in such applications.

Impact resistance for DLF fan platforms

DLF thermoplastic composite (TPC) materials have successfully replaced metals in complex-shaped aerospace components for years, using aerospace-approved carbon fiber/PEEK prepreg unidirectional (UD) tapes that are cut into flakes and compression molded. These materials provide good chemical resistance, stiffness, high temperature capability and creep resistance above the glass transition temperature, as well as enhanced design freedom with the ability to integrate multiple parts into a single structure. Greene Tweed has invested in the characterization of quasi-static mechanical properties, or allowables, to support a design by analysis approach, including high-temperature strength, fatigue and creep data. However, the high-velocity (>100 meters/second) impact behavior of these materials — which form a sub-category of fiber-reinforced TPC — had not yet been substantially studied.

Rendering of Greene Tweed's aeroengine fan platform demonstrator for impact testing, featuring an internal center rib (orange) and stiffening gussets on the sides (blue) to reduce the unsupported region of its aerodynamic surface that would be subjected to hailstone impacts.

At the front of turbofan engines, fan platforms are components that cover the engine’s hub between the fan blades and direct airflow toward the low-pressure compressor. These have long been a target for Greene Tweed, potentially saving north of 8 pounds per engine versus metal. The complex geometries of these components, however, make it challenging to use traditional continuous fiber materials like UD tape, braid and fabric, although solutions do exist that use complex layups and 3D braids via processes similar to resin transfer molding (RTM).

Greene Tweed's aeroengine fan platform demonstrator made from Xycomp Discontinuous Long Fiber (DLF) thermoplastic composite materials.

Greene Tweed has demonstrated an alternative via its Xycomp DLF compression molding compounds, with the ability to rapidly manufacture highly complex parts using an automated and repeatable near-net shape process. This matched-die molding can also produce the smooth aerodynamic surfaces required for parts with airflow surfaces, while the use of a thermoplastic matrix greatly enhances recyclability from raw material to final parts.

Although Xycomp DLF is well proven — with close to half a million parts (including structural brackets, enclosures, covers, vents, doors, etc.) currently flying on 12 types of commercial aircraft — use in parts sitting at the front of an engine that are prone to hail impact damage is more challenging for a discontinuous fiber material. A prototype fan platform made with Xycomp DLF has long been known to meet typical mechanical requirements such as strength at max overspeed as well as dynamic performance requirements — except for high-velocity hail impact, where experimental results on coupons had been disappointing.

Researchers at Greene Tweed’s R&D Center for Composites (Yverdon, Switzerland) took on the challenge to understand the underlying behavior of this material when impacted at high speeds. The team launched a significant impact testing campaign on representative coupons evaluating different prepreg tapes and their constituents as well as hybrids combining continuous and discontinuous fiber-reinforced composites. Continuous fiber-reinforced composites included laminates and fabrics, while Greene Tweed’s internal research on discontinuous materials led to the use of a patented new chopped tape flake shape internally dubbed “DLF 2.0” (versus Greene Tweed’s standard 0.5 × 0.5-inch flakes). This notably increased impact resistance, prompting the fabrication of a demonstrator component that experimentally withstood the impact of a 2-inch hailstone hitting the part at 200 meters/second in its most critical location without any damage.

Exploring failure in plates

Greene Tweed's hail impact testing jig for DLF materials in plates (top) and in a demonstrator platform for aeroengines (bottom).

To characterize the impact behavior of its Xycomp DLF materials, Greene Tweed followed a building block pyramid approach, first testing plate coupons and then progressing to shaped demonstrators. Impacts were achieved using spherical, clear ice hailstones sized 2 inches in diameter, shot from a self-built hail impact testing jig. The tests were filmed by a high-speed camera capturing 10,000 frames/second to study the visually observable damage mechanisms on 6 × 12-inch, 0.15-inch thick plates that were inclined at 30° over the horizontal plane and pinned on the longer edges.

These plates were manufactured using UD tapes with a nominal volume fraction of 60% AS4 and IM7 carbon fiber reinforcing PA6, PEEK, PEKK, LMPAEK and PEI matrices, then cut into flakes to form Xycomp DLF materials. Two different AS4/PEEK materials with statistically identical quasi-static properties were tested to compare the potential effect of tape architecture while the baseline PEEK was also tested using S2 glass fiber. In addition, the baseline carbon fiber/PEEK material was cut with a novel “2.0” flake shape, as this had previously been shown to increase tensile strength in both quasi-static and fatigue testing by more than 50%. Continuous fiber laminates were also tested, including quasi-isotropic tape layups and cross-ply fabric layups. Hybrid samples tested were manufactured with continuous fiber materials on the “front” (impact facing) side and DLF on the back, as this is where shape complexity could be added to the production design. Finally, the effect of DLF plate thickness was studied on the reference material system.

Results from impact testing 6 × 12 × 0.15-inch-thick plates show resistance to 2-inch hailstone impact as a function of speed for various DLF constituent combinations.

The observed damage mode on DLF plates was always initiated by a tensile crack at the back of the plate, propagating from the impact location toward the top of the plate. Standard DLF is known to be notably weaker in tension than in other loading conditions. A high-velocity impact creates a local plate bending stress state below the impact location which, when it exceeds the tensile strength of DLF, logically leads to sample failure. This could be clearly observed on videos taken from the back of the impacted plates, where a local “tearing” of the material under the impact side could be observed while no damage of any kind could be seen at the front. Later validated in computed tomography (CT) inspections, this means that the sample geometry itself is somewhat ill-suited to showcase the real-life capability of DLF, because a real component would include a local stiffener to reduce the tensile strain in these critical part locations.

Regarding the effect of plate thickness, it appeared that each additional millimeter could add about 40 meters/second of additional impact resistance under otherwise similar test conditions. Changing from AS4 to IM7 carbon fiber did not improve impact resistance. Neither did hybrid constructions with continuous fiber materials on the impact face, further validating the critical damage mechanism previously identified. However, changing from carbon fiber to the S2 glass fiber option did improve resistance, as did using polymers with less crystallinity or continuous fiber reinforcement materials on the rear face (in tension) of tested samples, with DLF on the front face, even though such a layup would be of limited practical use.

Resistance of 6 × 12 × 0.15-inch-thick DLF coupons to 2-inch hailstone impacts, showing significant improvement of “DLF 2.0” featuring a novel flake shape.

The most striking change was obtained by using the novel flake shape (“DLF 2.0”). This patented change in geometry was brought about to reduce possible stress concentrations at the end of the composite flakes, thus increasing the apparent toughness of the material. Without changing anything else, the DLF 2.0 samples were found to exceed the hail impact resistance of continuous fiber laminates, including results obtained on a quasi-isotropic laminate made from the same base material as the modified DLF.

After evaluating all of the results, the team hypothesized that no single constituent parameter dominated the high-velocity impact behavior of DLF parts. Instead, the key parameter appears to be the composite’s apparent toughness, itself a function of the specific constituents paired and the interface achieved between them, as well as the tape’s meso-scale structure. The clearest proof of how much these intrinsic properties are interlinked is the very large increase in performance obtained by changing the flake geometry, and thus the part’s meso-structure. Despite the lack of predictability of such a material property, interesting generic trends could still be obtained in this study.

Platform demonstrator tests

Using results from the initial plate tests, an in-house-designed fan platform demonstrator was fabricated that closely approximated a real part for 25,000-35,000-pound thrust class engines. Among the design guidelines used, the Greene Tweed team limited the estimated part deflection upon hail impact to safe levels (as determined from the plate testing) by adequately stiffening the structure geometrically. This was done by strategically placing a central rib within the part and reinforcement gussets along its sides to limit the size of the unsupported region in the aerodynamic surface that would be impacted.

The rendering at left shows the five impact locations tested on demonstrator platforms with the most critical highlighted at top. Results from these trials of 2-inch hailstones impacting platforms made from various materials are shown here, where “MM” (far right on X-axis) denotes a change in molding parameters to make better use of the DLF 2.0 novel flake shape material.

Five impact locations were initially investigated, and without much surprise, the top right corner — which presented the largest unsupported region — proved to be the most critical. Once this critical location was defined, several of the key hybrid materials identified in the plate study were investigated. Thanks to the coupons study and the more fundamental understanding of DLF failure under high-velocity impact, the team was able to demonstrate that it was possible to achieve the hail impact resistance targets with the standard DLF material. Although performance was indeed higher with the modified flake geometry, being able to use the current DLF material in such applications is very welcome, removing the need to requalify a new material. Also important is the fact that Greene Tweed managed to derive sufficient design guidelines from the plate study to enable this improved impact performance. Still, the DLF 2.0 version remains an option for an application where even higher performance is required.

To ensure that nothing was missed, selected samples were scanned after impact using micro-CT. As with the initial testing on plates, it became clear that the predominance of a tensile failure mode induced by localized bending meant that no damage could be found in the bulk of parts that did not present visible damage at their surfaces. This is due to the highest strain in such a load case always being present at the outer surface of a part, ensuring that the critical location is easily observable.

Higher failure strength for future parts

As a result of this development effort to investigate and optimize DLF’s performance for high-speed impact and front-of-turbofan aeroengine applications, Greene Tweed has developed and explored a wide array of capabilities that now compliment its existing production infrastructure. Hybrid material combinations, geometrical optimization, nondestructive inspection/micro-CT and continued material development via DLF 2.0 are continuing to push discontinuous TPC into more aggressive and demanding applications.

Success for this research initiative was validated through the actual fabrication and testing of a DLF fan platform component made using the already-flying and certified AS4/PEEK carbon fiber material (Xycomp 5175), which solidifies competitive costing and ensures commercial viability. Xycomp DLF continues to offer weight, performance and cost savings compared to machined aluminum parts, with the aeroengine fan platform now proven as an example of such capability with sufficient impact resistance.

About the Author

Sebastien Kohler

Sebastien Kohler is a scientist working on thermoplastic composite materials in the Advanced Technology Group for Structural and Engineered Components at Greene Tweed (Lansdale, Pa., U.S.). He is based in the company’s R&D Center for Composites in Yverdon, Switzerland, and part of a cross-functional team developing new composite materials and novel molding processes alongside working on new applications, from ideation to final component. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, where his thesis involved multi-scale experimental and numerical investigations of thin-ply composite materials.

Macro view of iCOMAT’s Rapid Tape Shearing (RTS) technology during layup, showing tight-radius curves with no wrinkles or gaps. Source (All Images) | iCOMAT

In the realm of advanced composites, a fundamental limitation has persistently hindered the full exploitation of their exceptional properties, particularly with carbon fiber: their inherent anisotropic nature produces strength predominantly in the fiber direction. Conventional composites manufacturing addresses this limitation by stacking multiple straight fiber layers at different orientations, a compromise that often results in heavier structures using more material than theoretically necessary. This paradigm has remained largely unchallenged.

Tow steering technology aimed to optimize composite material use. However, achieving ideal fiber alignment along load paths proved difficult, often causing suboptimal curves or wrinkling. In 2021, CompositesWorld (CW) reported on a new method from iCOMAT (Bristol, U.K.) called Rapid Tow Shearing (RTS), which uses in-plane tow shearing during deposition. Its defect-free fiber placement enables precise fiber orientation throughout a composite structure and achieves production up to 10 times versus conventional methods.

When CW examined RTS in 2021, iCOMAT was a 2-year-old university spin-off conducting R&D trials with seven OEMs and preparing to place its first system with a customer. Four years later, that experimental technology has become industry ready, reaching real-world deployment.

The company now operates a 45,000-square-foot production facility, serves over 25 customers across aerospace and automotive sectors and has raised $22.5 million in Series A funding, transforming from laboratory curiosity to a commercial business. ICOMAT positions itself as a “super Tier 2” company, meaning it provides a full, integrated manufacturing solution instead of selling machines or software. Customers are charged per preform or component, with iCOMAT managing the entire process from production to delivery.

These capabilities have enabled iCOMAT to demonstrate:

• Weight reduction up to 65% and load-to-mass ratios 300% higher than quasi-isotropic designs.
• First fiber-steered cylinder with 24% higher load and 300% improved damage tolerance versus straight-fiber design.
• Lay-flat-and-form workflow enabling complex aerospace preforms in 5 minutes for <30-minute cycle time with higher quality versus AFP.

The technology is in its fourth generation, now using closed-loop tension control, precision LED heating and four-axis CNC cutting for tapes from 5 to 200 millimeters wide. ICOMAT’s full-scale production facility in Gloucester, U.K., delivers end-to-end production of components up to 6 × 3 meters.

