OUT OF THE MOLD The democratization of composites is reconfi guring supply chains » CW received a press release in April titled, “TRB Lightweight Structures manufactures prepreg material to streamline part production.” Bringing materials manufacture in-house isn’t new. I remember touring Diamond Aircraft’s (Wiener Neustadt, Austria) composite aircraft manufacturing facility in London, Ontario, Canada, in the 1990s and seeing European resin impregnation machines that allowed the company to produce its own “wet” prepreg materials on-demand, which were immediately used to build aircraft structures using hand layup. e goal was to control materials production and quality to enable the production ex-ibility and cost control needed by the small aircraft manufacturer. What is di erent now is that, thanks to new robotic and digital technologies, everything from ber placement to computed tomography (CT) to injection molding is being automated in increasingly smaller equipment that is more exible and cost-e ective. is not only gives small companies the capability for high-quality, high-performance composite parts production at potentially high volumes — a capability traditionally a ordable only to large, Tier aerospace suppliers — but it also expands the market for such composite parts beyond the traditionally high-value, high-margin realm of aerospace. Both goals were noted in my blog, “ e democratization of composites” about Covestro’s (Leverkusen, Germany) launch of Maezio continuous carbon ber-reinforced thermoplastic tapes. Covestro asserted that Maezio was ful lling a desire for democ-ratization by innovative companies (e.g., Haier air conditioners and Bmai running shoes) to provide the design and performance advantages of composites without a Lamborghini price tag. An increasing number of advanced manufacturing capabili-ties can now be brought in-house, including not just prepreg-ging, but production of dry braids (e.g., Herzog) and dry ber tapes (e.g., MTorres), automated tape laying (e.g., Addcompos-ites, E man, Conbility, etc.), robotic inspection (e.g., Radalytica, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, CIKONI, etc.) and robotic injection overmolding (Anybrid). Couple this with all of the sensors now available, and the ability to outsource traditional jobs such as tooling to online portals (e.g., Plyable, ExOne) — at lower lead time and cost than previously possible — and you have a totally new supply chain beginning to form. (Note, the develop-ment of thermal ux sensors for shorter cure in the production of composite landing gear components is discussed on p. .) Let’s go back to TRB Lightweight Structures (Huntingdon, U.K.) as one example of this trend. e company was founded as a honeycomb core sandwich structures manufacturer and then acquired by composites investor Jonathan McQueen in . In , it announced a new biocomposite prepreg and foam core door for passenger railcars. In , it was named among the U.K.’s JULY 2021 Fast Track companies and as a supplier to Airbus, and then announced a new, ,-square-foot manufacturing center in the U.S. — a joint venture with Toyota Tsusho America (New York, N.Y., U.S.) — for high-volume production of carbon ber composite electric vehicle components using its advanced robotics-based press-forming process that allows price parity with aluminum parts. is commingled advance in equipment, processes and mate-rials is another trademark of the democratization trend. As compos-ites automation specialist E man (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada) adapted a plug-and-produce AFP head by Addcomposites (Espoo, Finland) into an automated cell aimed at small and medium enter-prises (SMEs), it also developed a novel dry glass ber tape to facili-tate exible and cost-e ective dry preform production. MTorres’ dry ber tape lines were developed for production of wind blades and automotive parts while also enabling a ordable runs of new mate-rials. Another interesting characteristic of companies embracing this advance in composites a ordability and new markets is that they are often also pushing boundaries in worker training and sustainability. All of this is worth noting for future supply chains. What we at CW are seeing is that traditional hand-laid prepreg will give way to automated, digital manufacturing, and the skills/ personnel required will change accordingly. ough manual labor jobs will decrease, there will be an increased need for new imagina-tion and creativity in how to exploit these new technologies and also for workers skilled in Composites ./digital tools, sensors and data science, robotics, mechatronics and more. Sustainability is also key. Already a powerful tool for composites startups in fundraising, the reality is that sustainability is an existential issue. Emerging compos-ites supply chains will be led by companies with C-suite execs and technical personnel that investigate and implement not only recy-cling at end of life, but also raw materials that exploit increased bio and recycled content and renewable energy, as well as reduced water use, emissions and toxicity throughout manufacture, use and re-use. e composites industry has always been dynamic — change has been constant and, I have no doubt, will continue to be so. But the pace has increased, and noticeably. It will be interesting to see which companies embrace this democratization and which resist — and the latter, I believe, will nd themselves no longer key players in the fast-developing supply chains of the future. CW senior editor Ginger Gardiner has an engineering/ materials background and more than 20 years of experience in the composites industry. ginger@compositesworld.com 6 Composites World
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