Key benefits

Lighter, cheaper, safer and environment-friendly

On the materials side, we see more and more Eco-solutions due to their environmental benefits such as safe and eco-friendly intumescent resin and gelcoat meeting the highest fire rating standard, corrosion-resistant vinylester resin with European approvals suitable for food contact and drinking water treatment applications.

Complex and 100% recyclable thermoplastic structures are gaining ground in the composite market while the bio-based materials keep on penetrating the automotive, construction, sports and leisure industries combining excellent thermal and mechanical properties.

Integrated composites structures, designed and manufactured in a shot process

In aerospace, you will discover the next generation of integrated composites aero-structures: doors with advanced stitched performs, one-shot fuselage/airframebarrels for helicopters, and main landing gear fittings with ultra thick laminates. In construction, the manufacture of sheeting lengths up to 22 meters whith almost invisible joints coupled with the inherent qualities and finish of the composite materials and  significantly helped reducing costs and construction times.

Fast production, fast installation, automation and mass production...

Increased production rates, for Aerospace, Automotive and Wind Energy is pressuring manufacturers to automate 100% of their processes: You will read about a revolutionary and 100 % fully-automated solution for blades production, a  fully-automatic continuous process to produce stable curved preforms, a new direct compounding technology for producing semi-finished SMC parts, cost-effective means for processing lightweight thermoplastic advanced composite components and also a fully automated braiding-based RTM process and new fibre-patch performing.

Combining multiple processes in a single step to produce continuous-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites is also an energy-efficient, highly-automated manufacturing process that provides real economic advantages to manufacturers.

Finally, the potential of composites materials for tooling is enormous.
The global market is £1,238 million, of which 10 to 30% maximum is carbon or glass. Taking the 787 Dreamliner aircraft as an example, 1,000 very large tools (over 7 m²) are required. A new innovation combines a hard, durable metallic coating with a lightweight composite mould tool to deliver a durable and cost effective solution.