“We’ve taken fiber shearing from theory to industrial reality,” says Dr. Evangelos Zympeloudis, founder and CEO of iCOMAT. “From first principles to full-scale manufacturing, our journey involved developing every aspect of the technology from the mechanical systems to the thermal management and process control software.”

Breaking the fiber steering barrier

Unlike conventional AFP systems that bend tapes to create curved paths that cause wrinkling, RTS uses a shearing mechanism. This approach maintains equal fiber length across the tape width during shearing, effectively eliminating residual stresses that cause defects.

“Traditional manufacturing stacks straight fiber layers at different orientations, but structures are never loaded equally in all directions,” explains Zympeloudis. “It would be far more effective to steer fibers to reinforce critical areas, resulting in lighter parts produced at lower cost while enabling true industrial automation.”

The concept of fiber steering isn’t new; NASA originally proposed it in the early 1980s. A substantial body of literature has demonstrated its theoretical benefits, but manufacturing constraints have prevented practical implementation. Conventional automated fiber placement (AFP) systems attempt to steer fibers by bending the tape, but this can potentially create defects like wrinkles and gaps that negate the potential performance advantages.

“The bottleneck was always manufacturing,” Zympeloudis notes. “It’s impossible to manufacture fiber-steered structures with AFP without generating significant defects that outweigh the many benefits. What iCOMAT has done is develop the world’s first and only technology that can actually fiber-steer without any defects, while maintaining high productivity through wide tape processing.

RTS evolution and Factory 1

RTS head integrates with robotic platforms for scalable, automated composites manufacturing.

The technology has evolved through four generations: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and now Sigma. The current Sigma RTS head represents significant advancements in process control, featuring closed-loop tension control, precision heating using advanced LED technology and four-axis CNC cutting. The system can process tape widths from 5 to 200 millimeters, offering unprecedented flexibility in optimizing material deposition for specific applications.

RTS is protected by multiple patent families and is the result of 16 years of research and development — 10 years at the University of Bristol (U.K.) followed by 6 years as iCOMAT. Factory 1, the company’s 45,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility, includes a Class 7 clean room, assembly room, coordinate measuring machine (CMM), autoclaves, five-axis CNC machinery and spray-painting facilities.

Phase 1, complete at the time of writing, includes kit cutting and laser projection for template location. Phase 2 will expand production capabilities with pressing, hot drape forming and multiple RTS tape laying lines.

Inside iCOMAT’s Class 7 clean room dual robotic arms prepare for defect-free composite tape laying using RTS.

Structural efficiency transformation

The most immediate advantage of fiber shearing is enhanced structural performance. By precisely aligning fibers with load paths, RTS-manufactured components can achieve weight reductions of 10-65% compared to conventional composites, without sacrificing strength or durability.

In a collaborative project with BAE Systems (London, U.K.) and Airbus UK (London) called FibreSteer, iCOMAT produced a lower wing skin demonstration component using fiber shearing to address stress concentrations around access holes. Traditional composites face a fundamental challenge with such features: when zero-degree fibers (running parallel to the primary load path) encounter a hole, they are severed, creating significant stress concentrations that require substantial reinforcement.

“With RTS, we can route the fibers around the hole, maintaining continuous load paths that eliminate stress concentrations,” explains Zympeloudis. “The results are remarkable. Our RTS-manufactured composite part demonstrated a load-to-mass ratio three times higher than a quasi-isotropic design.”

RTS-manufactured composite panel featuring a cut-out, designed to maintain continuous load paths and eliminate stress concentrations.

When compared to the same component manufactured using conventional AFP, the difference is stark. The AFP-produced part exhibited severe local wrinkling and buckling along the steered paths, while the RTS-produced part showed no visible defects.

Similar results have been achieved in space applications. Working with aerospace partners, iCOMAT produced what it says is the world’s first defect-free fiber-steered cylinder, a geometry commonly found in launch vehicles and spacecraft structures. The RTS design not only outperformed the best straight-fiber design in ultimate load capacity by 24%, but also demonstrated a 300% improvement in damage tolerance.

“In simple terms, RTS expands the design space exponentially,” Zympeloudis notes. “With traditional composites using three layers, for example, you have three discrete points where you can optimize fiber orientation. With RTS, you can change fiber orientation at any point within each layer, creating virtually unlimited design possibilities.”

Enabling industrial-scale production

Beyond structural efficiency, RTS technology enables a transformation in manufacturing approach. ICOMAT has developed a “lay-flat-and-form” workflow that leverages fiber shearing to enable high-rate production of complex 3D components.

The RTS system first creates a flat preform with precisely engineered fiber paths. Unlike direct 3D fiber placement — which are comparatively slow and expensive — the RTS-developed flat preform can be rapidly formed into its final 3D shape using established processes like hot drape forming or stamping.

“The challenge with forming carbon fiber is that it doesn’t readily stretch,” Zympeloudis explains. “Attempting to form a complex shape from straight fibers is like wrapping paper around a football — it creates wrinkles. Our approach pre-steers the fibers in 2D so they can be formed without defects, enabling production rates up to 10 times faster than direct 3D layup.”

This manufacturing approach has profound implications, particularly where production rates and cost efficiency are paramount. Using 200-millimeter-wide tapes, iCOMAT can produce a preform for a complex aerospace component in 5 minutes, compared to 8.5 hours using conventional AFP for the same component. Including cutting and forming operations, the entire process takes less than 30 minutes while yielding higher-quality parts.

The company has also implemented this approach for automotive structures in collaboration with major OEMs. For example, in partnership with Jaguar Land Rover (Coventry, U.K.), Far-UK (Nottingham, U.K.) and CCP Gransden (County Down, U.K.) during project SOCA, iCOMAT used RTS technology to manufacture a complex automotive chassis using carbon fiber unidirectional (UD) tapes that conventional AFP systems could not process due to the tight curvature requirements of the design.

JLR chassis component demonstrator manufactured using RTS sections and recycled carbon fiber.

“In automotive applications, it’s all about cost,” says Zympeloudis. “Carbon fiber is expensive, so we use it judiciously, applying RTS to create a structural skeleton that takes 80% of the load, while using lower-cost recycled materials for the remainder.”

In SOCA, iCOMAT used UD carbon fiber to create the structural skeleton, which was then combined with low-cost, low-life cycle assessment materials such as recycled carbon, flax and glass fiber to form the “flesh” of the structure. The resulting automotive demonstrator structure was able to compete directly with aluminum in terms of both weight and global warming potential. This demonstrated that high-performance composites, when paired with recycled materials, can meet automotive structural requirements while being produced at industrial manufacturing rates. The innovative approach could lead to a new class of lightweight, cost-effective structures that offer significant weight reductions compared to aluminum, all while maintaining comparable production costs.

Unique business model enables adoption

Complex layup pattern enabled by RTS, demonstrating variable fiber orientation across a single flat panel.

ICOMAT continuously refines its material intelligence, manufacturing capabilities and software and hardware systems based on manufacturing experience.

“We’re not just a technology developer or machine manufacturer,” explains Zympeloudis. “Our business model is organized into three integrated units: one builds the manufacturing machines but retains ownership, another creates the software but keeps it proprietary, and the third uses these internal technologies to manufacture parts or preforms that we sell to Tier 1s or OEMs. Our customers pay per manufactured component, benefiting from our integrated expertise.”

This approach addresses a fundamental disconnect in traditional composite supply chains. Typically, machine manufacturers focus on maximizing equipment sales without optimizing for specific processes, while end users lack the specialized knowledge to fully exploit the technology. By combining machine development and operation under one roof, iCOMAT continuously improves its products for its customers and its own operational practices.

“This setup lets us streamline the supply chain and align incentives with our customers,” Zympeloudis says. “We’re motivated to make preforms and parts as efficiently as possible, refining machines and processes to suit each application. Customers avoid upfront capital expenditure, benefiting from lower costs, while we achieve operational sustainability through ongoing improvements.”

The company’s approach has attracted significant investment, including a $22.5 million Series A funding round in 2024 led by 8VC (Austin, Texas, U.S.) and co-led by NATO Innovation Fund, with participation from Syensqo (Brussels, Belgium) and existing investors. Zympeloudis contends that this represents one of the largest Series A investments ever in composites manufacturing.

Future developments and applications

ICOMAT is actively expanding its technological capabilities beyond the current Sigma RTS system. The company is currently developing a next-generation system optimized for direct 3D deposition, targeting applications like aircraft wing skins and other large-scale components.

“Our current system excels at producing frames, spars and smaller skin components using the lay-flat-and-form approach,” says Zympeloudis. “The next evolution will enable direct deposition for very large structures, completing our solution set for aerospace and automotive applications.”

The company is also exploring applications beyond structural performance, including thermal management and vibration control. The ability to precisely control fiber orientation enables tailored mechanical properties that can address multiple design requirements simultaneously.

RTS-manufactured fuselage panel for a fighter aircraft, formed without wrinkles or defects using iCOMAT’s lay-flat-and-form process.

“With RTS, we can design for thermal expansion, vibration damping and structural performance concurrently,” Zympeloudis notes. “In space applications, where thermal management is critical, we can engineer structures that maintain dimensional stability across extreme temperature gradients while simultaneously optimizing for load-bearing capacity.”

ICOMAT is currently working with more than 25 customers across aerospace, automotive and defense sectors, and has successfully delivered demonstrator parts for demanding applications including fighter aircraft panels, space launcher structures and Formula 1 components.

As the company scales up production at Factory 1, it’s positioning RTS as the next major evolution in composites manufacturing. “Our goal is to do for carbon fiber what Carnegie did for steel [during the Industrial Revolution],” Zympeloudis says, referencing how steel manufacturing innovations enabled widespread adoption across multiple industries. “We want to make carbon fiber composites accessible at industrial scale and enable applications that aren’t possible with current technology.”

Flying S was founded in 2001 on David and Penny Shaw’s family farm in Crawford County, Illinois. What started as an aerospace design consultancy has evolved to include engineering and part production, with a 47-machine tool shop and 15-person quality team. Images provided by Flying S. 

In advanced manufacturing, quality is about more than measuring parts to ensure they’re in spec — it’s a continuous loop between the engineers, machinists and quality inspectors. Designs flow from engineering to machining, and parts from machining to quality. In turn, data flows from the quality department back to both machining and engineering, helping engineers design better parts and aiding machinists in improving their production processes. But what’s the best way to get that data from quality to engineering and machining? These departments often use different software, and even if the software is the same, it doesn’t necessarily connect the different departments.

Flying S started as an aerospace design consultancy but has grown to include engineering and part production, along with a 15-person quality team — a necessity when making parts for the aerospace, defense and space industries. Verisurf’s software platform enables Flying S employees to speak the same language, whether they work in the quality lab, on the shop floor or in the design office, closing the loop of part and data flow.

The Flying S inspection department was introduced to Verisurf when it purchased a Master3DGage portable CMM arm about 10 years ago. The team found Verisurf’s CMM programming software easier to use than its previous system, and when they learned Verisurf was compatible with their other equipment, they started implementing it on their other CMMs.

From Design to Manufacturing

Penny and David Shaw founded Flying S on their family farm in Crawford County, Illinois, in 2001. As the business evolved to include not just designing parts, but also making them, it established a machine shop on site. “While it was initially conceived to support composites work, it's grown to be more than that,” explains Adam Wesley, who does inspection support for company’s quality department. While the shop still machines molds for composite aerostructures, machined components with complex geometries and tight tolerances now make up a significant portion of its work. The machine shop has become a pillar of the business in its own right, with 47 machine tools including five-axis VMCs from Matsuura, Brother and Haas; five-axis machines with articulating heads from Kenichi; Haas three-axis VMCs; large routers from Thermwood and C.R. Onsrud; Nakamura lathes with pallets; and Prusa 3D printers.

A robust quality department with 15 employees and equipment including four CMMs, five portable scanning arms, laser scanning systems, and three Zeiss ScanBox systems has grown alongside Flying S’s machine shop. “I don't think Flying S could be Flying S without the quality department,” Wesley says. “Our customer requirements, some of them are pretty stringent.”

Not only does Verisurf work with a range of inspection equipment types and providers, it can also be used by other departments within Flying S. Data from the inspection reports helps machinists adjust processes to produce accurate parts, and engineering can use a part’s CAD file generated by Verisurf during inspection to design other components that connect to it.

Aerospace Inspection

Flying S has been using Verisurf at least 10 years, according to Wesley. The relationship started when Flying S purchased a Master3DGage portable CMM arm. The inspection team had a lot of success with the CMM arm and especially the Verisurf software that came with it. Jones says the department’s previous inspection software was based on the DMIS programming language, making training and support for it difficult to find. When the team switched to Verisurf and its Automate CMM programming software, he says the CMM became a much more valuable tool. When the team learned Verisurf was compatible with other equipment, it started implementing the software on its other CMMs. Flying S now has 17 seats of Verisurf, split between quality, engineering, prototyping and fixture design.

Verisurf’s ability to work with any type of inspection system and CAD file is a huge benefit for Flying S, whose variety of work necessitates a range of inspection methods. “You don't want to use the same type of inspection equipment for every single part that we make,” notes Adam Krupp, an aerospace engineer and previous inspection supervisor at Flying S. For instance, a portable CMM works for smaller quantities but not larger quantities, while parts with tighter tolerances on hole positions are best suited to a traditional CMM. Some parts even need multiple inspection methods. “If we need data that the CMM isn't quite capable of providing, then we'll just pull that program over to an arm and gather additional data into the same program,” Wesley says. “It works for hand measurement, too,” adds inspection supervisor Wes Jones. “If we need hand measurement data for troubleshooting something, Verisurf is where we go to pull the nominal data to find the information we need.”

Flying S also uses Verisurf for reverse engineering. When the owner’s 1930s Spartan Executive aircraft needed a new landing gear component, the inspection team scanned the part and created a CAD file. The engineering team used the file to improve the part, then the machine shop produced it.

Benefits Beyond Inspection

The benefits of Verisurf’s ability to compile data from multiple sources goes beyond the inspection department. “Being able to show the same interface for all those different types of inspections goes a long way to simplifying it for the machinist who's making the parts,” Krupp says. The machinists can then use this data to improve their production processes. “We make some really complex parts, so being able to machine a very complex part and have almost live feedback from the quality department where we can talk the same language and help the machinist make adjustments as needed,” he continues, “it just makes us better at making parts.”

The original landing gear part.

Wesley describes one recent job involving a large, complex machined part. “We machined both sides, pocketed, drilled, threaded — all kinds of crazy features. It’s a transmission housing for Jagemann Engineering in Arvada, Colorado. It was roughly a meter long, but it's also a relatively thin part for that size,” he says. When the first parts were inspected and compared to the CAD model in Verisurf, the inspection team found they were out of shape. But the data also showed how much the part had moved during machining. “The machine shop was actually able to change their machining strategy to eliminate that warpage in the finished product by a huge margin,” he says.

Verisurf also helped Flying S produce a complex composite part that was being laid up in a mold. As the part was being laid up, the engineering team needed to know how thick it was. “We were able to scan it and give them surface data that they were able to incorporate into revising the CAD models for that particular part,” Wesley says. He also says that within the past few weeks, he scanned a part using Verisurf, created a CAD file and sent it to the customer, who used that file to design other parts that would connect to the parts from Flying S “so they would be ready to incorporate it into their prototype when they receive the parts.”

The landing gear part scanned into Verisurf.

Reverse Engineering and More

Verisurf’s uses go beyond part validation. “It’s such a versatile tool because we can use it on so many different things,” Krupp says. For example, its ability to create and append CAD models makes it useful for reverse engineering. It played a key role in reverse engineering a part for a vintage aircraft, a 1930s Spartan Executive owned by Flying S’s owner. “There aren't that many of those aircraft made or flying,” Wesley explains, “And a landing gear component needed some serious help.” The owner brought the part to the inspection department, where Wesley scanned it and created a point cloud of the part. This included not only the shape of the part, but also data on mounting points and some primitive data on the planes. The engineering team used this data to design an improved part which the machine shop made. Then the new part went through inspection, where the team checked hole sizes and ensured it fit with the original hardware. “It's moved on to its final home,” on the vintage aircraft, Wesley says.

The newly machined landing gear part.

Flying S also frequently uses Verisurf to design fixtures that hold parts during CMM inspection. “We use the CAD tools inside of Verisurf and, by extension, inside of Mastercam,” Wesley explains. “They make it pretty easy to create a solid model for a fixture based off the CAD for the original part.” The team then produces the fixtures on its Prusa 3D printers. Wesley estimates the inspection department uses this process for 25 to 30% of the parts it inspects.

Solutions, Not Software

As a growing company, Flying S is taking on interns and onboarding new employees. Verisurf’s user-friendly interface and integration with Mastercam help streamline onboarding, as does its ability to work with all of Flying S’s inspection equipment, regardless of type or brand.

Verisurf provides a single platform for not only the inspection department but also engineering and machining to use. This streamlines onboarding and training. Verisurf also provides continued training and support, so Flying S can refine and expand its use of the software.

But training doesn’t stop after onboarding. Flying S brings in Verisurf for training regularly, not just to get new inspectors up to speed, but also to lead advanced training for experienced inspectors. For Flying S’s next training session, Verisurf is “sending one of their top guys here to do it,” Jones adds. “It means a lot to us.” Wesley says the team is hoping to increase its proficiency with 3D scanning. “Verisurf has the capability of scanning a part and then correlating it with the model and building out your data from the real part from that scan.” This will help Flying S expand its reverse engineering capabilities. “There’s a lot of old airplanes flying around. It'd be cool to be able to build parts for those,” Wesley says. “We've seen the need for that knowledge, and we're going to try to try to leverage that into how we use Reverse.”

Flying S’s relationship with Verisurf has even expanded from software to hardware, with the shop buying new inspection equipment through Verisurf. “If we buy it from Verisurf, their engineer will be here on site to help us set it up and make sure it's working correctly in their software,” Wesley explains. Krupp also notes that major inspection purchases typically require a new seat of Verisurf. “Having all of that stuff bundled together makes the process really easy,” he says.

SPECTRA fuselage panel demonstrator with integral frames welded by conduction. Source | IRT Jules Verne 

The French Institute for Technological Research (IRT Jules Verne, Bouguenais) and its partners Airbus, Airbus Atlantic, Cero and Safran, have launched the SCRATCH project, a continuation of the SPECTRA project that focused on welding thermoplastic composites (TPC) for aeronautics.

The 3-year project’s objective is twofold: to increase production rates while reducing the assembly costs of composite elements, a key issue for the competitiveness of the aeronautics industry. To achieve this, SCRATCH aims to mature a conduction welding solution for aerospace-grade TPC materials via two chosen industrial case studies presenting complementary geometries and technical challenges.

SCRATCH will consist of testing, evaluating and optimizing this welding technology on these two configurations, in order to better understand its potential and its limits. Several areas of development will be pursued including:

• Exploration of the performance and limits of the process according to the geometries studied
• Implementation of precise monitoring for better welding control
• Optimized clearance management during assembly
• Development of suitable tools based on advanced thermal simulations.

The expected advances will pave the way for broader industrial integration of conduction welding for high-performance TPC materials. In particular, they will enable new applications to be considered on complex parts requiring high mechanical strength.

LK Metrology has introduced the Surfacers SRP, a plug-and-play probe with a resolution of one micron. This probe is designed for analyzing the surface roughness of a component as part of a CNC measuring cycle on any CMM equipped with an industry-standard probe head. The Surfacers SRP is designed to assess small, fine-scale variations and imperfections in the surface, including peaks and valleys, rather than larger-scale features like waviness or form.

The sensor removes the need for secondary surface roughness inspection, whether conducted manually with a hand-held instrument or automatically at a separate metrology station. Manufacturers can perform comprehensive inspections on a component in a single setup within a CMM environment, resulting in significant savings in time and cost. Engineered for ease of use and versatility, the equipment comes with its own downloadable application software, facilitating integration without requiring third-party software.

The Surfacers SRP mounting is compatible with change racks, enabling automated sensor changing and improved operational efficiency. User-friendly swapping between touch probes, tactile scanning probes, noncontact laser scanners and the roughness probe provides users with extended multisensor capability.

At the core of the roughness probe is a special body that accommodates three interchangeable, skidded, stainless-steel probe modules. One module evaluates flat, conical and cylindrical surfaces, another measures concave, convex and spherical surfaces, and a third is suited for inspecting grooves more than 3-mm wide by less than 10-mm deep, or steps of similar height.

During operation, the CMM positions a stylus in contact with the part, after which the machine axes remain stationary while the probe moves the stylus across the surface under investigation. Wireless communication with the CMM computer via a Bluetooth 4.0 adapter provides seamless data transfer for analysis, simplifying installation.

The skid serves as a straight-line datum that guides the stylus across a surface to maintain probe stability. The stylus travels independently of and slightly in front of the skid, with surface deviations recorded as the difference in the relative movements of the two elements in the Z-axis. This design captures even minute surface irregularities with high accuracy.

Further improving the precision of the Surfacers SRP is an integrated preload mechanism, which isolates the stylus from the CMM kinematics during operation, providing accurate and consistent results regardless of external vibration or machine movement. The force exerted by the stylus tip, which has a radius of 5 microns, avoids surface deformation. The measurable roughness range is 0.5-6.5 Ra, representing the average roughness between the profile and the mean line.

Dave Robinson, marketing manager at LK Metrology, says, “By integrating surface roughness measurement directly onto the CMM, we are providing manufacturers with a powerful tool to streamline their inspection processes, reduce costs and improve product quality. The ability to perform multiple metrology functions on a single platform eliminates the need for time-consuming transfers of components and promotes greater accuracy by maintaining part orientation between measurements.”

Transcript

Brent Donaldson 

Welcome to Kennesaw, Georgia, home of Win-Tech, a precision machine shop that's as dedicated to machining as it is its mission.

John Hudson 

Veterans who first time offenders, if they can get into the program, it’s roughly a two year program. It's pretty intense process that they go through, but then when they graduate, their records expunged.

Brent Donaldson 

Inside you'll see how this veteran and female co owned company produces aerospace and defense parts with the security standards to match, including level two CMMC compliance.

Allison Giddens 

We talked to Dennis and said, you know, we want raises, and here's why. And we gave him justification, and Dennis agreed, and he said, “Okay, I'll give you a raise.” And John said, “No, I want Allison to make what I make.” No duh, I go into business with somebody like this, you know.

Brent Donaldson 

But what really sets Win-Tech apart is their award-winning approach to people. Named the 2025 Top Shops Honoree in Human Resources, win tech opens the door for the next generation of machinists and gives second chances through programs like Cobb County's Veterans Treatment Court. Stick with us as we explore the technology, the culture and the leadership that make Win-Tech one of the most distinctive shops we've seen.

John Hudson 

So welcome to Win-Tech. This is the shop floor behind you. Here is what we call the fishbowl. That's where the guys will go in and do all their programming. Well, our shop floor is laid out with our majority of our NCS are up here, as well as our manual machine in the middle of the shop, which you'll see, that's going to be our QC, and then down on the bottom side, that's going to be more of our fab well water jet area up here, we have both horizontal and vertical NC mills.

Brent Donaldson 

And just generally, what, what kind of materials are you guys handling day to day?

John Hudson 

I make a joke. We'll cut anything from acetyl to zinc.

Brent Donaldson 

And the markets that you're serving, the industries that you're serving, primarily defense, aerospace…

John Hudson 

Aerospace, if the customer is willing to pay us to make their parts, we'll be happy to make them that's what it boils down to. Dennis Winslow started a company in 1988 she was probably 13. That's probably the first time I met her, and she came in here to do our website.

Allison Giddens 

I lived next door to Dennis and his wife at the time, I came in 2006 because I was working for big corporation downtown Atlanta, got passed up for promotion. Called my dad crying, said, “I want to quit my job.” He said, “You can't quit your job until you find a new one.” So I called Dennis and said, “I want to come work for you.” And he said, “You don't know what I do.” And so I came in for an interview, and he slid the number across the table from me. It was in that office, and it was 30% less than what I was making. Slid it across, and he said, “I know it's not what you expect, but if you trust me, you could run the place one day.”

John Hudson 

We have a good variety of sizes of machines. This one here is our biggest. I got roughly 56-inch by 86-inch table on that one. So that's my biggest one. I don't have anything currently on it, but a lot of times we'll take and set sheets up there, and we can actually machine the parts out of a whole sheet, and then they're ready to go. Guess the biggest part we've ever made on that is probably about 110 inches long. It was a big plate that went on a table. When I interviewed with Dennis, he's like, “Well, where do you want to be?” I was like, “I want your chair.” And it's funny, because the day we bought the company, Allison and I bought the company, he had actually already cleared out that office in there. And he's like, “All right, come here. I want a picture of this.”

Brent Donaldson 

What year was that? 2020?

John Hudson 

Yeah, we're not the smartest people. We have still in our manual tool shop. I guess we have jig grind capability, ID, grind, OD grind, jig, surface grind, as well as honing.

Brent Donaldson 

Obviously, you guys won the 2025 Top Shops Award in the category of HR and workforce. As far as your hiring strategies go, you have outreach programs to recently incarcerated, obviously, to local tech schools.

John Hudson 

The Veterans Program is very interesting. We have two guys that are going through the veterans program right now that work for us. If they can get into the program. It's roughly a two year program. They have to go to court every week. They have to check in with their mentors. Every week they have assignments that are given to them by the judge, pretty intense process that they go through, but then when they graduate, their their records expunged. I love that program, so that's the reason it's near and dear to my heart.

Allison Giddens 

And a graduation ceremony is life changing.

John Hudson 

Being former military, I can tell you this. You go to you go to basement, you learn all these skills, how to be a soldier, sailor, a Marine. I don't care you learn this, and it's ingrained into you Monday through Friday, or if you're deployed overseas, it's seven days a week. You got someone telling you what to do, when to do it, where to do it, what you're going to wear. I don't think there's enough transition time. They've started getting better with this, transitioning these folks out of the military, because you got to decompress these people. I mean, don't get me wrong, they can function on their own. They can go take care of any business they need that they've been trying to take care of. But what they don't have, is that coming home and being able to dinner interact with all the different realities that hit them in civilian life, so they find themselves doing things that they typically wouldn't have done because they're not They haven't had that time to adapt. This is somewhat of a challenging part, plus one minus two on the slot tolerances and the depths are plus or minus the thou, I think, but cutting all that over that distance and keeping it flat within the fowl that they're wanting, that makes it a makes it a brutal part.

Brent Donaldson 

And you've got to have really rigid fixturing for this right, correct?

John Hudson 

And that's just the end mill work on that alone is crazy. And funny thing is, is they were using a, I don't know, a 50-thou endmill. And he was doing 10-thou cuts. He kept breaking tools. Ten-thou deep, well, he went to 20. And then just started running like clockwork. So instead of taking, you know, most people, oh, take less. No, he took more because his tool got in there and he wasn't having the harmonics build up. So it was actually cutting instead of

Allison Giddens 

We're both involved with the Chattahoochee Technical College, local technical college, and we’ve both been involved with them for years. There's a wonderful professor over there that students really respect, and John's on their like advisory board. I've been on their board of trustees for their foundation. And for years, we kept saying, you know, it's great because the students love that professor, and it's great to have young adults excited about manufacturing, but where do those where does kids come from? You know, the high schools, they're not if they're not teaching manufacturing, where's the pipeline? And so we started pushing and kicking and pitching fits to high school. I would get I would pretty much I got uninvited back to a school board meeting because I wouldn't shut up. And finally, next thing you know now, they're building a what they're calling a Cobb Innovation Technology Academy down the street, and it's going to include a manufacturing pipeline, manufacturing pathway for high school students. I don't know that we sought out some sort of, hey, we're going to try to be the best at HR. I think we just kind of always knew if we can get the right people. I mean, like we've got, we've got a really good management team, Jimmy, Mark and Rose our management team, they're all very different, and they're very good at what they do. They they give a damn. And that's really hard to find, I think, anywhere. And I think if you can find leaders that care. And then I think if you can find people ready to learn and ready to admit when, oops, I messed up this part, and I want to know why, I think that's 80% of the problem, right, I think then you're, you're on the right track to get in somewhere.

Brent Donaldson 

Compliance on the CMMC side. Okay, all right, so, Allison, you've kind of led that effort, yeah. What has it been like, and what did you have to do, especially on the shop floor, to make it happen?

Allison Giddens 

The CMMC piece to us, has been a very tough road, but finding somebody who knew what they were doing was really key in all of this, and the baby steps. I mean, we've been doing this for six, seven years, and just bit by bit, knowing that it wasn't something we needed to okay, we need to gather all this documentation overnight. It was bit by bit. It was figuring out budget wise, okay, if we altered this, would it make our lives easier? Could people, you know, follow the rules easier? If we did it this way? How much is this going to cost us? Do you want to name who helps? Sure, Sentinel Blue. Sentinel Blue. Andy Sauer and his team, phenomenal. So we did not do a traditional gap assessment, because a traditional gap assessment, we felt we were already doing all along, from what I understand out in the marketplace, those are costing anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 for a small business. So it kind of depends on your environment. We have, you know, some of the small business challenges, I think, you know, in our environment are things like some of these machines, you have an option. You can, you can connect them all to the internet, and then they all, what they say, become in scope, because you've got them on your network.

John Hudson 

She's been asked to speak several different places on this and one of them was pretty cool.

Allison Giddens 

Yeah, we got invited the Pentagon sat down with Under Secretary of Defense to go through some kind of real-life examples of how this would affect us. And I helped to co-write a risk management strategies in small business environment and how it would affect and got told that that was apparently making the rounds at the Pentagon. So it's, it's nice to hear. I get pinged now and then from some friends at the Pentagon now. Now I call them friends, some friends at the Pentagon that say, you know, hey, we're watching your LinkedIn posts. You know, keep up the Small Business speed of the drum.

Brent Donaldson

What would you say to people who are stumbling on videos like this through recommendations on YouTube. How do you talk about what you do and why it matters and why it's important? Like, why should anybody care? Like, what you guys are doing.

John Hudson 

Here, because they get to sleep quietly in their bed and not have to worry about, you know, 99.9% of the population in the United States, they don't have to worry about the government kicking in their door and dragging them off somewhere. That's because of the war fighters. That's because of our our soldiers, our Sailors, Marines, Air Force. You know, that's why, and that's the majority of what we do here goes to support our war fighters.

Allison Giddens 

I think manufacturing in general too. I think you always put it really well that manufacturing is a career for somebody to think about. If you learn how to make a part, how to run a machine, you'll never, ever be looking for a job, you'll always have a skill.

John Hudson 

That's any skilled trade. I don't care if you're an electrician, plumber, if you if you learn a skilled trade, you can go anywhere in this country, in most other countries, and make a living for yourself and your family.

Brent Donaldson 

Hey everybody. Brent Donaldson with Modern Machine Shop here, and if you just watch that video, and you're thinking, “Boy, I'd like my shop to be featured in the view for my shop series,” then just send us an email at shop video, at mmsonline.com, and tell us what sets your shop apart.

Source | NIAR ATLAS FPP Documentary

Wichita State University’s (WSU, Kan., U.S.) National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) has released a documentary-style video that shows how their ATLAS lab team approaches fiber patch placement (FPP) leveraging their 10-axis Samba Pro system by Cevotec (Munich, Germany) — featuring an ultra-fast Scara pick-and-place robot and a six-axis tool manipulator — and how it’s relevant to current challenges in aerospace composites manufacturing. The video can be found below.

The video offers a concise look at FPP process intent and aerospace use cases, including performance test results. In addition, for those who prefer the technical basis, NIAR’s SAMPE‑recognized paper, “Design Optimization and Analysis Validation of Complex Composite Parts Manufactured Using Fiber Patch Placement,” offers additional information on how complex geometry parts can experience significant performance gains by design optimizations that are unique to FPP.

What can aerospace programs take from this? FPP is best used in applications dominated by geometrical complexities like conical transitions, step features and domed shapes (convex /concave) — think fairings, antenna domes, nacelle inlets and sandwich structures with chamfer transitions. NIAR’s work results points to the same outcome: For challenging shapes, where other technologies struggle, a patch-based laminate strategy can maintain the fiber orientation and achieve thickness build-up close to the design requirements at a production rate that future aerospace programs are targeting.

In addition, Cevotec Samba systems supports true multi‑material placement in a single automated sequence, including auxiliary materials like adhesive films and glass fiber veils. Along with adjustable gaps/overlaps definition of the laminate, a distinctive FPP design feature, full single-layer coverage can be achieved. According to Cevotec, this differentiates FPP for complex material stacks and is a key enabler for full lay-up automation of high-performance structures like sandwich panels.

NIAR offers a broad range of development services to aerospace manufacturers, including material tests, prototyping and process development with FPP on-site in the U.S. This enables manufacturers to reduce their risks in the deployment of new technologies and typically shortens overall development cycles. Moreover, Cevotec offers a complimentary first screening and feasibility evaluation.

Record growth will drive increased use of composites, which are playing a key part in the rapid innovation of launch vehicle and satellite structures. Source | Novaspace, Kerberos Engineering, Orbion Space Technology, Patz Materials and Technology/A&P Technology

Market intelligence group Novaspace (Paris, France) has published the 28^th edition of its annual Satellites to Be Built and Launched, forecasting a decade of record-breaking orbital growth. More than 43,000 satellites are expected to be launched by 2035 — an average of 12 satellites and 8 tons of payload every day. This surge is set to drive a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services, fueled by mega-constellations, defense demand and rapid innovation in launch technology.

“We’re seeing a rapid expansion in satellite activity and a shift in how space is used,” says Gabriel Deville, manager at Novaspace. “Satellites are no longer just custom-built assets, they’re evolving into interconnected nodes within decentralized networks. This marks a new chapter in orbital complexity and global connectivity.”

Source | Novaspace

Five mega-constellations will account for 66% of satellites launched between 2025 and 2034 yet contribute just 11% of total market value. The rise of such non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) systems and the shift away from legacy geostationary/ geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) models has largely been fueled by Starlink’s demonstration of scalability and flexibility. Budget priorities, meanwhile, sits with defense. Defense remains the market’s economic anchor, capturing 48% of total value despite representing just 9% of satellite volume.

Read about composites in launchers and satellites:

• Composites end markets: New space (2025)
• Revolutionizing space composites: A new era of satellite materials
• Ultra-thin woven fabric enables 90% resource reduction in satellite solar array manufacturing
• Low-cost, efficient CFRP anisogrid lattice structures

Source | CIRA 

Looking to the launch market, the space transportation sector remains under bottleneck, with SpaceX enjoying a near-monopoly over heavy launch activity in the West. As several providers strive to introduce or ramp up competing vehicles, Starship promises to profoundly redefine space transportation and the space economy at large.

Overall, the manufacturing and launch market offers significant revenue potential, however, targeting this opportunity will require a nuanced approach.

Only 7% of the manufacturing market in value is fully open to any manufacturer and 70% is considered “nationally captive,” with the remainder locked by vertical integration of constellations. To compete here, consideration of strategic partnerships through the supply chain is now a must.

About the report

The 28th edition of Satellites to Be Built and Launched offers a 10-year market forecast along with a 20-year strategic outlook, covering demand, supply, technologies and trends across the satellite and launch ecosystem. It includes a complete database of all satellites launched and planned, based on Novaspace’s proprietary forecasts.

Source | Novaspace

The Classic edition provides an in-depth analysis of satellite applications and missions, satellite operators, and users and technology trends in PDF format. It includes Excel databases, covering all satellites, launched in the last decade, as well as satellites currently under construction, and launch forecast for the next decade as well as detailed status and maturity assessments of 550 commercial constellations of five satellites or more and discusses of business cases of the four mega-constellations.

The Premium edition adds access to quarterly update of the satellites launches and manufacturing contracts as well as an extended database of all government and commercial satellites launched and to be launched (10-year backlog and forecast), featuring 30 columns with detailed breakdown: constellation, specific application, manufacturing and launch contract status, information about satellite operator, manufacturer and launch provider.

With more than 40-year legacy of expertise in guiding public and private entities in strategic decision-making, Novaspace offers end-to-end consulting services, from project strategy definition to implementation, providing data-led perspectives on critical issues. Novaspace presents an expanded portfolio of services, featuring combined expertise in management and technology consulting, top-tier executive summits and market intelligence. 

This week’s Pic is of a structural component for the Boeing 787. In the background is the form made via Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD), a wire-fed method of directed energy deposition (DED) developed at Norsk Titanium. In the foreground is its final form after finish machining. 

Why wire-fed DED? It offers a way to make titanium parts with forging-like properties at a lower cost. 

• Material: Titanium 6Al4V
• Process: Rapid Plasma Deposition
• Heat treating: None required to proceed to machining
• Final weight: 0.45 kg

This week’s Pic is the upper section of an engine nozzle, manufactured by Sciaky Inc. for Intuitive Machines’ February 2024 IM-1 mission to the Moon. It was the primary source of thrust for descent during the mission. 

This engine component was made using a Sciaky electron beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) system, which was said to provide shorter lead times, lessened material waste, cost savings, and increased design flexibility. This large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) process also offered the ability to create near-net shape parts, eliminating long postprocessing times and costs. 

• Material type: Refractory alloy
• Process: EBAM, performed by Sciaky
• Production Time: 16 hours

Uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) design used as a platform to test and demonstrate advanced technologies, particularly those related to sustainability and to the digital thread. Source (All Images) | University of Sheffield AMR

Continuous tows were selectively placed along paths of maximum load using a TFP process to stitch the fibers to a James Cropper rCF nonwoven substrate.

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, Catcliffe, U.K.) has realized an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing design using tailored fiber placement (TFP) of a James Cropper (Burneside, U.K.) recycled carbon fiber (rCF) nonwoven substrate. The work, used as a platform to test and demonstrate advanced technologies — particularly those related to sustainability and the digital thread — highlights how this process and material combination can achieve intricate, high-performing and sustainable preform options with optimized load paths.

Computational fluid dynamics was used to establish a load case for the wing. From there, continuous tows were selectively placed along paths of maximum load via TFP, stitching the fibers to the substrate. AMRC tested both 20 and 60 gsm nonwoven variants and found both processed well, enabling the use of very thin and lightweight plies.

The “DNA” of Faserinstitut Bremen e.V.’s (FIBRE) research is materials testing. At its ECOMAT site, much of its composites research is focused on aerospace and/or sustainability, including work in (pictured clockwise from left) cryogenic testing, tailored fiber placement (TFP), natural fiber composite pultrusion and automated tape winding. Source (All Images) | FIBRE 

As aircraft and spacecraft manufacturers advance toward next-generation technologies including large thermoplastic composite primary structures, reduced carbon-emissions propulsion including hydrogen power, and multifunctional structures, there is a lot of materials testing and validation work required before qualification and commercialization are possible.

CW had the chance to recently catch up with Faserinstitut Bremen e.V. (FIBRE, Germany), a legally independent research institute operating in four sites with about 60 employees, focused on research of fiber-reinforced polymer composites and fibers for technical applications with a large focus on supporting next-generation aircraft and spacecraft technologies.

In what capacity? “Our DNA is materials testing,” explains Professor David May, FIBRE director. In fact, the institute started as a spin-off in the 1950s from the Bremen Cotton Exchange, conducting quality testing on cotton materials for use in textiles. By the late 1980s, the organization had evolved into an independent institute and, partnered with the local University of Bremen, its work began to transition from quality testing to more advanced research on a variety of fibers including cotton, wool and plant fibers, followed later by synthetic fibers and processing technologies. Over the past 25 years, composites were gradually added into the mix and expanded, and today composite materials comprise about 75% of FIBRE’s research. In particular, thermoplastic composites (TPC) are a strong focus.

“We say materials testing is our DNA because we characterize fibers, polymers and composites all the way from single fiber tests to yarn tests to coupon-level composite testing. Beyond that, we have activities related to development of manufacturing processes, process simulation, monitoring and quality assurance, and part design,” May says.

FIBRE receives about 10% of its funding from the government of Bremen and 90% from third-party funds. Since 2012, the institute has been involved in more than 100 publicly funded research projects, as well as numerous industry-funded R&D initiatives.

Bremen’s ECOMAT facility, which houses research spaces occupied by FIBRE, Airbus, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and more. Source | Jann Reveling

The institute currently runs sites at the University of Bremen campus, the ECOMAT (Center for Eco-Efficient Materials & Technologies) research & technology center, and the Bremen Cotton Exchange, as well as the Technology Center in Stade.

Beyond research itself, FIBRE is also involved in teaching and student research programs through its partnership with the university, and in developing the technical program for the ITHEC Conference, a TPC conference held every other year in Bremen for the past 15 years. “It’s the only conference in Europe really focusing on high-performance TPC,” May says. “I love this conference, because all participants work on thermoplastics and are experts who are genuinely interested in advancing the field, and so the quality of the presentations is top-notch.”

Earlier this year, CW had the chance to visit FIBRE’s ECOMAT site, and to catch up more recently with May, who stepped into the director role in August 2024 and also teaches at the University of Bremen and serves as Airbus Endowed Chair for Rivet-Free Assembly Technologies.

ECOMAT itself opened in 2019, and is a joint research facility run by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen along with Airbus and other partners, with the goal of advancing technologies that will enable climate-neutral aviation. With more than 500 total researchers on site, ECOMAT houses a variety of tenants — including FIBRE, Airbus, Testia GmbH, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and more.

Located within Bremen’s airport center, where it is neighbored by Airbus, ArianeGroup, MT Aerospace and others in the space and aviation fields, FIBRE’s ECOMAT site naturally emphasizes research projects related to aerospace applications. “Bremen is the city of aerospace, including spacecraft,” May adds.

Within this focus, the site’s research has a variety of branches, including cryogenic hydrogen, lightweight design and manufacturing technologies, 3D printing, virtual testing and approval procedures (more on some of these research areas below).

As part of ECOMAT, there is also a deep focus on technologies related to sustainability. “Indirectly, basically everything we’re doing is contributing to sustainability,” May says. “For example, we’re doing cryogenic testing so that Airbus can develop tanks for hydrogen-powered aircraft. Thermoplastics allow for more energy-efficient processes. We’re doing research on bio-based polymers and fibers, and recycled carbon fibers. It’s all about sustainability in some way.”

Capabilities: Cryolab, pultrusion, TFP, automated layup and more

In the last 6 years since opening the ECOMAT site, FIBRE has gradually added staff and capabilities into the facility. Today, the 1,500-square-meter space employs about 30 researchers plus graduate and undergraduate students from the local university.

FIBRE’s on-site’s capabilities and research areas include:

• Cryogenic testing
• Pultrusion and winding
• Automated fiber placement (AFP)
• Welding and patch repair
• Tailored fiber placement (TFP)
• Thermoforming
• Injection molding and overmolding
• Walk-in radiation shielding cabin for X-ray development and analysis, and more.

The newest and most prominent area seen on CW’s visit was the cryolab.

Cryogenic testing to support hydrogen storage, future aircraft

Airbus may have pushed back its timeline for launching its ZEROe hydrogen-powered aircraft into the 2040s, but the company is still committed to the program — and, notably, multiple partnerships and projects related to hydrogen-powered aircraft were announced by Airbus and others at this year’s Paris Air Show in June 2025.

On FIBRE’s end, the postponement doesn’t affect the research being done, May explains. “We’re focusing on coupon-level testing, so no matter what the timeline is on the commercial side, we have to start now to investigate how materials behave under cryogenic conditions.”

The newest research space at FIBRE’s ECOMAT site is its cryolab, which includes capabilities for coupon-level material testing in liquid nitrogen and gaseous helium. Part of this work includes developing new methods for acoustic testing while samples are submerged in cryogenic tanks.

To support this work, in 2024, FIBRE’s ECOMAT site installed a laboratory for cryogenic material testing (cryolab), built and maintained in part with collaboration from Airbus. 

Currently, the lab features a machine capable of performing tensile and bending tests on material coupons immersed in liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -196°C and up to 100 kilonewtons (kN) pressure, either in quasistatic or dynamic testing. The lab is also installing a test machine for testing samples in gaseous helium as well, at temperatures as low as -250°C and up to 100-kN loads. This machine is capable of not only static tests but dynamic thermal cycling — “to investigate thermal- and mechanical-induced crack initiation and propagation,” May explains. In situ permeation testing is currently under construction. Airbus also has a dynamic helium system in the lab allowing for temperature cycling of samples.

The lab is currently focused on thermoset composite and TPC tests, but also characterizes other materials such as metals or adhesives.

In addition to mechanical behavior, the researchers can also use the test machines to measure properties such as coefficients of thermal expansion from 4K to 200°C  — which enables for research of permeation, potential cracking in the materials and component design.

These machines serve as a first step toward ultimately testing material behavior while subjected to cryogenic hydrogen. “The first step is figuring out how to do the tests,” May adds. “You have to rethink your testing equipment when you’re suddenly working with a sample that is submerged in a cryogenic liquid nitrogen tank. How do you measure the elongation? How do you measure acoustic emissions? Everything is new.” FIBRE researchers have developed new approaches for acoustic emissions testing using microphones capable of picking up sound travel through the immersion tank.

He adds, “Helium allows you to cover a very large temperature range, and it’s much easier to handle than the liquid nitrogen or even hydrogen. Of course, we are not sure yet as an industry whether the tests done in helium is transferrable to hydrogen, so that’s the first thing we will have to investigate.”

FIBRE’s cryolab aims to help researchers understand how composite materials behave at cryogenic temperatures, including the formation and propagation of cracking. 

In addition to FIBRE’s cryolab, ECOMAT also has plans to construct a nearby ECOMAT Hydrogen Center (EHC) within the next few years, May explains, which will house research facilities involving Airbus and others studying the use of hydrogen propulsion in aircraft.

Ultimately, all of these efforts aim to support and enable infrastructure such as storage systems and pipes for transporting cryogenic hydrogen, and FIBRE plans to install capabilities for testing samples in liquid cryogenic hydrogen in the EHC. “This set of testing machines will enable us to investigate not only the mechanical behavior under cryogenic conditions, but also to evaluate transferability — for example, between the easier and cheaper helium tests and the more complex but closer-to-the-application hydrogen tests,” May says.

Thermoplastic composites research: Manufacturing, joining, repair

The largest lab space in FIBRE’s ECOMAT site houses areas for pultrusion, TFP and AFP systems, and current research projects are focused largely on optimizing manufacture, welding and repair processes using TPC, in addition to some bio-based materials.

“TPC in particular are very attractive for aircraft OEMs because you can do it quite a bit faster than with thermosets to meet the production rate increases that they are wanting. But it’s an area that really needs research, because [redesigning a part in TPC] also means you have to rethink everything, from manufacturing to joining to repair,” May says.

FIBRE’s TPC research at ECOMAT includes:

• Understanding the bond strengths and internal stressors on overmolded TPC, in order to optimize both part design and manufacturing process
• Resistance and ultrasonic welding to enable rivet-free aerospace assembly
• Part repair using inductive heating, and more.

FIBRE demonstrates its research into induction-based repair on curved thermoplastic composite (TPC) panels.

Regarding repair, one technology FIBRE is working on starts with the manufacture of a carbon fiber/polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) patch manufactured using FIBRE’s robotic, AFP system (supplied by Conbility, Herzogenrath, Germany). This system enables fabrication of highly tailored, curved patches that closely match the performance of the original part.

This patch is welded to the scarfed damage area using msquare GmbH’s (Stuttgart, Germany) induction-based mats. “You pull a vacuum, put the mat inside, and can use it to do in situ consolidation or repair of TPC parts,” May says. FIBRE is working toward induction-based consolidation of curved TPC parts laid up using its ATP machine.

FIBRE’s Conbility tape winding system, delivered in early 2025, comprises a modular tape processing applicator on a KUKA (Augsburg, Germany) robot, a winding axis and a placement table surrounded by a certified laser safety cell. 

Regarding joining, FIBRE is investigating various welding techniques using TPC. “Applying conventional bonding strategies to TPC is more complex than bonding thermoset composites. So, there’s a lot of potential for welding, and large demonstrators like the MFFD [Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator] that have been set up to show this potential, but there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, and understanding at the material level that still needs to happen. That’s where research institutes come in,” May says.

Process monitoring for TFP

FIBRE operates a ZSK (Krefeld, Germany) TFP system for researching the fabrication of highly tailored preforms currently focusing on and mainly using carbon fibers and hybrid carbon fiber/thermoplastic yarns. Recent work has included the study of process monitoring methods for detecting defects in the preform and capabilities for adjusting the process in real time.

“It’s not always clear when you’re programming a stitch profile on the computer how the fiber and roving in the end will be exactly on your preform,” explains Marius Möller, research associate at FIBRE.

FIBRE demonstrates its TFP process monitoring research on aircraft window frame preform demonstrators.

The team has installed a 3D laser-based monitoring system that scans the preform while it is being stitched, measuring and reporting height data to help the user determine whether there are any defects such as cracks or creases in the fabric. This is combined with a high-contrast camera that supplies images and width measurements for detecting potential gaps in the fibers.

“We use this data to predict what the final preform will look and can make adjustments,” Möller says. The goal is to work with an industry partner to translate this into a machine learning software system. “This would help to adjust your stitching profile automatically while you’re going, so you don’t have to do it in an iterative process.”

Optimizing natural fiber composites pultrusion

While aerospace is a strong focus for the ECOMAT site, it’s worth noting that FIBRE’s location in Bremen lends itself to other industrial research areas as well. “Besides space and aeronautics, the city of Bremen is also well-known as a trading city with shipbuilding yards,” May says. This led to a collaboration with nearby Bremen-based Circular Structures GmbH, a flax fiber composites specialist that got its start in boatbuilding with its Greenboats brand.

The BMWE-funded (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) BioPul project began officially in August 2024 as a 2-year initiative aimed at optimizing the pultrusion process for use with natural fibers.

Circular Structures has specialized in flax fiber/bio-epoxy infusion — originally for the manufacture of boats and ultimately diversifying into applications like wind blade nacelles and recreational vehicles. “However, infusion can be expensive and labor-intensive, so we’ve been investigating lower-cost options like pultrusion,” explains Paul Riesen, head of R&D at Circular Structures.

In the BioPul project, Circular Structures works with FIBRE and pultruder Thomas Technik (Bremervoerde, Germany) on material selection and design for the trial profiles, basing the prototypes on real load cases.

Using FIBRE’s in-house Thomas Technik pultrusion machine, “we started with a really small profile to see if it’s even possible,” explains Simon Boysen, research associate for structural design and manufacturing technologies at FIBRE. “Compared to typical glass fibers, natural fibers have short lengths —  as short as 20 centimeters — which leads to a lot of issues when it comes to pultrusion. Not the least of which is the distance between the die to the pulling units.” It took a trial-and-error process to adjust and optimize the pultrusion system for natural fibers.

A flax fiber composite profile demonstrator emerging from FIBRE’s pultrusion process. FIBRE and partners have since progressed to more complex shapes including omega-shaped profile demonstrators.

An additional challenge is that natural fibers in general take in more moisture and humidity than synthetic fibers, necessitating the installation of an oven as the first step after the rovings are pulled off the creels. “Part of what we’ve been working on is evaluating the process parameters for the pre-drying, and our current process is about a 10-minute pre-drying process for optimal moisture content going into pultrusion,” Boysen says.

The researchers began by pultruding flat profiles to perfect the pre-drying and pultrusion process using unidirectional (UD) flax rovings impregnated with liquid epoxy. Next, they started integrating a layer of biaxial twill flax fabrics as a middle layer within the pultruded profile — acting as a sort of core.

Why do this? “We want to be able to improve and control the mechanical properties not just in the 0° direction like in a conventional pultruded profile, but +/- 45° and 90° as well,” Boysen explains. “We know how to achieve UD pultruded profiles, including, now, using flax fiber. The goal here is to use these materials for applications requiring more flexible arrangement of the fibers and textiles.”

There were challenges with introducing this part of the process at first, Boysen notes. “Initially, we weren’t able to pre-dry the textiles, and so the extra moisture content led to issues with hardening of the profiles. The next step was to add guide plates onto the oven so that we can pre-dry the textiles as well.” A future goal is to inverse the arrangement and create profiles where two woven fabric skins sandwich a UD pultruded core.

FIBRE’s Thomas-Technik pultrusion line, shown here processing glass fiber composites.

From there, the researchers were able to test pultrusion of more complex geometries, starting with L profiles and ultimately demonstrator omega-profile parts, with and without additional textile reinforcement.

According to the researchers, results so far have demonstrated 30% greater tensile strength and stiffness and porosity of less than 3% with a fiber volume content of up to 65%. 

What applications could this be used for? Circular Structures’ Greenlander brand aims to use pultrusion to manufacture camper profiles faster and with less material compared to hand layup and vacuum infusion of the same parts. The Greenboats brand could also use this technique to fabricate marine components like cable canals and stringers.

Learn more and get involved 

Cryogenic materials testing, thermoplastics research, process monitoring and natural fiber pultrusion represent only a few of the many projects FIBRE is working on with its industry and academic partners, at ECOMAT and its other sites. Visit faserinstitut.de/en to learn more about the organization’s ongoing projects and learn how to get involved.

Omni Aerospace is still testing the spindle life for its first Ecospeed, eight years on. As the machine monitors signs of spindle performance like temperature and vibration — and has accidentally cut bolts without issue — O’Neill is confident that his team will be able to detect errors well before they occur. Image courtesy of Starrag.

The Challenge

O’Neill says his shop’s claim to fame is its willingness to work on difficult, interesting parts that shops in the surrounding area won’t touch. These are often large, structural aerospace components up to 24 feet in length, at order volumes as small as two parts and rarely larger than 20.

For years, the shop used three-, four-, five- and six-axis mills to create these parts, as well as mill-turn machines and a horizontal broaching machine. But these machining capabilities were common to other aerospace shops in the area, and around 2017 Omni began looking to invest in technology that would give it a unique value proposition for customers. O’Neill soon found his eye caught by a large, six-axis horizontal mill with a tripodal machine head and decided to give the machine and Starrag, its unfamiliar supplier, a try.

Stiff and Stable

According to O’Neill, successful part production relies on stiffness of the machine tool, the tooling and the part setup. The Starrag Sprint Z3 parallel kinematic machining head on Omni’s Ecospeed machines meets the first requirement through its tripod shape, which O’Neill says is more geometrically stable than a traditional “A over C” design. The head itself includes three rotational axes, with a positional axis in the machine arm. Its travels are a few inches larger than the table, which itself is 159 inches on the X-axis by 61 inches on the Y-axis, giving the head the space it needs to tilt and move when adjusting its angle for a five-axis cut.

The spindle’s horsepower-torque curve also functions differently from the competition, reaching its full 160 horsepower at 14,000 RPM rather than at 30,000 RPM. O’Neill says this makes it safer to run larger-diameter routers on the Ecospeed, as the sort of 50-mm routers Omni needs would cause catastrophic damage if thrown at 30,000 RPM. What’s more, the machine’s 160-horsepower rating is for continuous runs rather than a time-limited duty cycle, enabling more flexibility in how the shop can schedule continuous roughing.

Both these factors help Omni with parts that require high material removal (up to 95% in some cases) and with its largest patterns (which can involve up to 16 parts on the table during a single setup). The ease of part access through the machine’s axial configuration also enables the shop to consolidate most of its operations for parts, eliminating setups.

O’Neill credits his shop’s success with the Ecospeed machines to the staff’s willingness to take part in Starrag’s training program. After all, he reasons, with an unfamiliar machine brand, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” The program provided Omni’s machinists with maintenance instructions and best practices for programming and operation. Image courtesy of Starrag.

Omni has been able to ensure the reliability of its operations on the Ecospeed through careful tool management and other process control techniques. All of the tooling on the Ecospeed has clearly defined life limits and backups in the tool carousel. If all goes well on a job, the machine can swap out tooling without issue — but even a small issue in the tool can spell disaster for the part. As such, Omni relies on a built-in Blum-Novotest laser to inspect tooling for chips and other types of damage. If a tool shows damage, the company removes the pallet containing the job and tries to determine what in the program caused tool damage before returning the pallet to production.

Beyond tool breakage detection, O’Neill says the Ecospeed is the only machine in the shop that automatically controls the temperature of its coolant. This enables much closer control of the expansion and contraction of the aluminum material being machined. O’Neill and his team also say the machine’s chip conveyor layout keeps up with production, eliminating the need to regularly stop the machine to flush chips.

And though Omni hadn’t known it would be a factor, the machine’s reliability and stability also helps it meet Boeing’s BAC 5114 requirements, which were announced and implemented only after the shop bought its new machine. As part of these requirements, all holes in structural parts must be full-size fastener holes with tight tolerances in their diameters and in relation to one another. These requirements also stipulate that components should not require match drilling or other fix-up work during assembly. Without the reliable, repeatable stability offered by the Ecospeeds, Omni may have needed to perform match drilling on the parts, a time-consuming process that would have also required additional operations for deburring the holes. Instead, the Ecospeed has enabled Omni to meet these standards during regular roughing and finishing, saving the company multiple operations.

The Ecospeed is also equipped with a Siemens 840D control. O’Neill says Starrag’s machine makes use of some of the higher-end functions of the control. He points to the control’s SP Mon function, which enables machinists to monitor vibration in certain cut areas alongside spindle load and the temperature of both spindle and bearings. Omni has also made great use of the Siemens control’s ability to automatically optimize feeds and speeds by analyzing spindle load and cutting speeds against the part model. He says this one feature could save 15-20% of spindle cut time by itself, and had an ROI of six months.

Lights-Out with Ecospeed

These cycle time reductions became even more potent after Omni added a second Ecospeed F 1540 in 2019. Where Omni had bought the first machine with a rollover table to enable swapping between two pallets, with this second machine the shop purchased an optional palletized cell and retrofitted it to the first machine as well. This is a Schmittwerke two-story pallet system with eight pallet stations that each fit the 159-inch by 61-inch table, a changing station and a robotic guided vehicle with an elevator that can elevate pallets and roll them into buffer stations. The machines have few differences, so all parts programmed for one of the machines can also run on the other.

Omni Aerospace is a family business, run by Founder and CEO John O’Neill and his wife, President Gretchen O’Neill. They are joined by their son, Complex Machining Manager John O’Neill. Image courtesy of Omni Aerospace.

Omni runs three staffed shifts, during which time the shop can regularly load and unload parts from the cell, but also runs a fourth unstaffed shift which relies on the cell to switch between pallets. O’Neill says that some shifts can largely be dedicated to loading and unloading parts already, as he estimates the machines have cut the cycle times on parts by at least 50%.

Revenue Revolution

Since installing its first Ecospeed machine, O’Neill says Omni’s revenue has increased two and a half times, with most of that attributable to its Ecospeeds. The single parts that come off the machine are usually among its highest-value parts, though fitting a full pattern of sixteen parts onto the pallet can be its own high-value batch. Omni is now in the process of acquiring a third Ecospeed machine (this one equipped with Siemens’ Sinumerik One) and is also exploring Starrag’s catalog of hard-metal machines. Already, the shop is growing 15-20% year-over-year through its investments in technology and rare capabilities for the region, and Omni looks to maintain this pace of growth into the future.

Radome panel under radio frequency testing. Source | Rock West Composites (RWC)

The delivery of nine Ka-band and KaKu-band radomes to R4 Integration Inc. (Fort Walton Beach, Fla., U.S.) by Rock West Composites (RWC, San Diego, Calif., U.S.) completes a contract that continues work on a previous aerospace program facilitating military search and rescue operations. The sandwich panel radomes meet multiple demanding requirements including very low view angles, a large band of frequencies, truncated schedule and no tooling. The program is anticipated to have follow-on adjacent panel designs in 2026.

The contract called for radomes made of a fiberglass and foam core sandwich configuration, following the design of the original proof of concept. The Ka-band radomes are made of Quartz Btcy1-A/4581 by Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, Calif., U.S.) and Diab (Laholm, Sweden) foam. The KaKu-band radomes are made of Toray 2510 and Diab foam with a foam tuning layer. The exterior shapes are the same and require very low view angles of 20° relative to the horizon within several frequency ranges: 10.7-14.5 gigahertz (GHz), 17.7-21.2 GHz and 27.5-31 GHz. RWC met an abbreviated schedule and used no tooling by creating a highly optimized flat panel design. The company performed in-house radio frequency testing to verify performance to requirements.

“This opportunity has enabled Rock West to demonstrate a key capability, successfully producing radomes for aerospace applications without the need for tooling, bringing better value and improved schedules to our customers and end users,” notes Adam Saunders, RWC program manager.

LEAP engine. Source | CFM International

Safran Aircraft Engines (Paris, France) launched its new LEAP engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) shop on Oct. 13. This Casablanca, Morocco MRO facility, which was originally announced in October 2024, is located in the Casablanca airport zone. It will support the rapidly increasing demand for CFM International (note: CFM is a 50/50 joint venture between Safran and GE Aerospace) LEAP engines, which power the majority of new-generation single-aisle commercial jets — especially the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max.

Spanning 25,000 square meters, the shop will be able to handle 150 engines a year. Operations are expected to begin in 2027, and some 600 new jobs will be created by 2030. The new facility represents an investment of around €120 million.

Safran has also chosen Morocco as the location for a new assembly line for LEAP-1A engines dedicated to Airbus aircraft. The facility will complement production at Safran’s Villaroche site in France to support the significant ramp-up in production planned by CFM International — around 2,500 LEAP engines a year from 2028. Located on a 13,000-square-meter site, the plant will be operational by the end of 2027 and will have the capacity to assemble up to 350 engines per year. The company is investing €200 million into the new facility.

This industrial complex dedicated to new-gen aircraft engines will benefit from a single test bench for both new and overhauled LEAP engines. In addition, as part of its strategy to reduce carbon emissions from its operations by 50% by 2030, compared with 2018 levels, Safran also signed a memorandum of understanding guaranteeing access to renewable energy for most of its facilities in Morocco, taking effect in 2026.

Safran is further bolstering its presence in Morocco through the expansion of three existing sites: Safran Aerosystems – Tiflet, Safran Electronics & Defense – Casablanca and Safran Electrical & Power – Ain Atiq. These newly expanded facilities will begin operations between 2026 and 2027. 

Overall, Safran is investing more than €350 million in Morocco in the two new LEAP engine facilities and the extensions. Furthermore, to support this scaling up of operations, Safran will be recruiting more than 2,000 people over the next 5 years. 

Safran has been present in Morocco for 26 years and employs more than 4,800 people at 10 sites. The group leads Morocco’s aerospace sector and maintains close partnerships with local companies and the country’s government institutions and training centers. 

SW North America’s BA W06-22 and BA 322i
multispindle machining centers are designed to provide efficiency and flexibility for manufacturers across diverse industries, including automotive, e-mobility, medical devices, aerospace, agriculture and construction equipment.

The BA W06-22 is a twin-spindle horizontal machining center built for large, lightweight parts made from aluminum and nonferrous materials. With a work envelope of 600 × 900 × 650 mm, the machine is well suited for machining battery trays, aerospace structures and agricultural components with demanding tolerances and surface finish requirements.

The BA 322i is a fully integrated, twin-spindle machining center with onboard robotics and workpiece storage, enabling continuous, lights-out production. With its compact footprint and automation-ready design, the BA 322i is suitable for medical device components, aerospace fasteners and automotive parts requiring both speed and precision.

Syensqo’s end-to-end double diaphragm forming (DDF) system. Source | Syensqo

Syensqo (Alpharetta, Ga., U.S.) and aerospace and defense company Bell Textron Inc. (Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.), an aerospace and defense company, have joined forces to accelerate the industrialization of composites.

Bell is an early adopter of Syensqo’s patented double diaphragm forming (DDF) manufacturing process, which when coupled with its fast-cure aerospace prepreg Cycom EP 2750, has proven efficient and automatable processing for high-rate, high-volume composites manufacturing.

Bell qualified and industrialized this technology quickly, achieving high-rate production of aerospace composite parts. Implementing the process has brought major benefits such as decreased operational costs while generating positive environmental aspects such as reduced waste, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, DDF has enabled the relief of autoclaves use for curing Bell’s small- to medium-size parts, enabling the autoclaves’ use for larger parts instead.

“After more than 30 years our Syensqo-Bell relationship continues to bring innovative solutions to benefit the composite industry,” says Marc Doyle, business executive vice president of Syensqo Composite Materials. “Syensqo’s customer support model is based on the belief that design, material and manufacturing are all interrelated and key to a successful increase in composites adoption. Our teams are structured to support this model and customer collaborations are fundamental in working toward a more industrialized composites industry.”

Cycom EP2190, now included in the NCAMP database, will enable faster aerospace qualifications. Source | Syensqo

Syensqo (Brussel, Belgium) has announced the addition of its Cycom EP2190 epoxy prepreg to the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP) database. This milestone provides customers with standardized, publicly available qualification data packages, lowering barriers for adoption and enabling faster timelines for aerospace programs.

The NCAMP datasets cover EP2190 unidirectional (UD) tape on intermediate modulus (Teijin IMS65) fiber and plain-weave fabric on standard modulus (Syensqo Thornel T650) fiber. With NCAMP publication, OEMs and Tier suppliers gain access not only to material property data, but also to comprehensive qualification reports, statistical analyses, material specifications and process specifications. According to Syensqo, this full suite of documentation significantly reduces the time and cost of adoption for new aerospace programs.

Cycom EP2190 is a high-performance thermoset material designed for demanding primary structures. It delivers enhanced toughness while maintaining optimal compression properties — a balance critical for commercial aerospace, defense and advanced air mobility (AAM) applications.

“Having Cycom EP2190 in the NCAMP database enables our customers to efficiently adopt this high-performance material and rapidly move into the design phase of their programs,” says Greg Kelly, director of product and asset management, Syensqo Composites. “This is particularly impactful for AAM and defense customers seeking proven, readily available material systems.”

Over the last several years, Syensqo has further broadened its EP2190 portfolio beyond its core UD tape and fabric forms to include AFP carbon tape, S2 glass tapes and the required complementary glass fabrics. These expanded offerings provide engineers with greater versatility across both primary and secondary structures.

Cycom EP2190 is currently produced at Syensqo’s Wrexham, U.K. facility, with plans to expand production to North America as demand grows.

Taiwan made a strong impression at EMO 2025 with 121 exhibitors, ranking fourth worldwide. Under the theme “AI Shaping the Future,” Taiwan demonstrated how artificial intelligence is improving manufacturing with enhanced precision, efficiency and sustainability.

At the Taiwan AI Empowered Machine Tool Industry Executive Dialogue, industry leaders emphasized Taiwan’s comprehensive ecosystem — spanning electronics, ICT, semiconductors and machinery — that facilitates AI adoption in machine tools.

Key highlights included:

• Cosen Precision: AI sawing system designed to improve efficiency and stability in aerospace applications
• She Hong: AI thermal compensation said to improve mold machining accuracy by 60%
• Hosea Precision: An IIoT platform helping SMEs upgrade with predictive diagnostics and energy savings.

Industry associations TAMI and TMBA stressed Taiwan’s shift from price competition to value competition, promoting digital transformation and an AI knowledge-sharing platform to accelerate adoption.

Looking ahead, Taiwan plans to present its latest innovations at TMTS 2026 in Taichung, focusing on AI empowerment and smart, sustainable manufacturing, as well as at TIMTOS 2027 in Taipei, highlighting AI deeply integrated into smart manufacturing.

From aerospace to automotive, and from complete machines to components, Taiwan’s AI-driven machine tool industry is advancing rapidly and positioned to play a significant role in the global transformation of manufacturing.

Source | Airbus

Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL, New Delhi, India) is to build a private sector helicopter Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Vemagal, Karnataka, India, which will produce Airbus’ (Toulouse, France) H125 helicopters. The move is set to expand South Asia’s potential in the rotorcraft market. 

The “Made in India” H125 helicopter will develop new civil and para-public market segments and also meet the Indian armed force’s requirement for a light multi-role helicopter, especially on the icy heights of the country’s Himalayan frontiers. Plans include a military version, the H125M, to be offered out of this Indian factory with high levels of indigenized components and technologies.

Tata intends to undertake manufacturing and testing of H125 helicopters including assembly, integration and testing of structural mechanical, electrical systems and components into a complete helicopter and final flight tests required before the delivery of the helicopter to customers, which is expected to begin in early 2027. The helicopter will be available for exports in the South Asian region as well.

“This is our second FAL in collaboration with Airbus and further reinforces the partnership between Tata and Airbus for India,” says Sukaran Singh, CEO of managing director of Tata Advanced Systems Ltd.

Tata is well placed in the Indian aerospace sector with capabilities to build and deliver fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Its Composite Center of Excellence supports aerospace, space and defense applications, offering expertise in monolithic and sandwich layup, nondestructive testing and quality management systems, and more. This expertise is being proven in the company’s production of Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter aircraft fuselage, a new contract for aerostructure assemblies with FACC and work with Airbus’ C295 aircraft, to name a few.

Airbus’ relationship with India began more than 60 years ago on the back of an industrial collaboration agreement with the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to produce the Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, which have served the Indian armed forces with distinction. 

The H125 FAL is the second Airbus aircraft assembly plant Tata Advanced Systems is building in India, after the C295 military aircraft manufacturing facility in Vadodara, Gujarat — demonstrating Airbus’ long-term commitment to developing a holistic aerospace ecosystem in India across all dimensions: manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, design, digital and human capital development. Airbus sources components and services worth about $1.4-plus billion every year from India, including complex systems such as aircraft doors, flap-track beams and helicopter cabin aerostructures.

The H125, a single-engine helicopter with an accumulated 40 million flight hours worldwide, is already highly composites-intensive, which is supported by the Composites Shop Center of Excellence at Airbus Helicopters in Fort Erie, Canada. This facility delivers everything from engine cowlings to fairings and coverings.

Source | Teijin Carbon, A&P Technology

Teijin Carbon (Wuppertal, Germany) and A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), have jointly developed IMS65 PAEK Bimax biaxial fabric, a rate-enabling solution using Teijin Carbon’s Tenax TPUD IMS65 PAEK product, a thermoplastic unidirectional (UD) tape. Bimax is designed to meet growing demand for scalable, high-speed production of composites in aerospace, space, defense and other evolving markets.

Tenax TPUD IMS65 PAEK — a high-quality UD tape based on polyaryletherketone (PAEK) resin — is slit into narrow widths and braided by A&P Technology into a 65"-wide +/-45° fabric. The +/-45° braid architecture has minimal crimp, offering a high translation of tape properties while providing optimal drapability for complex geometries. With a fiber areal weight of 184 gsm and 34% PAEK content, IMS65 PAEK Bimax enables out-of-autoclave processing and vacuum bag only consolidation, thus reducing manufacturing time while enhancing mechanical performance and impact resistance.

IMS65 PAEK Bimax fabric’s features mentioned above translate into:

• High fiber volume and low crimp for high mechanical performance
• Extreme drapability for deep-draw parts
• Reduced layup time per layer. The wide fabric enables quick laydown of biaxial reinforcement
• Native air evacuation pathways for optimal consolidation of thick components
• Room temperature preform placement with spot tacking to simplify production workflows.

According to partners, the braided fabric meets or exceeds the properties of existing National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP)-qualified PAEK prepregs, offering a robust and scalable solution for next-generation composite structures. 

ACMA CEO Cindy Squires (left) and SAMPE CEO Rebekah Stacha (right) kick off CAMX 2025 by discussing supply chains and sustainability challenges, along with opportunities for innovation.
Source (All Images) | CW

Trade shows like the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) often intersect with the relentless pace of magazine production. As my colleagues and I explore the show floor, we’re simultaneously racing against deadlines, finalizing articles and ensuring content is ready to publish. Back at the office, the whirlwind continues, catching up on projects left midstream. Before you know it, days or weeks have passed.

Yet, CAMX 2025, held in mid-September in Orlando, Florida, demands a deeper dive. With nearly 6,000 attendees and more than 500 exhibitors from across the globe, this year’s event — co-produced by ACMA and SAMPE — offered a snapshot of the composites industry’s trajectory, particularly in key markets like aerospace and infrastructure.

The opening general session, led by ACMA CEO Cindy Squires and SAMPE CEO Rebekah Stacha, set a powerful tone. Addressing a rapidly evolving global landscape, the pair underscored the dual nature of today’s industry — unprecedented challenges in supply chains and sustainability, paired with immense opportunities for innovation. As Squires stated, “From sustainability to next-generation applications, the conversations and partnerships formed here will propel composites forward at a time when the world needs our solutions more than ever.”

Hexcel is partnering with A&P Technology, Hawthorne Composites, NIAR and the AFRL to use braiding and overbraiding techniques to enable high-rate production of mass aircraft solutions for defense. 

Aerospace remains a cornerstone of composites innovation, and CAMX 2025 reflected the industry’s push toward high-rate manufacturing and collaborative solutions. Hexcel, a longtime leader in the sector, doubled down on partnerships with companies like A&P Technology , Hawthorn Composites , Fiber Dynamics and HyPerComp Engineering Inc., and with organizations like Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Imad Atallah, vice president of carbon fibers, matrix and reinforcements for Hexcel, emphasized the need for rapid production systems. “We want to be more intentional about collaboration,” Atallah said. “Why not collaborate with people who are innovating and accelerate?”

Hexcel’s advancements, such as IM11 high-tensile strength carbon fiber for pressure vessels with HyPerComp, as well as its cooperation with its partners and the AFRL to produce net-shape preforms for mass aircraft solutions, signal a future where speed and domestic manufacturing — aligned with U.S. policy initiatives — drive aerospace, space and defense applications.

Type 4 COPV highlighted at Hexcel’s booth at CAMX 2025. 

Meanwhile, Syensqo unveiled a breakthrough resin infusion technology qualified by the National Center for Advanced Technologies (NCAT). Marc Doyle, executive vice president for composite materials, highlighted the solution’s forgiving processing window, which enables the production of thick, complex components without exothermic risks. Targeting air mobility, defense and high-performance racing, this innovation democratizes access for smaller manufacturers by providing critical material specs without costly independent testing.

Yet, challenges loom. High material costs, even with reduced manufacturing complexity, remain a hurdle, as does the need to scale these technologies for commercial aerospace. The push for high-rate production also raises questions about quality control and long-term reliability in demanding applications. As aerospace continues to prioritize weight savings and assembly efficiency, the industry must navigate these trade-offs to fully capitalize on these innovations.

Filament-wound conduit enables low pull-through friction for long cable runs, supporting critical infrastructure.

In critical infrastructure, composites are carving out a vital role in addressing aging systems and modern demands. Westlake Corp. composites segment leader, Amitabh Bansal outlined a solutions-driven approach, focusing on lightweight materials for power transmission, data centers and infrastructure installation. Innovations like lightweight façade panels, GFRP rebars, conduits for critical infrastructure and composite piping for water and wastewater systems illustrate how composites can streamline installation and address structural burdens and longevity issues. “We don’t want just to sell a resin or a material,” Bansal stressed. “We want to bring the whole solution to the customer and solve a real problem.”

The opportunities in the infrastructure sector are immense, especially as global infrastructure needs escalate amid urbanization and climate challenges. Composites offer corrosion resistance and reduced maintenance compared to traditional materials like steel and concrete, aligning with sustainability goals. However, adoption faces significant barriers. High upfront costs, regulatory hurdles and a lack of widespread awareness among civil engineers and policymakers slow integration. Additionally, scaling production to meet infrastructure’s vast demands while maintaining cost-competitiveness remains a persistent challenge. Bridging the gap between innovation and implementation requires education, advocacy and strategic partnership.

Woven through the advancements in aerospace and infrastructure at CAMX 2025 was a broader theme of resilience. In a keynote address, futurist Sheryl Connelly challenged the composites community to prepare for uncertainty rather than predict — a sentiment that resonated deeply with an industry navigating supply chain disruptions, geopolitical shifts and sustainability mandates. Composites are uniquely positioned to address these global challenges, whether through lightweight, high-performance materials for next-gen aircraft or durable, eco-friendly solutions for critical infrastructure. Yet the path forward demands collaboration and a problem-solving mindset. CAMX 2025 wasn’t just a showcase of technology; it was a reminder of the human potential behind composites.

Drone arm. Source | Uplift360 

Cleantech startup Uplift360 (Luxembourg and Bristol, U.K.) and aerospace company Leonardo (Rome, Italy) have successfully transformed an end-of-life (EOL) helicopter rotor blade into a prototype drone arm, proving the performance and potential of chemically recycled aerospace-grade composites.

Using its proprietary, low-temperature chemical recycling process, ChemR, Uplift360 extracted high-quality, reusable carbon fiber from a rotor blade taken from an EH101 three-engine helicopter, the forerunner of the AW101. Once destined for incineration or landfill, the reclaimed fibers were repurposed into a structural component.

“This project with Leonardo shows how ChemR can turn what was once unrecyclable into mission-ready material — supporting a more resilient and sovereign defense supply chain,” notes Sam Staincliffe, co-founder and CEO of Uplift360.

The project began under an R&D contract with Leonardo in May 2025 and focused on testing ChemR’s ability to process complex composite waste. Uplift360 exceeded the brief — not only recovering the material but also validating its use in manufacturing. The collaboration directly supports the U.K.’s Strategic Defence Review focus on strengthening supply chain resilience.

Clive Higgins, U.K. chair and CEO of Leonardo, adds that material recirculation is a key component of the Leonardo Sustainability Plan. “Collaborating with innovators such as Uplift360, we can demonstrate how sustainability not only creates positive environmental and social impacts but delivers business and economic benefits.”

Source | Lockheed Martin Skunk Works

On Oct. 28, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works (Palmdale, Calif., U.S.), in partnership with NASA (Washington, D.C., U.S.), successfully completed the first flight of the composites-intensive X-59 supersonic aircraft. 

The X-59 took off from Skunk Works’ facility at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, before landing near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The X-59 performed exactly as planned, verifying initial flying qualities and air data performance on the way to a safe landing at its new home.

The X-59 is designed to demonstrate the ability to fly at supersonic speeds while reducing the sonic boom to a gentle thump. In doing so, the X-59 aims to overcome one of the primary barriers to supersonic commercial flight, which is currently restricted over land due to noise concerns. The aircraft’s successful development and flight testing will inform the establishment of new data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land, paving the way for a new generation of supersonic aircraft that can efficiently and sustainably transport passengers and cargo twice as fast as aircraft today. 

Skunk Works will continue to lead the aircraft’s initial flight test campaign, working closely with NASA to expand the X-59’s flight envelope over the coming months. Part of this test journey will include the X-59’s first supersonic flights, where the aircraft will achieve the optimal speed and altitude for a quiet boom. This will enable NASA to operate the X-59 to measure its sound signature and conduct community acceptance testing. 

The YCM Alliance, part of YCM Technology USA Inc., has introduced the RX65+ five-axis VMC designed for speed, rigidity and accuracy. Engineered with advanced structural, spindle and control technologies, the RX65+ offers manufacturers a reliable platform for precision machining across industries such as aerospace, medical, die and mold, automotive and high-performance job shops.

The RX65+ offers 24.40" × 20.47" × 18.11" linear axis travel, with 220 degrees of motion in the B-axis and a full 360 degrees in the C-axis. Its robust ram-type structure and trunnion rotary table enable fast, accurate machining of complex parts while minimizing setups. Built on rugged Meehanite castings poured in YCM’s own foundry, the machine promotes stiffness, vibration dampening and long-term thermal stability.

To further improve rigidity, fixed, pre-tensioned, double nut ball screws and roller guideways are featured across all axes. This configuration enhances machining performance, surface finish and service life when compared to conventional linear ball-type systems. Hand-scraped joints maximize alignment and geometry, reducing reliance on electronic compensation while providing superior accuracy.

At the core of the RX65+ is a high-precision 18,000-rpm spindle with an HSK63A taper. Built with air-oil lubrication, vibration sensors and an integrated spindle chiller, the system provides the thermal stability and stiffness required for demanding applications. Manufacturers can cut tough materials with fine finishes, while supporting high-pressure 1,000-psi coolant-through-spindle for optimal chip evacuation.

To meet strict machining tolerances, the RX65+ integrates linear scales in X, Y and Z axes, and rotary scales in B and C axes. This fully closed-loop feedback system continuously measures axis positioning, minimizing thermal and mechanical error while supporting repeatable high-accuracy machining.

A direct-drive trunnion rotary table provides a B-axis tilt range of +110/-110 degrees and full C-axis rotation. With a maximum part diameter of 650 mm (25.59") and a height of 450 mm (17.71"), the trunnion design reduces the need for multiple setups and improves efficiency.

The RX65+ is delivered with a Blum kinematics package that includes the TC52 spindle probe, LC50 laser tool setter, calibration ball and Blum Axis Set software. Operators can easily calibrate and reset all five axes when needed. The integrated Blum Kinematicsperfect software simplifies rotary axis pivot point calibration and alignment checks, supporting consistent multiaxis performance.

Supporting efficient workflow, the machine comes equipped with a 40/60 tool cam-type automatic tool changer (ATC), providing 1.8-second tool-to-tool times with heavy tool and big tool functionality. An automatic ATC door reduces chip and coolant contamination, while inverter-driven cam-box motors allow quick recovery in the event of mishaps.

To maintain uptime and part quality, the RX65+ incorporates multiple coolant management systems. A spindle coolant ring with adjustable lock nozzles, air blast, washdown gun and air gun work together for effective chip evacuation. A specialized shower coolant system with up to 10 nozzles supports thorough flushing of chips into the Jorgensen chip conveyor with Ecofilter, reducing maintenance while improving machine uptime.

The RX65+ is powered by the Heidenhain TNC7 control, a benchmark for simultaneous five-axis machining. Offering 0.5-m/s block processing time, 1000-block lookahead and intuitive real-world setup tools, the TNC7 enables operators to achieve improved surface finishes and accuracy, particularly in die and mold applications. With modern connectivity options including Ethernet, USB and RS-232C, the system supports integration into smart factory environments.

Source | ZeroAvia, Hybrid Air Vehicles

ZeroAvia (Hollister, Calif., U.S. and Kemble, U.K.) and Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV, Bedford, U.K.) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to partner on the development of a hydrogen-electric variant of HAV’s Airlander 10.

Airlander 10 is a hybrid aircraft that uses a combination of aerostatic lift, aerodynamic lift and vectored thrust, with a 10-ton payload and 4,000 nautical mile maximum range. The initial Airlander 10 will be powered by four diesel engines, providing an emissions reduction of up to 90% when compared with comparable capacity aircraft. Integrating ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric propulsion will deliver full zero-emission in-flight operations carrying 100+ passengers, as well as reduced maintenance costs.

ZeroAvia reports that its first generation 600-kilowatt hydrogen-electric powertrain, ZA600, has already passed several regulatory milestones, secured hundreds of pre-orders and signed up launch customer airlines who are working to embed the system into more traditional fixed-wing aircraft for lower cost and more environmentally friendly flight. The company has conducted flight testing of a prototype on board a 19-seat aircraft.

HAV says that Airlander 10 has ample space for hydrogen storage in its hull, making it an ideal option for adopting the first generation of certified hydrogen technologies that are already close to market entry — such as hydrogen storage, low-temperature PEM fuel cell power generation and electric propulsion systems that are well advanced toward certification. This partnership will build on HAV’s earlier R&D work to explore electric propulsion for Airlander.

As part of the agreement, the companies will also study the potential applicability of ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric technology to future larger aircraft developed by HAV, and assess planned Airlander 10 operations to define the hydrogen fuel infrastructure requirements.

“ZeroAvia has led the development of hydrogen-electric propulsion systems and made impressive progress commercially, technically and with regulators,” says Tom Grundy, CEO of HAV. “Our intention has always been to offer our customers a fully zero-emission variant of the Airlander, for efficiency and environmental reasons, and this partnership with ZeroAvia will help us in this direction.” 

“Airlander is another exciting airframe for line-fit of our powertrains as it can open up a whole new market in air travel due to its range, efficiency and ability to operate from almost anywhere,” says Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia. “Like ZeroAvia, HAV is an aerospace innovator with exciting manufacturing and growth plans for the U.K. that can deliver hundreds of well-paid jobs in different regions in the U.K. These are two businesses expanding U.K. footprints and manufacturing plans, with a broad array of strong use cases, including in the defense arena.”

ZeroAvia’s ZA600 hydrogen-electric engine. Source | ZeroAvia

On Nov. 6, ZeroAvia (Kemble, U.K. and Everett, Wash., U.S.) announced that its application to the Innovation Fund for a €21.4 million grant to support the introduction of hydrogen-electric aircraft has been selected for grant agreement preparation. The project will support the retrofit of 15 Cessna Caravan aircraft with ZeroAvia’s ZA600 hydrogen-electric engines and the establishment of the supporting airport hydrogen fuel technologies, with operations planned to commence in 2028. 

These zero-emission aircraft are planned to replace conventional kerosene-fueled turboprops on cargo routes and expected to see in excess of 95% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project will also work to deliver hydrogen refueling and storage ​infrastructure at 15 airports in Norway, establishing what ZeroAvia says will be the world’s largest network of zero-emission commercial flights. The air operators for the network will be announced in due course.

The Operations to Decarbonize Interconnectivity in Norway (ODIN) project aims to validate the technical performance and economic case for utilizing hydrogen-electric aircraft in commercial operations, with a view to catalyzing further adoption in Norway, across the European Union (EU) and further afield.  

The project proposal was found to contribute to the objectives of the EU initiative “Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP)” and meets the requirements to receive the STEP Seal. The STEP Seal is a quality label awarded by the European Commission dedicated to boosting investment in critical technologies in Europe. ​ 

ZeroAvia’s ZA600 powertrain — the company see the future for composites in this application — uses fuel cells to generate electricity from hydrogen fuel without reliance on combustion, meaning that the only emission is low-temperature water vapor. ZeroAvia has already flight tested a prototype of this system, is now ground testing its final design for certification and is concurrently working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on certification programs related to the engine.  

“The EU Innovation Fund is notoriously competitive with applications needing to pass through rigorous assessment and demonstrate compelling evidence for near-term GHG reductions,” notes Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia. “This project will set an example by introducing a scaled network of hydrogen-electric aircraft operations across Norway without the typical associated environmental damage.” 

The Innovation Fund, financed by EU Emissions Trading System revenues, is one of the world’s largest funding programs for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. The Fund focuses on highly innovative clean technologies and big flagship projects with European added value that can bring significant emission and GHG reductions.